The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1894-04-20
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 OH one of
the two daily trains westward and had
stopped ut Castleton, 20 miles from
the "PhcniX City of tho Northwest "
Thence had trampcd back across tho
prairie two miles to sec tho Dalry1nplc
farm, tho greatest in the world, 80, 900
acres under cultivation. By o'clock In
the morning had seen all there was to
be seen i'll the process OF thrashlng and
so rctraced my steps to Castlcton
at the station 1 was Informed that the
next means of getting back to Fargo
was by y freight train leaving at about
2 o'clock
There are no art galleries or catho-
drals in Castlcton There are n dozen or
two stores and Il hotel. l entered the
hotel with the air of abandon and gen
eral superintendent usually ;Lscribcd to
commercial travellers, sat down in the
Office and picked up day before ycstcr-
days st. Paul paper. An old mnn with
white whiskcrS sat in the sun reading
the day before that's paper lie was
evidently pioneer, who had 50 long
been away from the more civilized re-
gions that he Jagged Il little in the his
tory of the world. However, l was glad
to see one guest ut least In the hotel
among the whcaticlds-
BY way of introducing myself to the
old gentleman l cracked few Jokes on
the slccpincss of the town and the dingi-
ness Of tho hotel, but a little later real
lied that my remarks were III directed,
by finding that he was proprietor of the
establishment Never mind, " thought
], cit will be all right if take dinner
here, " The old gentleman S face showed
an animated interest us he informed me,
In response TO II question, that dinner
would bc served ut half past IL.
l was now wcaricd of reading stale
news, so went out and took u five min
utes' walk to the end of tho main street
and buck. Next / bought novel and
went out upon the prairie and spent a
couple of hours reading. Killing time
i'll a Dakota town found not to bo so
exciting as the same occupation In Chi
cago on London. About noon wandered
back to town and got stranded on some
California fruit at Il store. / filled my
self so completely with grapes and
peaches that | never once thought of
dinner at tie hotel. The old landlord
must have been gricvously disappointed,
but l did not see him again.
talked with the clerk in the store,
read some more and cursed the Northern
Pacific until nearly . o'clock Then
sauntercd over 10 the station, and after
waiting u half hour for the train in
Quircd Of the station agent as to what
time could get away.
He replied mot until the i o'clock
through freight comes. " The o'clock
was way freight and had been de-
layed, he explained.
moraliZed on the Inconvenience of
travel i'll Il new section of the country
and set about using up another two
hours found that I 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 l read some more.
AT i o'clock l went over to the station
again and finally plucllcd up courage to
ask the rather irritable agent about the
train He dcigncd to tell me- as if tired
Of seeing M around, that the train
wouldn't BIC along until 8. Now had
companion i'll 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, l deriving some in
formation, as she was a resident of the
region. At 5 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. | offered the lady my book and
sat and reflected on the happiness of life
in hatjection, getting up occasionally
to look put upon the flat prairie to see if
the tram had yet risen above the hori-
zon. .-hore was nothing but the two
rails stretching away till they converged
into one, and then that was lost to the
eye.
Once in awhile the lady and the little
girls got up to look. Finally she an
nounced that she could sec sec smoke in
the distance. My eyes We're not so good,
but we watched eagerly, and after some
minutes | acknowledged with great
&Dleasure that she was right. We watched
Ahe smoke solidify into train which
grew larger and larger until ut last it
rolled along, and ut precisely 6 o'clock
the engine came to q standstill few
feet beyond the station OH side track.
Tho Calypso intended for passengers