Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-08-18

oN The WING, Arizona, August Is, 1894.
IN e r 1. w A
II II track and a line of
| - ISo< staggering telegraph
Na poles, ending in
| S<-hsz - dot and blur on the
| nun ilEE3 K horizon. Now and
| lliII INsk,yN TIs again, for no obvious
| qBii Lhp EHnhs reason to the outside
fNy fSssf fNrs sssNssl mind, there was q
s<~ town. Then.t h e
=@Z,' towns gave place TO
| @z he, s:s''' h: . s''sssas::
took up the tale
Some of it was good
| ground-very good ground-but most of It
| seemed to have fallen by the wayside, and
| the tedium of it was eternal" On the prin-
cipie that great minds often run in the
same channel, 1 have ventured to quote
Rudyard kipling's impression of this Won
derful Rocky mountain region. for II /
gave MY IDEAS i'll my own words it would
| seem such rank plagiarism that somebody
would be sure to detect the theft.
"On the Wing is not even q Section
| So-and-So." 1t is meant to convey the idea
| that am not stopping anywhere in par
| ticular, but that 1 am fitting wherever
| fancy and a boarding train engine win take
| me. Parenthetically, / would like. to say
| that very often these same engines will
| take you where you do not care in the
| least to go. Over the side of a precpice,
! for instance, or into a boiling mountain
branch. Sometimes the mighty rocks that
came forth when the dry land appeared arr
shaken from their abiding place and the
| CbliSirg engine pauses to be ground into
kindling wood beneath the Irresistible
forces n Ian 1cIi6a inf "
| is the other terror of this strange country
| a snowslide. that does duty at breaking the
monotony of the life and the finances of
the railroad corporation at one and the
same time. have discovered. however, that
wherever a osrding train engine takes you
you are pretty sure to meet up with
curious phases of life.
My advent on a boarding train was made
In rather curious way. / met Il quiet, re-
pressed little woman at the house OF "A
friend In santa Re who told me that ah2
lived on IL boarding train" which was
used I'm repairing the railroad AMI BRIDGES
away out In Arizona. When | expressed
interest in learning something about the
life. she kindly invited me to go out with
her, and rem ,E AZ long as ! liked.
The lirnNc Pioneers.
1T IL a lonesome life. and you'n soon get
tired of 1t. but I'd enjoy having you vita
me-" she said. almost wistfully. and ac-
cepted tie invitation leaving the girls with
Nora's mother In Santa Re. Mrs. Lane was
evidently educated above the hard life tLat
she Las to lead but her case is u common
one In the west. Western men ana v.o-
men NOR offer come from the better
Classes OF the east than otherwise. 1t tak,J
courage and backbone to leave "a Iaut OF
| plenty, and all ones friends ana relations
To go into new country To Spy out its ic-
sources ana to face unknown dangers, ant
only men ana women OF grit and courage"
such as inspired the Puritans when they
crossed the wide unknown seas would ever
dare to cross - great continent, ana seek n
the heart or Its mountain iastncsscs the
homes and fortunes that the oycrburdcncd
east denied them There il d common belief
that only Adventures come 10 this seeming
ly sterile region. But that is n great rlis-
take. l have found much culture and edq-
cation. and the constant question presenting
itself to my mind is how the women whom
L have met here can go on? Way they do
not relapse into the savagery of the abJrig-
ines l am sure i can't divine Removed
from churches and schools, society and COM
partnership OF their kind, they yet cling to
the customs OF far-away days, and teach
tfeir children lessons of legendary things
necessarily legendary, because the poor
creatures have no opportunity to learn from
actual experience that anything better than
their own narrow contracted lives is to be
found outside of the fabulous tales that are
told them by their parents.
1t Is lonesome life" my would-be host
Il
have found 1t so. 1t must have come to ne
nexpressibly dreary to her, for she had
SaZed on the same towering mountains and
waVe-washed canons for years. The black
malpais wastes had tormented her tired
eyes TIL she could almost see the huge
waves OF molten lava heaving themselves in
ever receding ever cooling pillows over the
little valleys. She had listened TO the
screams of the prowling panthers till her
heart stood still, while she counted her
brood to see that the almost human cry did
Iot proceed from one OF them. Lonely. IN
deed, II must have been. And then the
periis of II, filled, as the country was, with
Irowling Indians and lawless men, They
mad been in danger from lightning and
tempest; from plague pestilence and fam
ire: from battle and murder, and from sud-
den death" yet they had not lost confidence
In God or man, and went bravely on, In that
ialth Whlch Is the substance Of things
hCped for, the evidence of things not seen
Truly, the martyrs are not all dead yet!
The Train Was the Town.
In the course of long experience I have
interviewed numerous boarding houses I
presume the genus is more varied in Wash
ington than In any other city In the United
states. l have eaten dairy lunches
though never used the napkins-haye paid
the prices demanded at swell cafes and
hotels with a reputation. On various occa-
sions 1O-cent lunches, 15-cent lunch dinners
and even rs cents for the full bill Of fare
g.
but never in all my life did cat food set
out as II was put forth on that boarding
train. The surroundings, the society and
the circumstances could never be duplica ted
Once Is enough. am not like the little how
who was fond Of MASKING his toes because
1t felt SO good when the got over hurting.
My IDEAS Of a boarding train were hazy
enough before / came in contact with the
barren life. In this far western country
civilization has not impigned sufficiently
upon natures domain to build unnecessarily
even for boom purposes. Where the board
ing train stood the wilderness took IN
the tale" and the country in its rock ribbed
sterility, was the abomination of desola-
tion. Had II not been for the twin rails
that creep out across the narrow valleys
like shining threads Of steel, one could not
imagine that the primeval condition Of Gre
alton had ever been disturbed. These shining
rails represent triumphs Of engineering
skill hitherto unequaled. They cross tiny
streams that swell 10 mighty rivers and
crumble even the eternal hills" They
have made pathways under grim mountains
and girded their sleeps like eridirons
They have leaped over bottomless Eorees
and across mighty deserts, and now be-
cause Of them men may battle In both
oceans within q weekl These vast enter
prises have cost their incorporators mil
lions Of money, yet for hundreds of miles
al ali