The Forrest City times. [volume] (Forrest City, Ark.) 1871-1919, 1900-06-22
The New Route to Chicago.

liz lNCW NOdAS ~ SutNo6Os
Nothing short of trip across the cont.
nent is generally considered OF sufficient
magnitude or infrequency nowadays to
lie worthy OF a newspaper article, and
hence when we begin this account of our
visit to Illinois last week, we feel at the
start that unless we can put something
into it which is out of the ordinary chan
mel of everyday journeys by rail, 1t will
fAll short of an Interesting stage, and We
have some misgiyings as TO our ability to
do this.
We presume that 1t would be cor slider.
ed quite a chestnut to mention the fact
that from Forrest City to Shelbyville il
had rained, and it had poured, and it con-
tinues. and keeps on raining. The citi-
GEMS OF Illinois, however, were not COM
planning particularly, because, as they
said. crops were never looking finer; corn
was good stand and clean, and there
fore they could afford to let nature take
its course, and grumbing wouldn't change
despite the high creeks, the sloppy streets,
the uncomfortable dampness, etc.
We left Forrest City about poon on Fri
day 1--WE are perverse in our superstitions
as to friday, the Choctaw being few
minutes late, and reached Brinkley, that
great railroad centre twenty-five miles to
the west of us, without incident, though
we might write column about the beau.
tiful coaches, the splendid service, and the
many satisfying improvements in general
affairs OF the 'Old Reliable" We did
notice, too, that L'Anguille was out of her
banks, and when we returned last week
l. struck US as quite odd to see the big
drain between Forrest City and Palestine
flowing up stream with current only
surpassed by that of Kicking Horse
river or the Niagara Falls.
At Brinkley We had dinner-God save
the queen from any such)-and when we
asked what was the dessert the waiter re-
piled Cottage puddin' and cherry pie y
We had almost tainted ere he mentioned
the latter, the announcement Of the first
having given the impression that we
might be dreaming or that we were still
in Forrest City, where we had supposed
cottage puddin'' was copyrighted. But
the cherry pie brought us to a realization
that we were still in foreign land, and
we ordered double portion. 1t was
good. The cherries we're from California.
This is not intended to be sarcastic, as
we Of this part OF Arkansas do not make
any pretensions to raising fruit of any
kind, much less cherries.) We had to
wait at Brinkley until 1888 p.m.-not
long, when it Is considered that we met
several old friends. among them being A q.
j. Hahn, formerly telegraph agent at this
place, and we'll known to most OF our
older citizens, and he was as good natured
as formerly, though he informed us (per-
haps for the purpose of gaining our SYM
pathy should he by any chance seem un.
sociable or out of sorts, or anything OF
that kind that Mrs. Hahn and daughter
were away in Kentucky on a visit. We
hope they have returned ere this, because
Andrew Jackson" looked his wish in
every line of his face.
From Brinkley New Route to Chi
Cage direct and without change, has re.
Gently been established. More properly
speaking, we should say this new route TO
Chicago has recently been established be-
tween Chicago and Texas points-Waco,
Fort Worth. Dallas and other places
making the Cotton Belt still more attrac.
tive TO its army OF patrons. The new
route is made new by the connecting OF
the two great railroads, namely, the Cot
ton Belt and the Chicago x Eastern Hi.
nois The latter was recently extended
from Marion, H., to Thebes, a small
river town above Cairo, and there con-
meets with the Cotton Belt, as before
stated. There is no bridge at Thebes but
large, safe and rapid transfer boat soon
puts US across the river without change of
cars, and our car speeds on to the great
windy city. These connections were com.
pltt-d aud the through service inaugu-
rated on or about May Is. On that day