Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1897-01-08

~ASA>
tern around so that it's feeble light
could reinforce the glimmer from the
bleared and smoky globe above Lam
bert's curly head. The train had started
from the junction with that quick series
of Understanding jerks which all vet
Gran travellers remember as character
istic of American railways, before the
Introduction Of Coupler huffers." 1t
was shabby, old-fashioned train-one
whose cars had ''seen service" and not
little of it, during the long and event
full war so recently closed. 1t had u
baggage car behind the wheezy old
wood-burner that drew the rickety pro-
cession out into the dim, starlit aisle
through the eastward forest, and, for
the first time in week. that baggage
car contained trunk. 1t had "smok-
Ell" in which three or four negroes were
soundly sleeping on the worn cushions
at the forward end, and three or four
lank, shabbily dressed whites We're con-
Stunning tobacco and killing time under
the single lamp at the other. 1t had q
'ladies' car"-so called-in which no
ladies were visible, and which differed
in appointments from the smoker only
in the facts that its seats We're uphol-
stored in dingy red plush instead of
blackened canvas, and that both it's
lamps could be induced to burn, how
ever feebly, instead of only one. TWAS
forlorn, hangdog, shame-faced sort
of train, that seemed oppressed with o
sense of its own disrepute-a train that
kept in hiding during the broad light
of day and ventured to stink forth only
after nightfall, like some impoverished
debtor, not loving the darkness better
than light because of evil deeds, but
hating it as it hated its own shabbiness,
and accepting it as only one plane above
total decrepitude, the junk shop and the
poorhouse. Starting at dusk from a
populous station on a north and south
'trunk" line, it turned and twisted
through red clay cuttings, jolted over
Undiscovered ties and moss-grown tres
ties, whistling shrill to wake the watch
ers at 'cro ss-country stations on the
way, and finally, after midnight, rested
an hour Mt prominent point, a estate
CENTER" where, sometimes at one
o'clock but generally long after, the
night express came glazing up from the
south along the glistening rails of an
other great northern" route, and three
nights in the week, perhaps, gave it a
sleepy passenger or two to trundle away
westward towards the big river town it
managed to reach by sunrise, once
more to stink out of sight until dark,
when again it crept forth and stole
away on the return trip over its clank-
ing road, unresentful of comment on its
loneliness and poverty, and proud, if
anything, of the fact that this way, at
least, it gan Fright end foremost" ac-
cording TO the American idea, with the
baggage instead of the ladies' car next
the struggling engine.
1t was clear, starlit night, sharply
cold, and the planRs of the platform at
the junction had snapped and creaked
Under their glistening white coat of
frosty rime. The up train came in even
later than usual-so much SO that the
stationmaster had more than once
asked his friend the conductor of the
waiting "Owl" whether he really
thought he could "make it" over to Quit
man in time for the down express ut
dawn. "You'd better pull out the min
ute she gifts hyuh," was his final in
junction when at last her whistle was
heard.
A 1.-THE, active young fellow in trim
suit of tweed had sprung from the
sleeper before the incoming train had
fairly stopped, and, hailing the first
man he saw, asked: Train for Tuga-
loo gone yet?" which so astonished the
party addressed that he simply stared
for minute without reply. A voice in
the wilderness, apparently, was heard
above the Kissing of steam and the loud
mouthings of the negro porters of the
two rival hotels. "All aboard for Quit
man." it said, and, abandoning his APP
parent purpose of repeating the ques-
ton in sharper tone, the young fellow
turned and ran nimbly across the DIM
ly-lighted platform in the direction Of
the hail.
"Quitman train ?-Tugaloo?" he asked
of dark form standing above the tail
light of the car
"Quitman it is, Anybody else thar?"
And the interrogative went off in u
shout. No answer.
saw, Hank! Anybody else?" Still
no answer. Two or three dim figures
were by this time clustered around the
fiaring torch of a coffee stand at the
edge of the platform. The conductor
got off and walked impatiently towards
them.
"Any you gentlemen for Quitman? ~
he asked.
"Quitman? Hell. no! What's any
man want to go thar for night like this ?
Pull out with your old sneezer, Jimmy,
'nless you'll stop and take cup
coffee"
ooh, that you, cap? Amt you got
anybody for us? Thought the judge
was comm up tonight"
"Warn't on my car" said the brake.
man of the express. possessively
Young Teller n the sleeper all know
or"
"Got him." answered the conductor,
as briefly US possible for man long
attuned to the southern drawl and
whose 'got" was more like "gawt."
"Reckon we might as well git, then" he
continued, returning to the colloquial
present indicative of verb of manifold
meaning and usefulness. Tell Hank
will you?-Let 'er go, Jack" he shouted
to the engineer, with wave Of his Ian
tern. A yelp from the whistle was the
answer; the fireman crawled out from
warm corner in the baggage car and