The Newtown bee., 1899-12-22

| AOOASA SSIAsCE LuiSCEaUIG duu l. AEk6u uGt
how she felt. She said: 'tSorty sake"
1 expect she meant she was little sick.
thought, sPoor thing" but / almost
laughed she looked SO like what had
read about, without ever having seer.
She Or they, for these are husband and
| wife, looked like tanned snuff dippers.
There is family of six also going to
Honolulu. Surely we are a coamopoli-
tan company.
| L was much interested In the rice fields
| We passed through in the eastern part of
Texas. 1t seems all to be harvested
and in some fields steam threshers were
at work cleaning it, and immense stacks
Of straw that l thought at first were
stacks OF oat straw. Then l thought
directly THAI we were in rice region and
then knew it was rice straw. We passed
splendid looking fie Ids OF sugar cane, and
have seen small banana trees, one with
a bunch partially grown. The country
between Houston and San Antonia is the
most beautiful country, Ii seems to me,
through which we have passed since we
the distance, and close at hand we ee
what look like well-to-do farm houses.
OF course there are miserable looking
novels also, and we see lazy Looking ne.
groes at the stations. We see also q
| good many Mexicans. Fields of cotton
are not yet picked, all along the way.
The live OAK is very common. l am as
| tonished. Ii it we re not for the cotton
| and the negroes l could easily, now and
then, believe myself to be in the Mohawk
valley, or even in New England. I have
| been standing for half hour in the rear
| door OF our car, which is the rear car.
The sky is beautifully blue, with fieecY
| clouds, and it is very hard to believe
| am in Texas. We people who are going
through for several days and nights are
| getting very chatty. The nice family
who are going to Pbelix, Arizona, l
have found are going because the young
| mother, who has sweet baby six months
old, has developed symptoms of con-
| sumption. The old lady and gentleman,
80 years old, sre in the care of their
grandson, who is taking them to Los
| Angeles to live with his mother, their
daughter, and another daughter. Their
/ home is In Rhode Island and they were
on the Colonial Express when got on at
Bridgeport. The grandson is as kind and
| devoted to them as possible and the old
couple are standing the journey nicely.
The North Carolina crackers are living
| opposite the Honolulu f. mily and do not
stir from their seats hardly from morning
| till night. There are on our car counting
| conductor and porter and babies, "a souls.
The next Car beyond US contains 20
young women being taken by Sister to
| San Antonia. They got on at Jersey
City and have come on without sleeper.
looked into their door a while ago and
| they were sWarming like bees. getting
resdy to get off. bow tired they must
be! Poor things!
We had an addition to our crowd at
San Antonio and are about full now,
though the upper perth in my section is
yet unoccupied. -Four volunteers for
Manila were among the additions. They
volunteered from Ohio, but have been in
| the hospital at San Antonio and are now
going on to San Francisco to be sent on
| to their regiment. We see lots of cacti,
yucca, grease bush, and a gentleman
jumped off at one stop and cut a branch
| of mes quite. We have read Of the South
ern swampg being so full of mesquite
through which nothing could work its
| way. [ believe it. [ have been so fasci-
mated by the scenery through Western
Texas and New Mexico, barren though
it is, that L could hardly stop to write.
/ | stood and sat for long time on
the rear platform, which is partly
framed in glass, making kind of obser-
walton car. There are great many sharp
curves, almost horse-ehoes in fact, and it
| is said the road was built by the mile, and
| now the company are cutting off lots of
| the curves, Strengthening The road. The
| region through which we passed in Ari
zona Is barren desert. The cactus
grows to an enormous height, II feet
certainly, possibly much higher. The
dust is something terrible. It penetrates
| every creVice until we and all our be-
longings are coated. Some of our num-
Der, the family with the sweet baby, left
at Maricopa to take branch road to
Pt Rnix, where they hope the young
mother will recover her health. 1t is not
astonishing, perhaps, that coming in
such close contact with each other as we
do for number OF days, we feel so we'll
acquainted. [ took dinner at Sierra
Blanca, the last day out.
| My Redlands' friend and happened to
meet at the dining room door, and sat
together at table. She passed me q
plate of what she thought was rabbit. 1t
was good, but presently found breast
bit bone. Just then my friend said {:
'sThis rabbit ia some kind of a bird, for
it has wing" then asked waitress
what kind Of bird it was, and she smiled
sweetly and said, "Chicken." I said il
was too bad when l was raised on farm
that 1 didn't know a chicken. But the
rest of the people said when we got back
to the car that it was probably prairie
chicken as there was no white meat.
They also had delicious fish, with meats,
vegetables and dessert, and it seemed as
though they were not trying to see how
much they could cheat US out of. l new
er had more satisfactory dinner at any
such time. After leaving Sierra Blanca
we passed through some fine scenery.
The grade was so great that two almost
perfect horse shoe bends had to be con-
seructed to get over it easily. Istood or
the rear platte rm for a long time. We
were running some of the time 30 miles
an hour, and our conductor said he
would get US into Yuma, the first station
in California, one hour late. All along
through Arizona we saw numbers OF
adobe houses, some of them very nicely
built, but most of them look worse thar
the average pig pen in the East.
i The dust was very annoying and some.
what hindered our viewing the landscape
and many thought it very dreary ant
monotonous, but to me it was very fasci
, mating. The mountains, the formation o
the rocks. the cacti. the extreme barren
ness, sometimes for miles without on,
, particle of growth, the barrenest lant
you could ever dream of Sahara being
al At Salton are salt refineries and the,
2 shovel the salt from the surface of th
e ground just as you would shovel SAN
81 from sand hill. At Yuma we saw th
: Yuma Indians. the worst looking cres
q lures ever saw. saw the last after
G noon what never expected to see any
d where. Some one asked what laI ge bod
8 OF water we were passing. I was on til
3 opposite side Of the car from the watel
d Some gentleman said he thought 1t wa
9 not water but mirage. / could hav
It'll sworn that there was sheet of waite