Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-08-24

| ing man continued. And 7 may add
that although 1 have been on the road
for 20 years, have never met a man
who was able to boast Of the same ex-
| perlence. II came about in this way:
| was down in Texas in 1881 and 1882.
| and New Years day found me in a
small town called Longview, with nv
nose turned in the direction of the
neighboring town of Tyler. To get
from one Of these towns TO the other
you must travel on two different rail-
roads and cover about 40 miles of
ground, although the towrs are hardly
more than 10 miles apart as the crow
flies. Longview is on the International
& Great Northern, while Tyler is on
the Mineola branch Of the Texas Paci-
fic The two railroads cross each
other at a junction called Troop, about
a miles from Longview, and IS miles
Tyler
I was having my dinner in the hotel
at Longview about 6 o'clock on the
evening OF New Years Cay when a
flrst-class norther came swooping down
uDon us. II you have never met a
genuine Texas norther, pray that you
may be spared from having the expert
ence. The wind will spring up with
out moments warning, and | have
seen it lower the temperature 80 de-
grees in so minutes. Every one had
been going around in his shirt sleeves.
After the norther began an ulster was
needed. There was no fire in the
house land no comfort. My train did
not leave until lilo p. IN. The only
room and go to bed. I awoke at
1920, jumped into my clothes, and
caught my train.
My watch showed a few minutes
after midnight when l arrived at Troop
and heard that the west-bound train
or the Texas Pacific was anyway from
two to three hours late A band of i'm
migrants were waiting for the same
train, and they filed the waiting-room.
Some were cooking meal on redhot
stove in the middle of the room.
Others were sleeping on the benches
and on the floor. There was not a va
can't seat to be had, and the atmoS-
phere was indiscribable. The air out
side was pure enough, but the Their
mOmeter registered 10 degrees above
zero, which is not very comfortable
temperature for a man without an
oyercoat or gloves. There was only
one way to keep warm-to cross the
tracks to the little hotel opposite the
station and crawl into warm bed for
a couple Of hours, and this I did
81 slept until Ais and caught the
belated train at 4:43. There was only
one passenger, who left the train when
we reached Tyler at SIS and that was
I. 1t was pitch dark then, cold as
Alaska and SO quiet that your steps
sounded like hammer beats along the
streets. No one was stirring in the
hotel at that time, and it took me a
quarter of an hour to wake up an old
negro who was sleeping on the floor in
the office. The first thing I did when
[ got inside the house was to dig out
the keys to the bar and to gulp down
two big drinks of whiskey And then
[ asked for a fire.
No coal, massa,' the old niger
answered, grinning like split water
melon; no wood, no nufing. Massa
had better go to bed
"And so l did, to be sure, for the
third time that night 1t was 5:45
O'Clock in the morning then, and I slept
like a dead man till $50. Have you
ever heard the like of it? And yet my
lodging for that night cost me only
$3.50, or so cents at each hotel. New
York Sun.