The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-01-05
WESTERN. BLOCKADE
How Isaye Played All Night for
Passengers in SEow- Bound Train

! One Of the most realistic features of
! owen Wister's The Virginian' is the ac-
count he gives Of the six stalled passen-
! ger trains out IN the sagebrush country
anu OF the conduct OF the passengers OF
the trains during the blockade" said a
! 9Pe:iai agent or the government whose
position requires him to carry his office
| IN ms nat the major portion of the time,
/ 10 the Washington Post.
! L happened to get mixed IN in an AL
J most identical mess out in the land of
/ the Sageorush myself back in the spring
81 1efs was on my way to Portland.
/ got past Pocatello. Ida. it was found that
/ the SHOWS were melting so fast that q
/ 5000 zeal OF the track was under water.
ne mad no sooner got past Pocatello in
/ tact, than a big hunk of the track was
washed away entirely
! . When we reached GIenn's Ferry. Ida
IL was case Of halt. The big trestle over
1 lndlan creek, a few miles ahead. was
! WoDbIy, and so it was a case of stay
mere until something could be DONE We
I Hdu no idea what that something was
gong to be or when il was going to be
done-there was no finding out we found
/ i've trains already stalled at Glenn s
/ ferry-tWo OF them, that, like our train,
were bound west, and that couldn't 20 on
| on account Of the twisted Indian creek
| lrest1e, and three bound east that were
| unable to proceed on account of the
hhuSsed up track around Pocatello.
Wen. the folks on those six trains
made Up great outfit. There were nil
nohalres IN palace cars, buck soldiers in
tOurlsJ Sleepers, emigrantS in their OdOr-
/ lIerouS rollers. miners and cowboys and
/ proSpector5 in day cOacheS-all sorts and
an EIhds, but all of them perfectly good
| hatured under rather measly conditions,
ana all OF them ready to take the game
! as I come along Fortunately the little
eating room Of the station happened to
! De Wen stocked with provisions for the
! grub on the stalled dining cars wasn't a
mouthfut TO the big mob of people on the
SIX trains. ali of them rendered unusually
] Aa loo Il 49,.
Wlney air of the sagebrush country. We
! ate IN that little eating room in RELAYS.
! the rich man alongside the ernigrant. the
uaHlty woman from the coast or her way
| 10 Sbe Rivera alongside the buck soldier
I picturesque crowd of eaters, you may
| believe me.
''Glenn's Ferry is a little bit of a settle
/ ment set down on the north bank of the
| mconceiVably sinister and gloomy Snake
| river, which Is doomed over by tall en-
| bankmentS at that point a few little
tnlngs. happened while we were stalled
! there that came pretty close to showing
Just how small this world is The SER
geant in charge OF a detachment of regU-
lar army soldiers on the way to a post
at the mouth of the Columbia river was a
crackerJack marksman-One of the best
/ IN the American army. On the second
| afternoon Of the blockade he was stand
ing over on the bank of the Snake river,
amusing bunch of swell passengers by
! shooting at-and invariably hitting-silver
! CONS that they would toss into the air.
he had regular marksman's pistol along
with MIN, and re certainly knew how TO
shoot a whole lot.
Well. he was still plugging away at the
! coins when a tidy-looking little woman
clad in a long Newmarket coat and wear
ing a fOre-and-aft cap. strolled over from
her car and watched his performance for
a little while. Then she did something
that attracted the curious gaze of the
passengers who had been watching the
sergeants shooting. She pulled a long,
silver-mOunted pistol from one of the
pockets of her Newmarket and walked
to the very verge of the steep embank-
ment overlooking the Snake river.
She stood with her pistol at rest for
little while, and then one of those sage
brush magpies, birds that have all of the
eccentric craziness of swallows in their
way of flying, appeared, flying in wild.
swift circles right over the middle of the
river. The little woman with the gun
leveled her weapon upon the swiftly
circling bird for about half a minute. get
ting a line on it's movements and then
she blazed away. The magpie tumbled
out of the air into the Snake river. The
sergeant was at the little wOman's side
in three strides, with his cap in his hand
" Lady he said, there is only one
woman in America who could do thing
like that, and her name is Miss Annie
Oakley