River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1913-03-27
FROM OUT WEST
JoURNEYINe ON A RAILWAY TRAIN
BY (. S. REED


carriage and we shook hands and
parted with mutual expressions of
pleasure of having met each other.
1t is 1907 miles by rail from
Spokane to St. Paul. The through
train arrived from Tacoma at 500
and throughout the entire trip to
St. Paul was on time to the minute
at every stopping place, a remark
able achievement for so long a
journey.
On the trains one comes in con-
tact with many travelling" men,
representative of business firms
making their periodical rounds in
their respective spheres of in
huence." These men are we'll &C.
quainted with the country through
which they travel and consequently
can give such information as will
interest the tourist in general.
These men are in general affable
and not disinclined to talk. One of
these especially interested me from
the information he gave about the
country being developed by new
branch railway lines in western
North Dakota and eastern Montana.
He showed by aid of map numer-
Gus new towns on competing paral-
lei roads in this newly developing
territory, a territory most promising
for wheat raising as is evidenced by
vast fields of good grain and the
towering grain elevators at every
railway station.
My nearest neighbors on the
sleeper in journeying from
Spokane to ST Paul were an old
gentleman and his wife, who were
returning 10 their home in Mich
igan after six-months' visit with
their sons. One of these lives in
Saskatchewan, Canadian North
west. This man thinks the
Canadian Northwest is more
adapted to cattle raising than to
grain culture Frosts are liable
to destroy the wheat crop but cattle
thrive in the territory, especially in
Saskatchewan where both grass
and water are abundant. Their
other son lives at Sand Point,
Idaho, where he is engaged in the
manufacture and sale of confect
ionery and ice cream. This son,
the father says, went to Idaho
three years ago with no capital and
had made SIS, 1000 in the meantime.
The old lady was repining because
she missed her little grandson,
six-years old, which she had raised
from baby, it's mother dying in
it's infancy, the child being left
with it's father at Sand Point at the
conclusion of their visit. She
knew the big house at Petoskey
that had so often rang with the
boisterous laughter of the roll
licking boy would be silent and
sadly lonely on her return More
than others do the aged adequately
appreciate the bubbling JOY Of
childhood and they need and feel
a reaction of sympathetic enjoy
ment fro m the influence of the
exhilarating vivacity of the young.
AT St. Paul and Chicago were
gathered thousands of Italians and
Greeks seeking passage to Europe.
The Italians seemed to be in half
panic with fear that the success
of the Democratic party in the fall
elections threatened disaster such
as followed the last Democratic
Administration closing of
factories, the cess alton of railway
work and general stagnation of
business and they were going home
where the cost of living was not
so great as here. Great numbers
of young Greeks were besieging the
ticket offices and crowding into the
day coaches en- route to the Atlantic
Sea-board cities to take passage
to Greece to fight the "unspeak-
able Turk" These young Greeks
were as fine looking set of men as
could be found anywhere. In
appearance they were undistin-
guishable from native Americans
fair of face, well dressed, clean
looking, stalwart, vigorous,
vivacious-in strong contrast to
Italians. On the cars they were
a noisy, rollicking lot-singing
patriotic songs, shouting and
jollying one another. l noticed
that at Chicago the Erie train
was quickly filled, the cars crowded.
The boys had their grips and they
were disinclined to crowd two in a
seat with their baggage. Ushers
came in and tried to get them to
double up. Two of these began
to talk in supercilious way,
-e;,~ oLre;xya lano,,ooa - $500