Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1894-07-17

1t was my first day ON the wheat
prairie of North Dakota. had left Far.
go at O'Clock in the morning on one of
the two daily trains westward and had
stopped at Castleton, 20 miles from
the ''Phenix City of the Northwest. I"
Thence l had tramped back across the
prairie two miles to see the Dalrymple
farm, the greatest in the world, 30, coo
acres under cultivation. By o'clock in
the morning had seen all there was to
be seen i'll the process of thrashing and
so retraced 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 Castleton. There are dozen or
two stores and hotel. 1 entered the
hotel with the air of abandon and gen.
eral superintendent usually ascribed to
commercial travellers, sat down i'll the
Office and picked up day before yester-
days st. Paul paper. An old man with
white whiskers 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 a little in the his
tory of the world. However, l was glad
to see one guest at least in the hotel
among the wheatfields.
By way of introducing myself to the
old & ~ntleman cracked few jokes on
the sleepiness of the town and the dingi
ness Of the hotel, but little later real
lied that my remarks were i'll directed,
by finding that he was-proprietor of the
establishment. Never mind, " thought
l, sit will be all right if take dinner
here" " The old gentleman face showed
an animated interest as he informed me,
in response to a question, that dinner
would be served at half past H.
/ was now wearied of reading stale
news, so went out and took five min
utes' walk to the end of the main street
and back. Next bought a novel and
went out upon the prairie and spent
couple of hours reading. Killing time
in Dakota. town found not to be SO
exciting as the same occupation in Chi
cago OF London. About noon wandered
back to town and got stranded ON some
California fruit at store. filled my
self so completely with grapes and
peaches that / never once thought of
dinner at the hotel. The old landlord
must have been grievously disappointed,
but did not see him again.
I talked with the clerk in the store,
read some more and cursed the Northern
Pacific until nearly o'clock. Then l
sauntered over to the station, and after
waiting a half hour for the train in
quired of the station agent as to what
time could get away.
He replied, "Not until the O'Clock
through freight comes" " The O'Clock
was way freight and had been de-
layed, he explained.
moralized ON the Inconvenience 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 4 o'clock went over to the station
again and finally plucked up courage to
ask the rather irritable agent about the
tram. He deigned to tell me, as if tired
of seeing me around, that the train
wouldn't be along until 8. Now 1 had
companion in my misery, for lady,
with two little girls, was waiting for the
next train to Fargo.
(lur cOY,,Y,o,, a,,nOuorooo ca,xra6 10
introduce us, and we talked of the har-
vestlng and so ON, l deriving some il
formation, as she was resident of the
region. AT o'clock the train was not
IN sight, and the station man positively
refused TO know anything or to have any
opinion as to the prospect of our getting
away l offered the lady my book and
sa1 ana reflected ON the happiness of life
IN that section, getting up occasionally
~ iooA Out upon the fiat prairie to see if
tne u1In mad yet risen above the hori-
Lon mere was nothing but the two
rams stretching away till they conyerged
eye. -0'' W 'iie
once In awhile the lady and the little
glrls got up to look. Finally sba on
nounced that she could see see SMOKE in
the distance. My eyes were NOT 60 e,ood
but we watched eagerly. and afto, eI sS.,,-,
minutes l acknowledged with oreat
pleasure that she was right. WewatohoS uas
the smoke solidify into a train seIneu -'llaeu
grew larger and larger until al last -
rolled along, and at precisely q oicIocI' Io !.
the engine eame to a standstill a fs-',
feet beyond the statioa ON a siSa .rss,s : .sw
The caboose intended for nsS.s....aA s .ssA-