Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-07-03
THE FOURTH IN A PALACE CAR.

| The idea of spending Fourth of July
IN palace car seemed unique to those
of us who were young, though the
many experienced travellers in the party
seemed to take delight in suppressing
their feelings on this patriotic day. We
left Chicago late at night in the midst
of severe storm, but the next MORN
ing opened fresh and fair and found us
| speeding over the green and fertile
fields of Missouri
| At breakfast the cook played a little
joke on us. He must have had a large
supply of eggs in danger of spelling, for
on the menu appeared an enticing dish
| styled "Omelet la Fourth of July"
| Everybody ordered 1t, of course. When
| served however, we We're disappointed,
as 'omelet a la Fourth of July" proved
to be nothing unusual. When appealed
! to, the waiter only grinned
AS we passed through town after
town we could see little groups of boys,
girls and older folks lighting firecrack-
ers and exploding torpedoes. Soon
Kansas City appeared in view, and
!! when the station was reached we start
I ed out to inspect the sights. A wealth Of
/ flags and bunting was visible, and we
made purchases and later decorated our
car.
"All aboard" was shouted, and the
long journey across the continent was
| continued.
/ Most of the day was spent in the
smoker swapping stories. Il remem-
/ ber," said one of the younger men,
that / was returning to my hc.ne in
California some years ago. We were on
this very railroad, at Holbrook, A. T.,
when freight train broke down ahead
of u.s. A delay of at least IL hours was
! announced, and as it was 8 o'clock in
the morning we had to make the best
! of it. The town of Holbrooll has Sta4
| ton, a store, saloon and a few
houses All about appears to be desert.
1 "Inorder to kill time we hunted for some
amusement, and, observing crowd OF
i moving figures about mile away, we
started out to see what they We're dos
ing. AS we approached we found
about a hundred cowboys, all on horses
i back, having a grand Fourth of July
i celebration boy selling some pop
corn and yellow liquid which he CALI
ed lemonade, two Chinese cooks and q
saloon keeper were looking on.
1.-The first thing was a race on a
level stretch of country about a mile
| long. Six or seven men rode in each
heat. Sometimes, where two prominent
! rivals were in the same event. they
were allowed to race together, and this
would elicit great applause from their
| companions. In the first race saddles
and brides were used: then saddles
We're dispensed with, and finally the
men rode without anything on the
horses at ALL
Next the roping contests were start
| a
the quickest time One man threw his
rope and caught the animal In exactly
30 seconds, and the next best time was
one minute and half The legs of the
animals had to be tied, and the whole
| performance was quite difficult. In
| the evening there was ball, where
| the dancers moved to the music of an
accordion, and prizes of hats, money
| and clothes were awarded to the lucky
victors at the days sports
Speaking of unique celebrations"
said another man, ct remember one
which stands out quite prominently
and which occurred when I was in
Mexico. I happened to be there
when the news arrived of the surren-
der of Santiago, and we boys concluded
we would honor the occasion in some
unusual way. So we ordered our men
to take a hundred sticks of dynamite
and break each stick into four pieces,
making total of 400. Then we got
lot of caps and went to the top of a
mountain near at hand and set them
off, making a, terrible racket and con-
vincing the Mexicans that the Fourth
of July was about the biggest thing
they had ever heard of.
But we had already surpassed this
occasion, I think, when we heard of
Dewey's entrance into Manila harbor,
for then we set off four tons of dyna-
mite in similar manner. The dyna-
mite had been condemned, but it went
off, Just the same, with such terrific
noise that we We're as frightened as
the Mexicans, when our ears Were
nearly split by the conclusion, and great
powders, many of which would weigh
several tons, came rolling down from
the summit of the mountain"
w. r. BRITTON.
| OF the total track milea re in ENGLAND