Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-06-11
WASA REAL HARD BLOW

A man with a bulgy. black-glazed bag.
rus ty-seamed black store clothes, strap-en-
circled black sombrero, unblacked top
boots, khobby, freckled hands and solemn
sandy, unshorn visage, stood outside the
9Th street entrance to the Pennsylvania
station tie other evening watching the
dust-raising and paper-scattering didoes OF
a lowering but inconsequential squall from
the west.
Fright cunnin little zephyrs. hain't
they?' he remarked ironically, to man
standing a little distance away from him.
SIR oking an inch-and-a-half clay pipe.
"Th wind gets hull lot mussy round
here, 'casionally, summer eyenin's." replied
the man with the inch-and-a-half clay pipe.
Wind" said the man with the bulgy,
black gla zed bag, etc, in a tone of stark
wonder as he edged over to the side OF the
nan with the stingy pipe. Wnd
Neighbor, femme ask you somethln: Up
around thfs-a-way, you sure don't call seen
care ssn' little breezes as these yere, seen
cute, coddlin' little cats-paws-say, podner'
you sure don't call 'em wind up this-a-"ay'
do you?
Wouldn't care t be trifiin' round down
TIL Potomac in lop-sided canoe with inns
kind o. caressin' breezes blowin,' was the
non-committal reply of the man With the
olose-hauled pipe.
The man with the strap-encircled SOM
brero looked panied
STRANGER" he inquired, did you ever
set foot in Kansas" >,
mot 'thout l was walkin' in my Sleep.
calmly replied the man with the sawea-oI
smoker But they tell me that she s
hull few out there wen It comes se W,no, ex-
wind, stranger-wind!' hoarsely ek
claimed tie man with the store clothes,
through the interstices of the two ounces
of fine cut which he proceeded to stun ln mo
conversation "Podner. there's enough
vino stored up in jes' tn little QUITO tn
way corners O. Kansas supply IN l,u; ~
phOon belt o. tn South seas IT ihiiiio'
years an repeat! ..,,,
"Say stranger femme tell you sometniii
that happened at sixteen minutes past .
O clock on tn aft'rnoon o July otn' i'''
year. right near my Gown: ,o,,;,.
.'There's two rival railroads paraleilin
each other and bout 614 yards apart run run
hin through my town. At sixteen mn NH
utes past o'clock on the aftfnoon vi ~. oy
the 9Th, last year, freight Train, cGlisiS -
of forty-eight open-work cars, engine anu
caboose. and all O. thtem open-work car
Ioa ded with sheep on their way 10 haIsa .
City FIR shearin' and slaughterlh "as w,
the track of the railroad to the east vi my
town while the engine was takin on water
The train stood on level stretch o TRACK
bout half a mile south O. the town.
81 ong comes one o them slckly green
d:pper-handed clouds and sWeops ~. paoa au-
gineer has time t pull open the thrott,e
and git out o. the clouds path "Aio'
Well what dye s'pose happened! -
1.-THE wind out O that sickly green clipper
handled cloud jes' picked up that train and
carried it GA yards through the air ana oe
posted it jes' as slick as a elium-prancn
whistle on the track o the rival rallroao
over t. the westward. The wheels or lhe
engine. caboose and all O them forty-eight
sheep-loaded cars come down on the track
O. the rival railroad GA yards t the west,
ward jes as if they had never been runnin
on any other track sence the beginn1n o
In n
what's more the pistons O. the engine
never stopped workin' while the train was
in the air, so that when it lit on the rival
track the engine went right on pullln.
''The train was goin' on all right toward
Kansas City. on'y on the track o the
wrong railroad, Wen that onnery sickly
green cloud suddenly swooped ag IN, ana
blamed If it didn't push that train back
seventy-two miles cross the Nebraska bor-
der, spite O. all the steam the engineer
could clap on to make little headway
agin the wind, or even t hold MS ground:
MADE all sorts O. trouble, that stunt o
the measy green cloud did. There Wa'ant
no way that the engine and caboose and
forty-eight sheep-loaded cars could be got
back to the track where they belonged from
the track of the rival, paralellin railroad
and the rival railroad was jeS' one engine,
one caboose and forty-eight open-work cars
t the good, for the court decided that the
wind was a act of Providence and couldn't
be helped, nohow, and that 1nd1ns keepln S
were the wind is concerned in Kansas.
But the rival railroad that won out the
engine and caboose and all o them cars
had to pay the consignee OF them 1orty-
eight carloads of sheep FIR their wool. The
sheep was delivered in Kansas City all
right, but there wa mt no more wool on airy
one of 'em than there is on a gourd. The
wind had jes ker-whooped through them
open-work cars and blew the wool off o
ev'ry las one of EN- jes' as clean as If
they'd been shaved three days under the
hide by barber.
The green cloud that did all o this
meanness was on'y bout five-eighths of a
mile wide, and it never SO much as teched
the town where l live, on'y grazing the
outskirts. But, jes' t show you how pow
erful the wind was the outskirts, my
brother-in- law. JabeZ Smulkns, was clean
in out his well-JabeZ'S well is a hundred
and sixty-three foot deep from the surface
t. the water-wen the aidge O that sickly-
green cloud come along past the well.
THE wind jes sucked Jabez Smulkins.
my brother-in-law. out o that we'll o his
that was hundred and sixty-three FOOT
deep-same as if he'd been a tadpole In
tube Of a suction-cistern and hired man
workin' the pump handle. JabeZ didn't
mind it none, though. for, besides pullin
him out O. the well the wind pulled all o
the lost buckets and grapplin irons ana
better'n Jabez could ha' done the job by
workin' month.
Yes, stree, there sure was right tol a.
BILE breeze close t the town where l live at
sixteen minutes past three on the art noon
o. July the 9Th, las year.
The man with the inch-and-a-half clay
pipe took it from his face long enough to
inquire: -
Say. pal wasn't that breeze some hot,
too besides ben' speedy
Whereupon the man with the strap-encir-
cled sombrero looked aggrieved, and picked
I'D his black glazed bag and clomped into
the station.