Newport daily independent., 1905-08-24
AS BAD AS A FIRE.
to Move Three Times in One Night.

l
 "Did you ever sleep in three differ ent towns and in three different hotels l in one night, paying three times for d rather incomplete nights rest?" | 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 1 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 a sentence.
 Well, have done it." the old travel ing man continued. And l may add that although I 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 way: 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. aI- though the towns are hardly more than IS miles apart as the crow flies. Long view is on the International & Great Northern, while Tyler is on the Mineola branch of the Texas Pacific. The two railroads cross each other at 8 junc- tion called Troop, about 24 miles from Longview and 1s miles from Tyler.
 'I 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 a mo- ment's warning, and have seen 1t low CT the temperature 50 degrees in 60 min- utes. Everyone had been going around in his shirt sleeves. After the norther began an ulster was needed. There was no fire in the house and no con- fort. My train did not leave until 11:10 p. m. The only thing could think of was to take room and go to bed, and so l did. awoke at 10; 30, jumped into my clothes and caught my train.
 ''My watch showed few minutes after midnight when I arrived at Troop and heard that the west-bound train on the Texas Pacific was any way from two to three hours late. A band of immigrants was waiting for the same train and they filled the waiting room. Some were cooking a meal on the red hot stove in the middle of the room. Others were sleeping on the benches and on the floor. There was not va cant seat to be had and the atmosphere was indescribable The air outside was pure enough, but the thermometer reg istered ten degrees above zero, which is not a very comfortable temperature for man without an overcoat or gloves. There was only one way to keep warm-to cross the tracks to the little hotel opposite the station and crawl into a warm bed for couple of hours, and this I did
 ''I slept till 4:l5 and caught the be- lated train at :43. There was only one passenger, who left the train when we reached Tyler at 5:15, and that was I. It was pitch dark then, cold as Alaska and so quiet that your steps sounded like hammer beats along the streets. No one was stirring in the hotel at that time and it took me quarter of an hour to wake up an old negro who was sleep ing on the floor in the office. The first thing did when got inside the house was to dig out the keys to the bar and to gulp down two big drinks of whisky. And then asked for ire.
 "'No coal, massa,' the old nigger an swered, grinning like a split water melon; no wood, no nuffing. Massa had better go to bed.'
 And so did, to be sure, for the third time that night. It was 5:45 o'clock in the morning then and I slept like dead man till 9:30. Have you ever heard the like of it? And yet my lodg- ing for that night cost me only $l.50, or 50 cents at each hotel. The fun of It, when it was all over, was worth $1.o0, I think. IN. Y. Sun.