Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1897-03-02

fields where tiny flakes of cotton still
chung to the brown and withered stalks.
acloud of steam the train pulled away,
! leaving Lambert and his trunk to look
! after each other as best they might, and
| as the cloud lifted the young officer
| looked curiously around him.
He was standing on a rude wooden
platform whose shrunken planks left
black, gaping seams between their up
! per faces, now, at least, beautiful in
their thick coat of sparkling white. Ex-
| cept where the footmarks of the train
! men marred the smooth expanse, and
where in two or three places the planks
were gone entirely, this cleaning sheet
stretched the length of the platform to
| where the white bulk of his trunk stood
on end at the eastern edge. The charred
and blackened relic of flight of stairs
lied from the platform 70 the sloping
! ground some five feet below, but not
| even hand-rail warned the unwarv
| against breakneck plunge into space
Part Of the platform itself had been
burned away, and some charred and
blackened posts, sticking bolt upright
from the ground in the shape of a mar
| row rectangle, showed that a wooden
building of some kind had formerly
stood along the rear of the rickety
staging. Midway along it's length, on
the southern side, a shed with sloping
roof had been loosely thrown together,
and the ends nearest him. boarded in
and pierced for door and couple of
windows, bore over the threshold in
black stencil the legend "'iclzet Office"
Under the shed were couple of
plows and some boxes. Out on the
bare slope, midway between the track
and "snake" fence that paralleled it
some twenty yards to the south, dozen
bales of cotton were huddled, three of
them partially covered by old war-worn
'paulins and ponchos, the others en-
tirely exposed to the rain of sparks to
be expected from any passing engine
when the wind happened to blow from
the track; and all of them, evidently,
defenseless against the predatory
hands of pilfcrers, for jagged rents were
torn in the coarse sacking of each, and
huge fistfuls Of the white staple had
been dragged from dozen gaping
wounds in every bale.
The red soil, showing here and there
through the scant and withered herb
age, was scanned with mule and wheel
tracks, and few rods away broken
down farm wagon lay with spoke
bristliag hub close by it's shattered axle,
while the tire, rolling away from the
general wreck, seemed to have crawled
off to die by itself, and leaned rusting
against one of the charred timbers.
The southwark view was limited to
long, low ridge of ugly, white-hecked
cotton stalks. Eastward the sun was
breaking pathway through the fringe
CT trees along another ridge, and faint
line of mist, rising sluggishly in the in
tervening low ground, with the hollow
rumble of the train crossing an invisible
bridge, told of the presence of some
slow-moving stream. Westward the
track came into view around a thinly-
wooded hillside, with a clearing here
and there, in which some low cabins
| were scattered.
With this cheerful outlook to greet
him at three points of the compass,
Lambert turned him to the north. There
was a siding with switch at each end.
but, as three or four rails were missing
opposite the west end of the platform,
it stood to reason that the railway COM
pany found the other all that was neces-
sary to the traffic of so bustling place
as Tugaloo. A brown freight car stood
on the siding with wide-opened doors,
| and some household goods doomed in
plain sight. ''There is more honesty
in this community than the United
States marshal would give us to believe"
thought Lambert, as he recalled the ex-
tract from a recent report which was
shown him at department. headquarters
He laid his satchel and sword upon the
platform. and, wrapping his blue cir
cular about his shoulders, took few
steps forward and peep into the in
terror of the car. From the midst of
bedsteads, bureaus and cheap old-fash-
Toned furniture, quantity of bedding
had been hauled out upon the floor, and
from the midst of the bedding a woolly
head protruded-that of a negro fast
asleep.
Beyond the car stood dusty open
square 1ordered on three sides by dingy
wooden structures, some Of two stories,
but most of them only one in height. A
wooden sidewalk framed the square in
some places, and in others only indica-
tions of it's former presence were to be
seen. The sidewalk was bordered by a
rude railing, to which, it was evident,
EoEses and mules were tethered during
business hours, for at one of the rails,
even now. sprawled upon the soft, hoof-
paved dust, long-eared quadruped
was half hanging by the bride rein.
while the dilapidated saddle had worked
around during the night until it set
tied upon the animals side.
Judging from such signs or legends
as were visible over the doorways of
Tugaloo, Lambert's impressions were
that the vending of Intoxicating drinks
was the principal industry, as there
were three saloons to one store devoted
TO. general which estab-
| i;shment, painted white and with an air
~ - To-