Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1909-09-17
OLD TIMER TELLS OF
FAST TRAVELLING
Our Modern Idea of Rapidly
Not in 1t With Old Time
Pace.
From the Nebraska State Capital.


Talk about high living and swift
travel" said the middle aged old
timer, they are nothing to what I ex~
perienced 20 years ago"
In 1884 Blaine was about to be
nominated at Chicago, and -four of us
young fellows from Pawnee county had
a railroad pass that rave us the priv
ilege OF going there to help swell the
spontaneous crowd. In the party was
Clyde Barnard, now a Lincoln coal
merchant and drill master for the leg
islative employees; and also that fellow
from Grand Island who is writing the
Cat Creek stuff for the Capital. None
of us had Travelled much beyond Clear
Creek precinct except Barnard. who
had attended n semester at the uni
versity and knew the chorus of one
song which ran: 1 Am Rocking or
the Billows of the Dee-ee-eep.'
we rode from Table Rock TO Wy
more on the Burlington after midnight,
along the Union Pacific to Omaha. and
walked across to Council Bluffs just in
time to miss the Wabash. That great
road was in the hands of a receiver,
and only ran one train a day, so we
remained in the Bluffs 20 hours, and
finally went to Chicago by way Of st.
Louis. 1t took three full days to make
the trip from Table Rock, and just as
bad coming back. / guess h man
who gave out the passes those days
was interested in a string OF eating
houses. And when l look at the map
of that trip, | realize that anybody but
farm boys would have viewed that pass
as an expensive insult. But we thought
It was a great favor.
q - -. --A
the eating. When we tralnped into
Council Bluffs in search of the departed
Wabash we were awful hungry. Bar
nard took the lead. He had never beer
in the Bluffs, but at the university he
chummed with a fellow from there who
had told him of a hne eating place.
He told me ii was abou the slick
est place in the country said Bar
nard, and / want TO hunt it up. He
called 1T a caffy, and / have always
wanted TO eat at n of them catfys.
It's my treat, now o remember. /
want to give you a good meal
After much inquiry we found the
caffy. II was pretty slick with marble
tables, and a bis nickel coffee urn such
as we had never seen before. The
waiter brought around a program of
the grub, n we went after It. Bar
nard urged Us to take the best there
was. We had all heard of spring
chicken on toast, SO we each toe some.
Then there were a lot more of frills
that / forget, winding up with pie, ice
cream and coffee, with a cracker and 8
piece of cheese about as big as your
thumb nail.
When the waiter brought the bin &c
Barnard we needed the ambulance. 1t
was $3.50. None of us had ever paid
more han 20 cents for q meal before,
except Barnard, who had once taken a
35-cent inner al the old Commercial
house in Lincoln. In that Bluffs place,
it seems, we had been eating on the
piece-work system. The waiter ex-
planned TO Clyde hat everything there
was a la carty,' and Clyde said it was
dog gon steep but he paid it.
After we got out of there we held a
meeting and decided that there should
be no more treating on that trip. II
was going to cost too much. So we
elected a treasurer, which was a good
way, n let hin settle all the bills
after that. Barnard still has a S1.85
treat coming from each Of us, but he
has never mentioned IT since. He
never forgaVe his Council Bluffs friend,
and chums no more with people who
live east Of the Missouri"