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

III Ou0 ulBuI, pdyiuS tuiCo lihiCb AoA 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 club reeled of yard after yard of stories 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, I have done it." the old travel ing man continued. And l may add that although have been kept on the road for 20 years have never met man who was able to boast of the samc ex- perience. It came about in this way: I was down in Texas in 1881 and 1882, and Now Years day found me in 8 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 70 miles of ground, al- though the towns are hardly moro than Is miles apart as the crow flies. Long, view is on the International & Great Northern, while Tyler is on tho Mineola branch of the Texas Pacific. Tho two railroads cross each other ct juno ton called Troop, about 24 miles from Longview and 18 miles from Tyler.
 "I was having my dinner in the hotel ct Longview about six o'clock on the evening of.New Years day, whom frat class nortber csms swooping down upon us. If you have never met genu- inc Texas mortimer pray that you may be spared from having the experience. The wind will spring up without mo- ment's warning. and have seen 1t low CT tho 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 fro in the house and no com fort. My train did not leave until H.: 10 p. m. The only thing could think of was to take room and go to bed, and 50 did. I awoke at 1o:3o, 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 tho same train and they filled the waiting-room. Some were cooking meal on the red hot stove in the middle of tho 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 . very comfortable temperature for 8 man without an overcoat or gloves. There was only one way to keep warm-to cross the tracks to tho little hotel opposite the station and crawl into Q warm bed for . couple of hours, and this did.
 ''I slept till 4:1S and caught tho be- lated train at 4:43. There was only one passenger, who left the train whom ws reached Tyler at 5:1b. and that was |. It was pitch dark then, cold as Alaska and 90 quiet that your steps sounded like hammer beats along tho streets. No one was stirring in tho hotel at that time and 1t took mo quarter of an hour to wake up an old negro who was sleep ing on tho floor in tho ofiice. Tho first thing did whan got inside tho house was to dig out the keys te the bar and to gulp down two big drinks of whisky. And then asked for . hre..,.
 ,"'No coal, .massa.' the old nigger an swered, gri4ning like split water melon; mo wood. no nufing. Massa had better go to bed
 "And 50 did. to be sure. for tho third time that night. It was 6:46 o'clock in tho morning then and I slept like dead man till 9:3O. Have you ever heard the like of 1t? And yet my lods- ing for that night cost me only $1.5O, CT 50 cents at each hotel. Tho fun of n, when 1t was all over, was worth $1.oO, I think."-N. Y. Sun.