Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1897-11-18
IRONTON, MO. THURSDAY. NOVEMBER IS. 1897.

them being children, of course confu-
sion reigned supreme.
Dining with old friends in Bonue
Terre that day, we spent two or three
pleasant hours chatting, and bidding
farewell. till nearly P. NJ, when the
rumble of wheels and distant whistle
bid US hasten to the depot. We then
had just fifteen minutes TO get our
trunks checked and our tickets and
our freightin attended to. when the
old iron horse rolled in. Then our lit
tie crowd got together, and we boarded
the train and were soon speeding on
our way to Riverside. The first sta
ton, | believe. after leaving Bonne
Terre is Coonville. This is small
town peopled only by "cullud folks, -
which shows Missouri to be gaining
very fast in that race of people. There
wasn't anything of interest happened
to US, nor did we see anything after
leaving Coonville, but fields of burned
grain, and dry creek and river beds.
lots of poor stock, and things like that
to remind US of the great scarcity the
extended drought had caused.
Passing through Herculaneum l no.
tice it is nice enterprising little town
nicely laid off. The next stopping
place being at Riverside, we begin to
get ourselves ready for a change of
cars, having about five minutes in
which to do so; but we hustled around
and in less time than it takes to write
it we were rumbling on in the direc-
tion of St. Lonis.
In the meantime it had grown al
most dark and we saw nothing more
of interest till we ran into Union Sta
tion, where we saw the grandest and
loveliest of all depots, lit up by the
the great lights and, it being Saturday
night, was full of gayly dressed people
and sweet music sounding upstairs
made US all feel light hearted and gay,
especially after having a refreshing
supper served, as only St. Louis can
serve them.
At 8:45 P. NJ. we took the train bound
for New Castle, Wyoming. Nothing
o. interest occurred that night-just
simply the general routine of the train
crew on duty. But as we went through
Western Missouri and Kansas l noticed
many beautiful farms and all seemed to
have abundance of corn, wheat, fruit,
and acres and acres of what / call
''stoek peas;" plenty of hay, nice fat
cattle and horses and hogs. l think
Kansas and Nebraska will help furnish
bread and meat to their less fortunate
sister states. 1t does not look like
starvation there, by any means. The
new sown wheat in these states looks
very promising in most places; some
farmers not sowing any on account of
the dry weather. The Western coun-
ties are being settled up very fast, but
sometimes you get on to stretch of
prairies, bordered by foot hills, where
for hundreds of miles there was not a
sign of human habitation.
An amusing little incident happened
US at Lincoln. Nebraska. Two of our
party being tired and sleepy, concluded
they would get off there and get some
coffee, as the train waited there about
fifteen minutes; so off they went in
search of the beloved coffee, one stay
ing where he could warn the other, if
the train started. But hardly had he
disappeared in restaurant, till the en-
giue whistled and started off on a
switch; and the one that was watch
ing concluded there was no use in both
being left because one had to, took out
after the train as fast as his legs could
carry him. Alter running about a
quarter the train stops, and the poor
fellow breathless, and hat in hand.
came rushing into the car; and the
other one, we'll, she, for it was a la
dy.) had to get a watchmau to help
her find the train, as the gentleman
had all the tickets that belonged to
the party. We were all amused but
very glad he made it all right.
After leaving Lincoln there were no
more large cities, but lots of beautiful
prairie country. The Missouri river
is very, very low-great sand bars
right in the center of the stream; in
some places it being almost dry.
The large steamboats, can not run
now. 1t is said to be lower than ever
was known before. The great drought
seems to be general all over the whole
country.
The next point of interest was when
we ran into the Bad Lands. This part
of South Dakota, I think is justly
named, for the ragged hills. the deep
gulches. the shrubs and tall thick
grass. big rocks and deep holes, are
indeed home for varmints, wolves,
rattlesnakes, cayotes and other bad
and dangerous animals and reptiles.
We did not go through much of this
80. NJ