Newport daily independent., 1905-09-29
AS BAD AS A FIRE.
Traveller in Texas Was CompeIlea to Move Three Times in
 One Night.

Did you ever sleep in three differ
 snt towns and in three different hotels
 in one night, paying three times for
 rather incomplete nights rest2"
 The old travelling man threw out the
 question in an unconcerned way after
 having listened in silence for an hour
 while the other members of the Corner
 club reeled off yard after yard of stories
 about the road, its pleasures, it's dan- gers and it's humors. The pause that
 followed was only broken by some vio-
 lent but futile efforts by the stutterer
 to launch sentence
 Well, have done it," the old travel
 ing man continued. And I may add that although have been kept on the
 road for 20 years have never met man who was able to boast of the same ex- perience. It came about in this wayt
 l was down in Texas in 1881 and 1882, and New Years day found me in small town called Longview, with my nose turned in the direction of the neighbor- ing town of Tyler. To get to one of these towns from the other you must travel on two different railroads and cover about 40 miles of ground, al. though the towns are hardly more than 15 miles apart as the crow flies. Long, view is on the Interna tional & Great Northern, while Tyler is on the Mineola branch of the Texas Pacific. The two ton called Troop, about 24 miles from Longview and IS miles from Tyler.
 Il was having my dinner in the hotel at Longview about six o'clock on the evening of New Years day, when first class norther came sweeping down upon us. If you have never met genu- inc Texas norther pray that you may be spared from having the experience. The wind will spring up without mo- ment's warning, and have seen it low CT the temperature 50 degrees in 60 min utes. Everyone had been going around in his shirt sleeves. After the mortimer began an ulster was needed. There was no fire in the house and no com fort. My train did not leave until 11:10 p. m. The only thing l could think of was to take room and go to bed, and so did. I awoke at 10: 30, jumped into my clothes and caught my train.
 My watch showed a few minutes after midnight when I arrived at Troop and heaEdathat the west-bound train on, the Texas Pacific was any way from tive tos three hours late; A. band of immig grants was waiting for the 'same train and they filled the waitingroom. Some were cooking a meal on the red hot stove in Fthe middle of the room. Differs we're sleeping ion the benches, and. ,oa|she floor There was .not val cant seat to be had and the. atmosphere was indescribable. The air outside was pureT enough, but she'thermometer reg istered ten degrees above zero, which is not. a. very comfortable temperature for man without an overcoat, or gloves+ There was orlyone way to keep " syar,n-.:to cross cEos the tracks. to the little hotel opposite the station and crawl into a warm bed for couple of hours, and this did. |. -. ..,S
 t.''t slept till 4:15 and caught the; ;he- lated train at 4:4a. TheresWas only one who. left the train when we reached Tyler at 5:15, and that was 1. It was pitch dark then, cold as Alaska and so quiet that your steps sounded like hammer beats ,alopg the streets. No one was stirring in the hotel at that time and it took me a'quartsr ofan hour to wake up an old pegro who was sleep l ing on the floor In the office. The first thing did when I got inside the house was to dig out the keys to the bar and to gulp down two big drinks of whisky. And then Talked for a'sire. i :',.: ij;, ,l No coal, massa,' the old nigger an swered, grinning like g. split water melon; no wood, no nuffing. Massa had better go to bed
 'IAtid SO did, to be sure, for the third time that night. It, was 5:45 o'clock in the morning then and slept like a dead man till 9:3O. Have you ever hsard the like of it?,, And yet.mN lodg ing for that night cost me only $1.5o, or 50 cents at each hotel. The fun of it, when it was all over, was worth s1.5O, I think. ."-N. Y. Sun. s's. : + 4Fffuit1Kspla 1esFif5|w;,e.r... a'' i.'
 Fruits are replacing flowers as deco rations for the table, and for this pnr.