The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1901-01-26
BILL ARP'S LETTER
Barlow Man Is Again Joyous and
Happy at His Own Preside.
EXPERIENCED MANY TRYING 0RDEALS
Notwithstanding His Tribulations His
Lecture Tour Was Source of Much
Pleasure and Profit.

Home again and happy. Children
and grandchildren met me at the de-
pot and escorted me home, where q
bountiful supper was awaiting, and I
asked the same old blessing that I have
been asking for fifty years. only it
was with unusual gratitude, for
I had been in perils of wind
and water and escaped them.
I was weary with long travel, and now
I could rest. 1 left New Albany at
midnight. reached Birmingham at day
light, only five minutes late, and had
five minutes time to buy ticket for
Pell City, and from there I was to
board the East and West for home.
How happy I WAS. But alasl for hu-
man hopes. How soon they can van
ish into despair.
There were about q hundred big,
black, greasy negro preachers ahead
of me at the ticket Office. Their Bap-
fist convention had been broken up,
and they were going home on the
southbound train, and had an hour to
60 on, but they would not let me ad-
vance an inch. I hurried back to the
gatekeeper and begged him to let me
in, for my train was waiting, and I
pointed to the crowd of negroes and
told him it was impossible for me to
get ticket. He said he was sorry,
but he had his orders. 1 hurried back
to make one more effort, but big
square shouldered preacher, with q
back as broad as a barn door, had
dropped dime on the floor and half a
dozen were down hunting for it.
hailed the ticket man, but he never
heard or needed me. Frantic, rush
cd back to the iron gates and saw my
train slipping off like q snake in the
grass, and that official automaton
would not let me pass. "'Gainst Or
ders," he said. Blackstone says there
is q remedy for every wrong, but there
were no railroads in bis day, or
he wouldn't have written those lines.
I had NO remedy, and there is none.
What could I do7 No train for Pell
City for twelve hours, and none from
Pell City for my home for twenty'four
hours. I was so tired and SO disap-
pointed that I sat down to ruminate on
my valise.
Twas weak and sad and pitiful, for
there is no disappoin tment SO distress
ing to me as being left by Q train
when going home. Just then q drum
mer, God bless himi came up and
spoke to me. and said, ''My friend, I
am pretty much in the same fix you
are, but we can 60 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 yet,
and We have half An hour TO get our
tickets. Those preachers are nearly
all out Of the way now."
Irose TO my feet. I saw how 1t
was, and that would lose only one
hour in getting home. In my heart I
revived, and like David whispered,
"Blsss the Lord, o my soul"
We got our tickets, and in four
hours were in Chattanooga, where I
telegraphed my wife, "Hold the fort;
I'm coming" And 20 "All's we'll that
ends well," and NO thanks to those
who manage that iron.bound pen at
Birmingham.
But I found the catest little narrow
gauge railroad in Mississippi that I
have seen In many years. didn't
know there was ono left. It is called
the Cult aud Chicago railroad, but
they began to build it in the middle
many years ago and built sixty miles
and quit. You can ride all day on 1t
for 81. 80. It doesn't seem to have any
schedule, and the folks along the line
just wait for it and seem content.
They say, swell, 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 tele-
phone them. They are very accom-
modating, especially going south, for
they have no connections to make. ]
boarded that train at Blue Mountain
at p. m. for Pontotoc, where I was
to lecture that night at 1880 o'clock.
1t was only thirty miles. but we didn't
get there until 8:15 o'clock, and my
sudience didn't give up the ship.
They said it was their road-their
only road and they knew its peculiar
ways. We stcpped when within three
miles of town, and after half an hour
or so I asked what was the matter,
and was told that the steam had given
out.
Before that the train stopped in the
woods somewhere and began to back.
| ventured to ask what was the matter
and was told that the brakeman had
dropped his cob pipe and that they
had gone back to look for it. But ii
was a railroad and had no right to
complain, for I remember when there
was not railroad in the United States.
When I was seven years old I came
from Boston to Georgia overland in q
carriage with my father and mother,
1900 miles, and we never crossed q
railroad, for there was none to cross;
and now there are 1861 miles in
these United States. No, am happy
on the way on any railroad, even if il
is thirty miles short and four hours
long. 1t beats the old stage coach a
long ways.
I tried a buggy team from Ripley to
Blue Mount, only a six-mile drive,
and like to have got drowned. 1 got
fundamentally and distressingly wet.
shall wait for the narrow gauge next
time. Oh, that cyclonel I hsvenf
quit telling about it yet. Next morn.
ing a man who was in it and under il
and on top of it said he went out to
shut his mules up in the stable, and
before he could say Jack Robinson il