The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1900-01-23
"a. A., 49,. A. a. -. IA.
>AT MIDCONTINENT J


had rushed out OF the east and the other
out of the west, and they paused amid
sagcbrush and aikaG wastes for a mo-
ment before the big water tanks. The
weary passengers got out of the coaches
and paced up and down the wide plat
form with a sense of indescribable relief
from the close, dusty coaches. They
had the sensations of those who walk
the deck on the Atlantic, when the world
for days has seemed water bound and
they are no nearer harbor than before.
The plains were as vast, as inscrutable
and as unkindly as the sea, 1t seemed.
Neither had hospitality; neither was will
ing to offer anything but a grave to those
who sought its solitudes.
Linda Custer, perched on the step of
Pullman coach, looked about her and
smiled. The pretensions of the desert
irritated her. She felt like giving vent
to impertinences. She wanted to dance,
and laugh and cry out: You sulien, III
diculous desert, what is the matter with
you? Why do you look so leprous?
| Why do you never grow anything but
sagebrush? And, above all, why do you
| try to awe me? Puff! In few minutes
shall enter this Pullman coach and be
| in the heart of civilization, and you can
whirl your white dust and bluster and
| fume all you please. but you can't hurt
mev'
| Her jaunty little dust covered cap
could not keep her wayward locks in
place, nor indeed did these locks even
perform the simple service of securing
| her hatpins. So Il particularly aggres-
sive gust that came along carried the
cap down the platform. Linda ran after
it as hard as she could, not having any
care to prophecies, and only being de-
sirous of making sure of her headgear,
which, 500 miles from a milliner's, ac-
quired a distinct value.
Arthur Denslow saw it. too, and he
gave chase as well, and the two reached
for it at the same moment, yielded it 81
multaneously, giving it chance to race
yet farther down the platform, and had
to make another sprint before they re-
covered it.
"Oh, thank your' cried Linda, grateful
and flushed. "What if it had got
away"
''The gray wolves would have worn it.
I suppose" responded the young man.
bowling with as much courtesy as if he
were in drawing room instead of on a
railway platform in the desert.
"Are there gray wolves here? Why
does not appearw
Il suppose they don't care to come out
for exposition purposes"
''Wou!dn't il be amusing if the earth
should suddenly open ard swallow the
trains and the tracks and all of us peo-
pie should be left here in the midst of
nothing. without any tools, seeds or
clothes or food?' What do you suppose
we would 6o?'
sit won!d depend entirely on who hap
pens to be walking among these folks on
the platform. If one of them chances
to be Edison. | suppose we should soon
be out of orr predicament. If they are
all as stupid as | am, no doubt we would
die, providing we are too far from civ
ilization to walk"
I'm afraid we aren't. I'm afraid a
good, vigorous walk would bring us into
the heart of civilized town. That's the
worst of living in this generation Ev-
erything is too easy"
"You like difIiculties?
"I suppose | would like difficulties.
have never had any. | would like to get
on cayuse and ride away over this al
kali desert till l came to wild hills. and
would like to fight Indians"
"Would you, indeed? Well. I've done
it. I've laid in trenches three days with
the rain falling on me. I've been in sew
eral skirmishes and one sea fight
"You're coming home from the Philip
pines?
eyes. l was going to say to you that
when these things are happening they
seem perfectly commonplace"
"Impossibler'
81 assure you it's true"
''Do you like tropical countries?'
"No. The landscape does not seem any
more sane than this one does. | like the
temperate zone. | like-well, / like Jack
son park pretty well, right near the pa
; vilion, where one can look over the lake
''Do you live in Chicago? Is that youl
home?"
"Yes. You know the spot of which
speak?"
!. "Know it? l have been there on my
wheel every day all summer"
"And now you are leaving it and an
, coming back to it"
, '1'm going to the coast to stay the rest
of my life"
"Why didn't you wait by the pavil
ion?"
J The conductor of the westward bount
! train summoned his passengers.
,, "All aboard! All aboardp'
Linda bowed to the young man.
81 did not know you were coming tt
; the pavilion" she cried saucily. -
: thought you were going to stay in Lu
zon."
The conductor swung her on the plat
, form, and Arthur Denslow took off hi:
! hat and stood bareheaded in the dust!
. sunshine smiling at her somewhat wist
! fully.
at has been horribly lonesome over il
Luzon!' he called.
! SIT was rather lonesome at jackson
! park" she confessed.
"All aboard! All aboardv announced
the conductor of the eastward bounC
train.
Linda waved her little hand. .Goodby
, Goodbye
''But we had oaly begun our conversa
; tionl What do the trains mean by pull
! ing out? We were getting SO Interested!
. They smiled at each other radiantiy
but with a lurking pathos. The gfea
. Engines drew deep breaths and their bell
changed. The long, dragonlike trains be
) gan sinuous motion through the lengtl
: of their mammoth bodies.
"Lct's go around the world and NEE
. on the other sideI' he cried,
I What she said was drowned in tn
), clatter of the train. The white dust ros
behind In an obliterating cloud From
the window out of which he looked sit
impatient eyes he could see nothing tt
the sagebrush.
i The westward bound dier and the east
ward bound nier went their breathies