Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1905-05-26
GRBAT MIDDLB WEST.
Yorkville Man Describes Trip II
Kansas City.
SCENES AND INCIDENTS BY THE WAY.

| INC ooutneTH odPkbS SoHNo"Ho"
Where People Live on the Run
Tremendous Meat Packing Estab'
lishments-The Big Bridge Across
the Neutrality-suspicious. Notes.
Written for the Yorkville Enquirer.
It had long been my desire to visit
the west. That section of the United
States has for years claimed large
proportion Of the interest Of the peo-
pie Of the other sections, due to the
interesting and often thrilling stories
published in papers and magazines OF
the east and south describing things
and occurrences in the vast territory
lying beyond the Mississippi river, sc
when what was considered a most ex-
cellent opportunity to crafty this long
cherished desire recently presented It
self I determined to brush aside the
Along about the latter part Of March
received a letter from my brother, Reg
M. Grist, whose home Is In Kansas
City, Mo-, extending me a cordial In
vitation to visit his home, attend the
Southern Baptist convention and incl
dentally to see the country. Among
other things he promised that 1t would
be the most enjoyable experience OF
my life, that would see and learn
more in a week than l had ever seen
or learned In any previous ten years
of my life, and closed by saying that
would be so thoroughly pleased with
Kansas City and Its business posi-
lbilities that ! would hardly return to
Old slow going Yorkville. but would re-
remain there and send for my folks to
come out, etc.
On the morning of May I started
In left over the Southern for Blacks
burg and from that place went to At
lanta, arriving In that city at $50 p
M, that afternoon, and remaining
there until the next afternoon, when
left for Chattanooga. The distance Is
about 154 miles. The train started
about 40 minutes late: but 1t soon be-
came apparent that 1t was the pur-
pose Of the engineer to either go In
the ditch or into Chattanooga on time
He literally burned the wind" and be-
fore he had gone 100 miles 25 minutes
Of the lost time had been caught UP
and by the time Chattanooga was
reached he was dead on time
At Chattanooga there was delay
of about 35 minutes, when the start
was made for Memphis, distance OF
$40 miles. The train arrived there
mkt morning at about 10.45, some
thing like one hour and twenty min
utes late. Alighting from the train
asked colored porter about the Frisco
train for Kansas City Pointing down
an adjoining track toward a moving
train he said That's 1t. Just started
boss Inquiry developed the fact that
the next train would not leave until
1926 O'Clock that night.
Feeling rather lonesome and knowing
nobody In the place I decided to see
the town, or at least part OF II, by
the street car route. On going up
town had a first glimpse Of the Mis-
sissippi river, which Is said to be q
mile wide at this point. After seeing
numerous points Of interest from the
cars I concluded to spend a while
looking at the river and with this idea
in view chose a seat on the blum over
looking the stream just in the rear OF
the u. s. government building, where
sat. in company with others, and
looked for perhaps an hour. My at
tention was especially drawn to
small tug boat and a steamboat thai
were making trips to and fro across
the river at intervals Of about every
twenty minutes and each time carry
ing crowds of passengers. AS the
boats approached the Tennessee Side
of the river droves Of men and boys
were to be seen rushing down to the
landing and on to the boats F1naiI!
I decided that would go over also
and got aboard, asking no questions
as to what was the attraction on the
other shore. On landing / followed
the crowd up a slight incline to one
story frame building about 40xSO feet
At the door a ticket marked good fol
return trip" was handed me as wei
as every other man entering. On go.
ing In I soon discovered the secret oi
the interest for the visitors. 1t was
nothing more or less than a pool room
In which the crowd was betting on the
horse races then taking place on al
the leading tracks In the United
States. The names Of the horses en-
tered for each race on each track were
written on blackboards as also were
the odds offered by the bookmakers
The plungers were making their bets
and as the races were run the results
were received by telegraph In the
building and announced on the board
1t did not take me many minutes tc
see all I cared to see and without delay
I returned to the other shore. 1t Is con-
trary to law to operate pool-rooms 1T
Memphis and entirely legal TO operas
them in Arkansas, where this one Is
located Subsequently / made a hve
mile trip up the river on the same
boat on which I had my first ride.
Much to my relief the hour for leav-
ing Memphis finally arrived and boaro-
ing the train was soon en- route on the
483 miles stretch between Memphis
and Kansas City. The first NOTABLE
incident after leaving Memphis Is the
crossing Of the Mississippi on the grea'
bridge that spans that mighty stream
|
and Is perhaps the longest of Its type
in the United States. 1t Is said that
II cost $4,000, 900, and Is the property
of the Frisco System, but Is used by
the passenger trains Of all the roads
going west from Memphis. Each pas
senper who crosses on the train OF any
road using 1t, including the owner, Is
charged so cents in addition to regu-
lar mileage. 1t Is safe to say tnai
during the fifteen or twenty years that
the structure has been In use 1t mas
paid for itself several times over.
After crossing the river our train
got down to a steady run Of some
thing like 40 miles an hour and kept az
II until about twelve o'clock when II
was held up for perhaps an hour on
account of a derailed freight tram
After the wreck had been cleared ano
the engineer was given orders to pro-
ceed he did so at a 50-mile clip. About
daylight Springfield. Mo-, about 2oc
miles from Kansas City, was reachea
From this point on most Of my atten-
tion was devoted to seeing as much, OF
the country as possible under the cir
cumstances. While the country Is not
entirely level, still 1t Is enough so to
enable one to see long distance and
the sight was new and interesting
There were fields of wheat, just head
ing, hundreds upon hundreds of acres
Of grass, each field or section oelne
enclosed in a neatly kept hedge-row
In many of the fields were to be seen
herds OF cattle and droves Of horses
and mules, with an occasional buncn
of hogs. There were but few trees
and they were small. Every few miles
were ponds of water, with no visible
E,at or outlet For a time I was