The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-12-09

pot and escorted me home. where a
bountiful supper was awaiting. and
asked the same old blessing that
have been asking for fifty years. only
it was with unusual gratitude, for
had been in perils of wind and water
and escaped them. / was weary with
long travel, and now | could rest. L
left New Albany at midnight, reached
Birmingham at daylight. only five
minutes late, and had five minutes
time to buy ticket for Bell City. and
from there | was to beard the East
and West for home. How happy I
was. But alas for human hopes. How
soon they can vanish into depsair.
There were about hundred big, black
greasy negro preachers ahead of me
at the ticket office Their Baptist con-
ventim had been broken up, and they
were going home on the southbound
train, and had an hour to go on, but
they would not let me advance an
inch. | hurried back to the gate
keeper and begged him 10 let me in,
for nv train was waiting, and i
pointed to the crowd of negroes and
told him il was impossible for me to
get a ticket He said he was sorry,
but he had his orders. / hurried back
to make one more effort, but big
square shouldered preacher, with
back as broad as a barn room, had
dropped a dime on the floor and half
n dozen were down hunting for it. /
hailed the ticket man, but he never
heard or needed me. Frantic, | rush
ed back to the iron gates, and saw my
train slipping off like a snake in the
grass, and that official automaton
would not let me pass. '"Gainst 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 II remedy, and
there is none. What could | 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 i sat down to
ruminate on my yalise. ] was weak
and sad and pitiful. for there is no
disappointment so distressing to me
as being left by train when going
home. Just then a drummer, God bless
him! came up and spoke to me, and
said ''My friend. [ am pretty much
in the same fix you are, but we can
90 by Chattanooga, for the Alabama
Great Southern is an hour late this
morning. It's schedule is to leave here
thirty minutes before we arrived, but
it has not come vet. 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 like David, whispered,
Bless the Lord, 0 my soul.
We got our tickets, and in four
hours were in Chattanooga. where
telegraphed my wife, Hold the fort:
I'm coming" And so "All's well that
ends WE'LL and no thanks to those
who manage that iron-bound pen at
Birmingham.
But found the cutest little narrow
gauge railroad in Mississippi that
j have seen in many a year. | didn't
know there was one left. 1t is called
the Gulf and Chicago railroad. but
they began to build it in the middle
many wears ago and built sixty miles
and quit You can ride all day on it
for ST 80. 1T doesn't seem to have any
schedule, and the folks along the line
Just 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. ]
boarded the train at Blue Mountains
at D. M. for Pontotoc. where ! was
to lecture that night at 1880 o'clock
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
and they knew its peculiar ways.
We stopped when within three miles
of town, and after half an hour or SO
/ asked what was the matter, and was
told that the steam had given out.
Before that the train stopped in the
woods somewhere and then began to
back. / ventured to ask what was the
matter and was told that the brake
man had dropped his cob pipe and they
j had gone back TO look for it. But it
was a railroad and / had no right to
complain. for I remember when there
was not a railroad in the United
States. When / was seven years old
came from Boston to Georgia overland
in carriage with my father and
mother, 1000 miles. and we never
crossed a railroad, for there was not
one to cross; and now there are 10000
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. 1t beats the old
stage coach a long ways. / tried
buggy team from Ripley to Blue
mount, only a six mile drive, and like
TO have got drowned. / got fundamen-
tally and distressingly wet ! shall
wait for the narrow gauge next time.
Oh. that cyclone. | haven't quit tell
ing about it yet. Next morning man
who was in it and under it and on
top of it said he went out to shut
his mules up in the stable, and before
he could say Jack Robinson, it picked
him up and turned him a thousand
somersaults. and while he. was turning
he heard his mules a braying in the
air above him. Gentlemen" said he.
'sthat are a fact if ! ever told it; and
the thing just let me down in Jimmy
Jones's potato patch as easy as a wo7
may lays her baby in the cradle.
That college at Blue Mountain is