The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1893-04-18
WHAT WAS TIP
BY MAY PHILLIPS TArRo.

L was operator and station agent at
w. small station on the st. Paul
road, five years ago; yes, and it was
just five years ago to night that I am
going tell you about-perhaps you may
be able to account for it, I never have
been and never expect to in this world.
1t had been a fearfully wet summer,
an unusual thing for Dakota, but it
had all the same, and it had rained
and rained and poured until every
daily paper teemed with accidents and
all manner of calamities caused by
bridges being washed out, ties out of
place and culverts gone.
1t was worse, of course, in the eastern
states, where there are such fearful
banks, rushing streams spanned by
high bridges, and tunnels and gorges
and fallen timber, and-but you've
lived back east, you know all about it.
But out here on our prairie there is
not so much danger you see; even if a
car or engine is derailed it will not go
H4OA4SAIS NOWhS OOWA AI1jO OdI AL1GSS9
horror and death. There will be a
pretty good shaking up, to be sure,
and sometimes a little more, but
nothing compared with the way those
eastern accidents mangle things.
We'll, to go back to my story, as I
said before, I was station agent at
w. and it was a beastly place
for u young fellow like me to be
planted in, but I had been ordered to
remain there or get nothing, so 1 was
forced to hold it down much to my
disgust and Unwillingness to do so.
And to make things more disagreeable
and lonely it had rained almost every
day for three weeks, and the sun had
gotten into such a shame faced way of
sneaking behind those murky, lower
ing clouds, that he seemed to have lost
all moral courage and pride and posi-
lively refused to show his face longer
than five minutes at a time, and then,
as though suddenly remembering that
he had renowned the world and all Of
it's evils, he would pop behind a con
venient (they were always convenient
those days. cloud and sulk and pout in
the same old way again. And I tell
you what it is, when there is no sun
shine, and the rain just drips and
drips, the wind keeping up an accom-
panying dirge as it sweeps along the
telegraph wire, a sound that you peO-
pie know nothing of unless you have
lived in a depot and heard it in all It's
various keys and tones. Well it is lone
some business for a young fellow in
n Of these little prairie towns even
when the weather is pleasant, but
when it rains all the time it is enough
to make a man wish that his father
and mother had never been born. This
particular night l am going to tell you
about was worse than we had known
during the three weeks drizzle preced-
ing it. The wind blew in sudden
gusts, as it has a way of doing out
here on the prairie, dying down for a
minute or two perhaps, and then, as
though it has caught its breath for a
fresh start, roar and howl and shrek
like some wild, mad giant flying forth
in his wrath, determined to sweep
every thing before him. The rain
came against the windows in sheets,
the wind shook and rocked the station,
every loose thing clattered, the express
signs tackled outside the building added
their tin voices to the general uproar,
the signal turned half way round at
every gust, and altogether 1 was in for
a pleasant evening-alively one at any
rate, lively outside.
After supper, I lighted the lamps in
the waiting room, put out the signal
lights and then, after lighting up my
office, settled down with a new novel
and some newspapers and prepared to
enjoy myself as well as the loneliness
and warning elements would allow. l
knew that none of the boys who gen
orally kept me company evenings until
the ten o'clock train from the east had
come and gone, would brave the storm
that night even though the depot was
not over thirty rods from the hotel
and nearest store.
Seven o'clock! still two hours to
wait; if two or three of the boys had
been with me we would have had d
game of "Sinch" and the time would
have passed quickly enough.
Every now and then a fash of light
ming would dance in on the instru-
ments and go out with a snap as
though it had made a mistake, gotten
into the wrong place and was in haste
to retreat as quickly as possible. Sud
JorI- T moo oo1IoJ from tho main 0H10n