Blackfoot news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1891-1902, 1899-11-18
A NIGHT ~ Bulls GAP.


mountain pass hearing the eStto-
fnious name OF Bulls Gap. At the time
of our story it wss a temporary terni-
nus OF the Fast Tsanessee railsoaa
which lacked only il miles OF being q
complete line a1G.aeiisg the cities OF
Bristol and Chattauooga.
In the early fall hsfose We bad gone
from our Virginia home on pleasure
bent to spend the winter amid the
orange groves close by the gulf coast of
Louisiana. Pembrook, ppf ob;aasiss
point, was little town of many attrae-
lions Nestled away in leafy live-oak
grove with orange traes. roses and
fragrant flowers bLSolsisg syesy hcfa
around. it WAS heautifsl in its location
aud pleasing in its environments, Its
inhsbitants, for The most part, were
Creoles and sufficiently southern to ha
lscrupulously polite, hospitabie and es-
PERTAINING. so that every we'll appear
ing stranger was soon made to feel AT
ease in any home.
Mine host of the hoiel whera ge reg
istered fos the season, WAS a plain.
practical, fatherly old gentleman, who
could never sleep we'll when a stranger
was assigned room without first ind
ing out where he was from, what was
his business and where he was going.
soon inquisitively learned our plans for
the winter and began preparing rs for
the good time for which we were look
ing. Within few days We knew the
best young men of the town and had
Rset . number of young Creole ladies
tSho were marvelously beautiful, viva
.cious and charming.
For three months Pembroke furnished
she gayest season we had ever witnessed
pot excepting "A summer at the Green
briar White Sulpher springs nor a
winter at Old Point Comfort. Memory
is not outraged after the lapse of all
these years when il RECALLS the beauty
and charms of those Creole ladies' and
che pleasing entertainments, musicales
aud special gatherings which it was
purs to attend
In February there came signs OF a
destructive Hood in the lower Missis-
lsippi and tributaries and as winter was
over. at least at pembrook. we deter
mined to hasten home. The pain at
leaving was soothed only by promise
20 return with the return of autumn.
As shell taken fresh the ssfshore il,
Irne in its songs of the sea, so we were
true IN our thoughts, dreams and mus
3ngs oil Pembroke. At New Orleans we
took the paiafial passenger steamer
Eclipse for Memphis and at Memphis
The first train going east for home.
Ne had left Pembroke behind and
There were noinviting places along our
route OF sufficient interest to invite a
Ftopover. At Pembroke it was tlowery
springtime: as we approached Fast
tennessee the mountains. fields aad
forests were still in the freezing grasp
OF winter
When we bought AIR ticket at Mem
phis we were not told of the broken
link in the road at Bulls Gap. and
were therefore greatly surprised when
at nightfall we reached that desolate.
looking place and found we were to
stop for the night aud take stage next
morning for Greenville Is miles away.
The cold winter weather. the first we
had experienced, added to our tliscom-
hture and made us miserable as we look
ed at the uninviting accommodations
that awaited Us that night. The hotel.
motel only in name, was shanty of the
rudest structure with loose boards,
looser doors and windows and the loos-
est OF all floors. That evening the
leaden clouds hung low down the
mountain sides, the wind whistIed. the
doors, windows and floors of the hotel
ratified and the proprietor predicted a
great storm in the night. The stage
would not leave for Greenville until six
O'Clock next morning. walking was not
good and we were in for twelve long
hours at Bulls Gap.
After supper, supper OF the kind
one might expect to find at such hotel,
the proprietor brought In his nights
wood, made the rusty old box stove red
hot, reported that it was showing in
earnest and then sat down TO entertain
us for the evening. He was "a Young
man, Thorough mountaineer, good
patured and communicative to the ex-
tent OF telling all he knew and all his
parents and grand parents had known
and told. We became deeply interested
In him. He was very proud of his hotel
pnd believed, as he said. he was born
hotel keeper. In his own estimation
pc was as good as the Barnums, Lslaads
pnd Bat lizards. II there was any one
Thing THAT he understood better than
another it was hotel keeping. We en-
couraged him in his recitals because
in this simple way he helped us to pass
the hours OF the night. The more we