The herald., 1894-04-29
CATCHING A TRAIN.

1t was my first day on the wheat
prairie of North Dakota. had left Far
go at o'clock in tho morning on ono of
the two daily trains westward and had
stopped at Castleton, 20 miles from
tho ''Pheuix City Of the Northwest.
Thence had tralnpcd back across the
prairie two miles to see the Dalrymple
Farm, the grsate5t in the world, 80, 600
acres under cultivation. By 0 O'Clock in
tho morning had seen all there was to
be seen in the process of thrashing and
SO rctracod my steps to Castleton.
At the station was informed that the
next means of getting back to Fargo
was by freight train leaving at about
2 o'clock.
There are no art galleries or cathe-
drals in Castleten. There ase dozen or
two stores and @ hotel. / entered tho
hotel with the air of abandon and gem
eral superintendent usually ascribed to
commercial travellers, sat down in the
Office and picked up day before yester-
days st. Paul paper. An old man witt:
white whiEirers sat in the sun reading
the day before that's paper. He was
evidently a pioneer, who had so long
been away from the more civilized re-
gions that he Jagged little in the his
tory Of the world However, was glad
to see one guest at least in the hotel
among the wheGtflolds.
BY wey Of introducing myself to the
old g~ntleman cracked few jokes on
the sleepiness of tho town and the dingi-
ness Of the hotel, but a little later real
lied that my remarks were i'll directed,
by finding that he was proprietor of the
establishment. Never mind, " Thought
/, lit will be all right if take dinner
here" The old gentleman IS face showed
an animated interest as he informed me,
in response to question, that dinner
would be served at half past 12.
was now wearied Of reading stale
news, so went cut and took five min
utes' walk to the end of the main street
and back. Next ] bought novel and
went out upon the prairie and spent
couple of hours reading Killing time
in Dakota town l found not to be so
exciting as the same occupation in Chi
cago or London. About noon l wandered
back to town and got stranded ON some
California fruit ut store. / filed my
self so completely with grapes and
peaches that l never once thought Of
dinner at the hotel The old landlord
must have been grievously disappointed,
but did not see him again.
talked with the clerk in the store,
read some more and cursed the Northern
Pacific until yearly O'Clock. Then
sauntered over TO the station, and after
waiting q half hour for the train in
quired Of the station agent as to what
time I could get away.
He replied, mot until the o'clack
through freight comes. +" The Q O'Clock
was way freight and had been do
layed, be explained.
l moralized on the inconveniences Of
travel in new section of the country
and set about using up another two
hours. found that had somehow got
some spots Of wheel grease on my clothes
and managed to spend comparatively
pleasant hour scrubbing out the spots
with naphtha at the town drug store.
Then read some more.
At o'clock went over to the station
i again and finally plucAed up courage to
ask the rather irritable agent about tho
train. He deigned to tsal me, as if tired
of seeing me around, that the train
wouldn't be along until 8. Now had
companion In my misery, for lady.
with two little girls, was waiting for the
next train to Fargo.
Our common annoyances served to
introduce us, and we talked Of the har-
vesting and SO ON, deriving some in
formation, as she was o resident Of the
region. at 8 O'Clock the train was not
in sight, and the station man positively
sefused toinow anything or to have any
opinion as to the prospect of our getting
away. I offered the lady my book and
sat and reflected on the happiness Of life
in that section, getting up occasionally
to look out upon the fat prairie to seeif
tho train had yet risen above the hori-
zon. There was nothing but the two
rails stretching away till they converged
into one, and then that WIS lost to the
eye.
Once inAwhiio the lady and the little
girls got up to look. Finally ahe an
nounced that she could SEQ see smoke in
the distance My eyes were not so good,
but we watched eagerly, and after some
minutes l acknowledged with great
pleasure that abe was right We watched
the smoke sohthfy into train, which
grew larger and larger until at last it
rolled along, and at precisely o'clock
the engine aurne to a standstill few
! foet beyond the station on q side track.
The caboose fntena@g for passengers
was, Of cou1se. vt the rear end on une
train and seemingly quarter Of mile
away.
By tkis time several men and boys
had gasliered on the scene, apparently
wishing to go'to Fargo. No one scanned
to want to Walk away back to the CO.
bocse, and ercry opc whs very anxious
not to get left. At this risnext another
freight .ra<a hitherto annQticed. came