The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1900-12-11

| hOln1lIul SbDttti NoS
asEed tbe same old blessing that
have been asking for fifty years. only
il was with unusual gratitude, Tor l
had been in perils of wind and wafer
and ESCAPED them. l was weary with
long travel. and now | could rest.
Jeff New Albany At midnight. reached
Birmingham at daylight, only i've
minutes late, and had five minutes
time to buy a ticket for Bel oltS, anu
from there l was to beard the East
and West for home. How happy l
was. But alas for human hopes. HOW
soon they can vanish into depsiflr.
There were about 4 hundred big, black
GREASY negro preachers ahead OF me
At the ticket office. Their Baptist con-
yention had been broker up. and they
We're going home On the southoounu
train. and had an hour to go on, ou'
they would not !et me advance an
inch. l hurried back TO the gate
keeper and begged him TO let me III,
for my train was waiting. ana
pointed to the crowd Of negroes and
told him 1 was impossible for me 10
oct a ticket. He said he was sorry,
but he hal his orders. ] hurried back
to make one more effort. bat q big
square shouldcred preacher, WITH q
back as broad as a barn room. haN
droDped a dime on the floor and halt
a dozen were down hunting Tor 1t. i
hailed the ticket man. but he never
heard or needed ne. Frantic, | rush
ed back to the iron gates. II SAW my
train slipping off ike 4 snake III the
grass, and that official a~utonlaton
would not let me pass. Galnst or
ders.' he said. Blackstone says there
is a remedy for every wrong but
there were no railroads in his day,
or he wouldn't have written those
lines. [ had n o remedy, and
there is none. What could l do? No
train for Pell City for twelve hours,
and none from Pell City for my home
for twenty-four hours. ] was so tired
and disappointed that | sat down to
rIminate III my Vallse. | was weak
and sad and pitiful, for there IS no
disappointment so distressing TO me
as being left by a train when going
home. just hen a drummer. God Dless
him. came up and spoke to me. and
said. My friend. | am pretty much
in the same fin YOU are, but we can
90 BY Chattanooga, for the Alabama
Great Southern is an hour late thus
morning. It's schedule is to leave here
thirty minutes before we arrived, but
it has not come yet, and we have half
an hour to get our tickets. Those
preachers are nearly all out Of the
way now.
| rose to my feet. | saw how it
was. and that | would lose only one
hour in getting home. In my heart
revived. and Xix David, whispered,
Bless the Lord. Q my soul
We got cur tickets, and in four
!. hours were in Chattanooga, where L
telegraphed my wife. Hold the fort;
I'm coming And so "AlIs well that
; ends we'll" and no hanks to those
41-4 .e,> 49, ~ Of
birmingham.
: But j found the cutest little narrow
| gauge railroad in Mississippi that
| have seen in many a ycar | didn
know there was one left. 1t is called
the Gulf and Chicago railroad. but
they began to build it in the middle
t many wears ago and built sixty miles
aud quit. You can ride all day on it
for $3.50. 1t doesn't seem to have n
schedule, and the folks along the line
lust wait for it and seem content. They
say, well. it's our road; it's all We've
got, and they do the best they can
The owners are clever men and will
wait on YOU half an hour if you tel
ephone them. They are very accom-
modating, especially going south, for
they have no connections to make. l
boarded the train at Blue Mountains
e at d D. IN. for P~ontotoc. where I was
to lecture that night at 7:30 O'Clock.
d 1t was only thirty miles, but we didn't
get there until SIS o'clock. and my
+ audience didn't give up the ship. They
said it was their road-their only road
t and they knew its peculiar ways.
| We stopped when within three miles
e of town, and after half an hour or so
S ] asked what was the matter. and was
told that the steam had given out.
s Before that the train stopped in the
e woods somewhere and then began 10
back. [ ventured to ask what was the
o matter and was told that the brake
man had dropped his cob pipe and they
i had gone back to look for it. But it
was a railroad and I had no right tC
complain, for remember when there
n was not a railroad in the United
e States. When | was seven years old
G came from Boston to Georgia overland
h in a carriage with my father and
mother, 1900 miles. and we never
crossed a railroad, for there was no
one to cross; and now there are 1876, O0i
miles in these United States. No.
am happy on the way on any railroad
even if it is thirty miles short and
four hours long. It beats the ole
stage coach a long ways. | tried :
I buggy team from Ripley to Blu
II mount. only a six mile drive. and like
to have got drowned. [ got fundaInen
Al tally and distressingly wet. ! shall
IT wait for tho narrow gauge mex time
i oh. that cyclone. ] haven't quit tell
e ing about it yet. Next morning a mar
r who was in it and under it and or
II top of it sad he went out to shu+
his mules up in the stable. and before
q he could say Jack Robinson, it picked
IS him up and turned him a thousan,
G. somersaults, and Will. he was turning
t he heard his mules a Drawing in tn
$ air above him. "Gentlemen,' said he
he that are a fact if / ever old it: ant
ut the thing just let me down in Jim,
u Jones potato patch as easy as Il wO
:. may lays her baby in the cradle
a That college at Blue Mountain is
marvel TO me. It vas founded TWEEN
Sc lfy-hvc Years ago by General Lowrcy
le a great big-hearte1 man. who, lik
i" ben Adhem. loved his fellow men.
Us was at first a high school for the bene
T. ut OF the poor girls in the neiehbo1