The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1907-09-10
where TIE
DRUM. ERS STOP

Il
e. E. Grassland, in the Chicago Trib-
une The colored boy appeared at the
elbow of the guest morning, noon and
night. and his simple inquiry covered |
the entire ground:
How you laik yoh aigs?"
Indeed, the south until within the |
last decade, and in some spots still, |
furnishes the limit in the hotel line. ]
remember one evening in March down
in Kentucky, l had driven rs miles
over mud roads, and, arriving at the
hotel, which appeared tolerably com
Portable, ] inquired if could get hot
bath, and, to my delight, was informed
that ] could. A fine rain, half snow,
was falling and a high wind blowing.
| went to the room, disrobed, ana,
throwing a bath robe around me, fol
lowed the negro boy down the corri-
dor. Pretty soon we emerged on to
Iatticed back porch on the second
story and in latticework that was
covered with vines in midsummer
stood a bathtub, into which the boy
had dumped two buckets of hot water.
The latticework was open, and even
the fiaring lamp, sizzling as the snow
fakes struck it, revealed me to half
the neighbors. gave up the luxury
of the bath and retreated in as good
order as possible.
One of the oldest hotels l ever
struck was up in the lumber district
of upper Michigan. l hit the town one
election night, and found the place
crowded with loggers from all up and
down the river. There was one hotel.
small board affair The office and
dining-room occupied one side, the
kitchen was leanto in the rear and
one long bedroom extending along the
entire side of the hotel completed the
outfit A double row of cot beds with
heads to the wall made the furnish
ings, and yet there was only about
room enough for a third of the Wis
itors in town to sleep. Along about
nine o'clock decided to retire, and
| the proprietor after looking me over
curiously and evidently debating in
wardly, assigned me to a bed, and
turned in.
At midnight every cot was filed
and half the picked log rollers were
snoring, when, suddenly and without
trace of warning, every cot was
overturned, the occupants dumped on
the floor. The sleepers arose, put on
what clothes they had removed before
| retiring and started out without COM
ment. | was dazed for a minute and
then began to kick to the boss, who
stood in the doorway and yelled: "All
outl"
What the dickens does this mean?"
/ demanded, hotly.
First shift turning out" he ex-
planned and as he did so line of men
marched in and retired, while those
who had slept in the first shift slipped
away to the near by saloons. At three
o'clock the second shift was dumped
onto the floor and at six, when the
third shift was dumped. l paid the
boss one dollar extra to let me turn in
and sleep until eight.
In earlier days, when was selling
farm machinery in western Kansas,
struck some queer hotels, but the odd
est of all was owned and operated by
a genius named Richards in little
village in Sheridan county, 10 or 70
miles from Hoxie.
Richards was a queer character
and his specially was invention. He
had invented more worthless things
than any man in the country. Almost
everything he made would work, but
they all required more time and la
Dor than the things he tried to i'm
prove on. His barn lot and barn, a;
we'll as his little one-story hotel, were
filled with things he had invented.
He put me to bed in small room
perhaps eight by ten, with one small
window, and one extremely narrow
door. / noticed as he showed me into
the room that the place seemed t.
have double walls
I retired. The night was sultry anC
close, but after time fell asleep
Sometime during the night | wal
awakened by a Earring, rumbling
and the thought flashed into my mine
that a cyclone had struck us. leape'
out of bed and ran to the window I
sickening sensation of falling cam
over me. Everything was dark.
jammed my arm through the window
and my fist struck solid earth. wa
terror stricken, but with jar tn,
movement ceased, and with a few
minutes we began to ascend again
and stopped suddenly. A gust of wine
struck me and as was about to climl
through the window Richards opene'
the door and asked:
How did she work?"
demanded an explanation.
Cyclone" he said, cheerily. Tool
the calf barn and two haystacks ant
part of Dobbs barn and his windmill
/ thought it was going to hit us AM
let you down."
The next morning he showed mi
the mechanism. Every sleeping room
was really double room, the insid
being like an elevator, and he ha,
rugged weights and counter weight
until by pushing lever he could droI
| all tha cIeaparc IN fJ,a boto1 ao,,r,, ~