The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1899-01-06

dAu TO the Wlld lie or the
country awaiting development" They
became members Of surveying parties
or served in other capacities on the
line of railway which daily stretched
out southerly from Paso del Norte to-
wards the City of Mexico. Camping
out during summer months in some Of
the eastern forests had partially pre-
pared them for the rough life they had
chosen; and enjoying, for the time be-
Ing, their freedom from the restraints
OF society, they contented themselves
with the hope Of gathering up enough
experience and money to enable them
to live advantageously in Gods
country" after a few years of roughing
1t on the frontier.
Open air life in that wonderful eli
mate is wont to develop the heartiest
or appetites, and these young men dis
posed OF three meals per diem with a
zest far superior to that which they
had manifested at daintier boards in a
more refined civilization. For, be It
remarked, the cuisine Of the frontier
was Of the crudest character imagin-
able. In the engineer camps, "the
boys" lived on such fare as could be
secured from the railroads commits
sary, varied by occasional purchases Of
provisions of the class afforded by the
scattered ranches and Mexican villages.
For the ~sustenance Of the track-laying
and bridge-building gangs, "boarding
trains" were established. Box cars,
placed upon a temporary siding, were
ntted up with appliances for cooking
meals and serving them to hungry and
not over-fastidious workmen. As the
end OF the track" rapidly advanced
n the interior OF Mexico, the board
Ing train" also advanced, leaving be-
hind 1t, at each removal, immense piles
OF tin cans, to testify to subsequent
occupants Of the locality as to the kind
and quantity Of food devoured by
American railroad builders. In the
provincial towns through which the
railway passed, "boarding tents" were
spread, wherein, upon rude tables,
covered with marbleized oilcloth,
meals were served, at three for a dol
lar, the score being kept upon tickets
Tx L ~ a.. 11toc
tickets were purchased for 81 cash, and
a number was punched out by
the proprietor as the satiated holder
left the tent. A few Americans ex-
perimented with the cuisine of the
M~exicans, and cultivated a taste for fri
5oles (black beans), chile-con-carne
Cred pepper and dried meat served in a
stew, tortillas (corn cakcs), ensilladas,
tamales and the like. There was little
ill-natured grumbling over the fare in
any case. Dissatisfaction was usually
expressed by changing about from one
"boarding tent" to another, or from
boarding tent to Mexican household.
The ill-natured grumbling was heard
only from those who had never in their
lives before known anything better
than what the boarding facilities Of
railroad construction afforded.
The result Of these conditions was
democratic. The wide social differ
ences of past years were wholly lost
to sight in the patrons of the boarding
train. boarding tents or Mexican
boarding house. At any meal time
there might have been found, in COR
duroy suits, surrounding the rough
planks of the boarding train tables or
the oilcloth covered boards of the,
boarding tent, young men who used
pewter or German silver spoons and
steel forks, drank out of tin cups and
ate off of tin plates, who in times not
long past had donned b%roadcloth dress
suits; whose knees had felt at home
under elegant oaks and mahoganies;
men who appreciated cut glass and
sevres, and who had not been unfamil-
lar with napkins and finger glasses. 1t
Is even admitted by m of them, who
was subsequently reclaimed from the
degradation of the boarding car cook
cry, that after he struck the frontier
he learned to. convey beans from his
tin plate to his mouth upon a knife
blade, before he learned to handle his
sh6oting-irons. And there were men
who made their boast that they liked
nothing better than chile-con-carne
and f~rijoles, seasoned with conversa-
ton in Mexican Spanish; and that they
got = better three meals for their dol
lar than the patrons of the boarding
tent: who were nevertheless suspected
Of sitting memories of elegant theater
dinners in eastern cities and of pub
lie banquets ut w~orld-famous hostel
ries.
About the middle of December, in
1sS-, several Of these sons of the civ
ilized Orient met in Paso del Norte
(the border town goes by the name Of
La Ciudad Juarez now), and gathered
around the cheerful blaze of mesquite
stumps burning in the adobe fireplace
Of one Dunlap. This man had Just &C
complished the first stage of the evolu-
ton Of the hotel from tho boarding
tent, by renting a n story adobe
building where he could furnish beds
GO we'll as meals, and where one room
was set apart as a general lounging
place and was digniaed by the name of
"the ONCE" It was in this "ofice"
that the men were assembled. Their
conversation became reminiscent. The
rear approach of the season of good