Iron County register., 1899-12-21

reaching voice. She had evidently
made the question study and quickly
told US more about Brigham Young
and the lesser Saints than one might
pick up in a summer days reading.
She voiced my sentiments upon a re-
ligion which panders to the brutal and
lustful in human nature; but l noted
that she was strangely silent in scrip
tural quotation. Perhaps she might
have aptly cited to Paul; but with
some ladies l know, st. Paul is not a
favorite.
We got to Bald Knob, where we
''changed cars" not many minutes
after the midnight tocsin had sound
ed the passing of a day into the
gulf of eternity. Those of us north
ward bound here left the cars, while
Southward Ho! the train bore the re-
mainder of its burden to destiny and
duty-among the latter the preachers.
l was therefore little surprised to
find my sedate friend preceding me
into the little station house where ac-
cording to schedule was doomed to a
long, lonesome, weary four-hours' tar
ry. He was drummer" and seem
ed annoyed when l unguardedly told
him of the mistake l had mentally
made; but an apology set everything
right, and we became quite friendly
before we separated at Newport.
Bald Knob is-Bald Knob. 1t was
too dark for me to see much of the
town, but l understand it is very
lively place-about Christmas times.
Last year, | am told, that the holidays
here produced six widows and forty
four orphans; but this may be partly
brag. You can never implicitly rely
upon interested laudation, and the
boomer is not of a genus known to
Kansas soil alone. He comes up as a
Jonah's gourd, full-fiowered in night,
and if he withers before the next sun
down, behold! he springs again afar
off. His name is Resurgana, and the
Phoenix new risen can't begin to com
pare with his flight empyrean. The
other chief purpose of Bald Knobs ex-
istence. as seen by the passing travel
er, is to serve as a halting- place be-
tween start and destination. That it
serves its purpose diligently and we'll
is susceptible of mathematical proof:
figures won't lie. This perhaps is be-
cause they are neither angels nor hu-
mans. don't know that l ever exact
ly heard of an angel lying; but one of
them blotted out the record once on a
cuss-word, and said nothing about it to
anyone; and this, according to Mark
Twain, is 1.-the lie of silent assertions"
in this instance aggravated by official
malfeasance. But to the figures: The
length of wait each day is hours.
Say 10 people per diem stop over.
That's 40 hours day. There are 365
days (not counting leap-year's extra
day. in the year. Then in one year
we have a wait at this station of
14,60O hours-or 5,S4O more hours
than are contained in a whole twelve
MONTH What can one conceive of the
possibilities of village whose product
is so miraculous in the early stage of
its existence?
Side by side, on the iron-armed
seats, constructed to murder sleep, the
drummer and dozed and walked and
suffered the weary hours through; we
dozed fitfully, awoke spasmodically,
and suffered constantly. The only
pastime afforded US was when the
which he did every twenty minutes, or
the six-year-old vender OF hot coffee
and sandwiches asked our aid in sum-
ming up the difference between a sand
wich and a cup of coffee and a quarter
of dollar. He appealed to US with
the confidence born of youth and mex
perience. and we were considerate of
the orphan. If he wasn't an orphan,
he evidently ought to have been. A
widowed mother might find excuse
in poverty for sending forth so
young sprout at so unseemly an
hour; if there was an able-bodled faith
er in the case, upon him anathema
maranatha! Time flies or creeps, ac-
cording to circumstances, but goes on,
with the brook, forever, and the well
come whistle of our approaching train
sounded at last. We gathered up our
traps, shook the dust of Bald Knob
from our feet, passed into our car, and
were in the twinkling of an eye speed
ing our belated way toward Newport
town.
Among the occupants of our car was
a family of three-mother and young
daughter located on one side of the
aisle. and the head Of the family on
the chair Immediately opposite. About
eleven o'clock the hot-coffee and ham
sandwich man came through, aud was
literally patronized by the hungry
passengers, of whom was not the last
nor least. The hasty .'hand-out" at
Memphis had exhausted it's recupera-