The Norfolk weekly news-journal. (Norfolk, Neb.) 1900-19??, 1909-02-05
THE WEST UNITED STATES"


with but single accident, that of a
drunken man falling In front OF a
moving train-and only once in long
while a complaint or an angry word
I But from Mr.. Kniskern the big boss Ia
Chicago, down to the ticket sellers Mt
/ Dallas and O'Neill there wasn't a
whimper or n growl; they just kept
right on getting from six to ten extra
GO0-passenger trains day into the
Rosebud country and getting them out
Each train had three conductors
and two extra brakemen; one conduc-
tor to run the train and the other two
TO collect fares and keep the peace
And that's United States railroading.
| CThcre's some distinction in being a
! good railroad man out beyond Chicago.
"What state are we in now?' | asked
st. Paul conductor coming home,
you're in the state of Minnesota"
said he with arrogant pride lin the
state of Minnesota! Where they do
railroading as is railroading-and not
as though it was running a depart
ment store change trolley.D
But the real education came after
they had sorted the crowd on the plat
forms and had taken the O'Neill pas
sengers off the Dallas trains, almost
by the scruffs of their necks, and had
taken the Dallas passengers off the
O'Neill trains, had given everybody a
chance to eat and had seen to it that
most of the women passengers were
settled i'm the most comfortable car
of the train. Just how plain, simple,
lone women, carrying babies, dared to
20 to the Rosebud opening | had not
then learned; but they did go, hun
dreds of them.
The Ride Out of Norfolk.
The journey out of Norfolk into the
night began with wrath and disgust,
personal and impersonal; with con-
tempt for the shallow brutality of
magazine editors and self hate for
tertainment and edfication of maya
zine readers; with utter shame for the
sinking herds of humanity who were
running, like greedy cattle to the feed
ing troughs, for the very remote
chance of winning a free farm. With
all it's selfishness and conceit, wasn't
clean, leather-padded New York better
than this? The journey ended in that
lustrous sunlight such as only a
prairie morning knows, with a new
and healthy sense Of partnership in
the ruddy, homely eagerness of true
American citizenship 1t isn't often
that one is privileged, after an all
night sitting-up journey, to find him
self wider awake than when he started.
1t is nevertheless a cheering expert
ence.
In the first place one with even the
rudiments of a sense of humor cannot
long support himself in despising fell
low mortals for grimy hands and
obviously unclean linen and perspira
ton when one knows that he is himself
Just as filthy. Moreover, good nature
is the great crouch solvent, after all:
let the men around you be altogether
glad of living, let them be persistently
noisiy glad, and in time you will be
glad too. And at last, despite your
self, a flicker of a smile escapes from
the corner of your mouth-and then
the big Swede opposite, whose knees
have been crowding you all night,
;,,tA % inh
you the joke about his wife and Eek
strom, who is sitting beside you. 1t is
Shakespearean but altogether joy.
And you laugh so loud and so long
that the whole carload of sixty
They've all been vaguely wondering
what has been the matter with YOU
crowds over the backs and the arms
of the seats and demands to be let in
on the joke. And you laugh again,
with them until the tears make white
channels down through the coal dust
on your checks.
Hi! hi! George!" shouts an aged
brother with tobacco bedraggled
whiskers, heres Teller from New
\ ork. Now ask him what he thinks of
your fool guarantee for bank deposits.
Ask him, l dare yet" you ask him
how he votes" pipes up George,
whose whiskers are longer and there
fore have lodged more tobacco juice,
land then I'll tell We what he's going
to say" Once more joy is uncon-
fined. The tumult of corn, politics and
religion RACES again. There were 114,-
600 of us going out, hundreds of miles,
to register; only one in twenty-three
of us could possibly win; the other
twenty-five would feel mighty sheep
sh when it was all over; We all knew
It. So, whenever we passed another
trainload, or drew into a station be-
side another train, every man on both
trains stuck his head out of the win
dow and bawled: "Suck-er'r'rs!
Sucker'r'rs!" and then roared with
laughter when the other train whooped
the gibe back.
put thrOugh IL all thara is one ring