The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1907-10-30


venience. 1t is simply a matter of
getting out of the depot into the
narrow alley called a street, just
back of it, or to the contested tracks
where trains are standing ready to
take you in any direction, and where
the strictest watch must be kept to
get on the right train.
Our route south to Oklahoma City
was over the Santa Fe, and after be-
ing joined by jolly Oar Hall Of Rem
vile county, we pulled out of the
Kansas City depot an hour before
midnight, and were damned into a
sleeper in which every BIRTH both
upper and lower. had been taken.
The Santa Fe runs it's trains for the
money that there is in it,. and not
for the convenience or comfort of
its passengers, which it herds into
cars like cattle. This was evidenced
the next morning. On awakening
we found that we had lost two hours
and a half somewhere in the dark
ness of the night. In other words
we were scheduled to be in Arkansas
City at eight o'clock! The Santa Fe
carries no dining cars. 1t owns the
eating house at Arkansas City. On
arising at a seasonable hour we in
quired of the conductor as to where
our dining car was. He gave us the
laugh, took us for the untutored
tenderfoot of the east, and then in
formed us that diner was some
thing new on the Santa Fe and that
we would get something to eat when
we reached the Santa Fe eating
house at Arkansas City. We ar
rived there at about 1890, an ugly
bunch mingled with a hungry crowd
that were ready to shoot Santa Fe
sign. out Of mere. hunger ugliness.
But the breakfast we received
equalled anything ever set before
the writer. We ate and ate and
smiled and smiled, tipped the girl at
our table 25 cents each, and walked
out to the cashiers box where we
were obliged to tip the Santa Fe rs
cents per for the material that we
ate.
Arkansas City is in Kansas, very
near the Oklahoma line. Leaving it
on our journey south we commenced
to notice the effects of the drouth.
The corn crop was failure lin fact,
practically everything else. except
cotton and peanuts. We were told
that the people had raised a superb
crop Of peanuts, and that the cotton
crop was raised after two or three
paintings, made necessary by the
late season. The editor of the Okla
homa Farm Journal admitted the
next day that dad had come down to
see the boys at rather bad time,
but that it was ever thus. He could
remember wanting to do something
just a little bit better when dad was
around on the old farm in the north,
but he always made failure. Last
spring the boys Of Oklahoma though
they would show dad something
when he came down to the congress,
but the usual result prevailed, and
dad would have to be content with
the warm weather, a sight at the
growing cotton, the Smelling of pea
nuts, and a good visit with the boys
who were glad to welcome him, and
who were not required to send home
to dad for a remittance at ANY time
since they came to the territory.
Dad was impressed with the fact
that on every quarter section there
was farm house. and dads mem
ory went back Is years when, at noon
of one day, there was a pistol shot
fired on the boundary line be
tween the Oklahoma reservation
and the soil where white men were
free to barter. He recalled the de
lerious rush that followed the pistol
shot. and the wild stampede of home
seekers across the line, and that
every quarter section was afterwards
filed upon by some member Of that
rushing party. When we whirled
into Oklahoma City he also recalled
the fact that at noon of that day
there was nothing but the wild
prairie with its sage and other