The Oskaloosa herald., 1914-01-08

hotel is just as good as the business
it gets. When IT gets more it will
spruce up all right.
- - - ...
Eyes, Yes Sab, dats a fact. The
stores here are not up an a comm.
For instance de drug stores still sell
drugs and tobacco and all such things.
They don't push de things to de rear
and use four-fifths of the front part
| of de store Ior soda water and ice
cream. Ha! Ha! Well good bye boss.
| Come again. Moberly am good
town. De colored people do all de
work here, except de white trash who
loaf around the saloons and have to
carry home washings for der wives to
do. So long boss Ha! Hal"
| - - -.
Kansas City still uses the old I'M
ion depot, Notwithstanding the new
five million dollar structure" that has
been talked about for fifteen years.
But Kansas City is putting on style.
In place of jerking stranger up over
the hill in a cable car it now takes
you through a tunnel that lands you
in the heart of the city without max
| d
scenic railway or shooting the chutes.
But it seemed funny to run out of
less than an inch of snow in Iowa,
into about six inches in the so-called
gateway of the great southwest"
- - -
Take away from Kansas City its
live stock market and packing indus
try, and what would you have left?'
We heard a fellow spring this ques-
ton ON the sleeper, but no one made
any reply, for every one seemed to
know that if they kept still he would
answer his own question. And sure
enough,-"why it would not be. as
good a town as WaXahachie." We
were terribly at sea, but we never
said a word. Later we found that
town on the railroad map in Texas.
This same man went on to say:
Take the brewery business away
from st. Louis, and the town would
become only flag station" We Of
ten wish we could talk in that blase
way about the big cities, but when
we heard the comments passed
around after his wife had called the
speaker to bed, we somehow felt that
Ignorance is bliss, or to better illus
trate what we want to say, "Silence
is golden"
Speaking about Kansas City, re-
calls the mad rush we made from the
Wabash train to catch the Katy
Limited" Our rush seemed to be the
only thing that was in a hurry for
the train began to lose time as soon
as ii lodged out of Kansas and COM
menced to break in on the dreams of
the Oklahomans. When we got to
Dallas we had lost only two hours,
but at San Antonio we were nearly
six hours behind the schedule. From
there on we lost no time, as San An
tonic is the end of the run.
But the NJ, K. & T. is not wholly
to blame for this Southern leisure,
sometimes called laziness. The
tracks all the way through Texas
have been rendered soft and danger
Gus by the floods and heavy rains.
Between Waco and Austin there was
a stretch of track about two miles
long that had been lifted bodily car
ried several hundred yards and left
turned upside down in the field. A
long piece of it, rails, ties and all,
was standing upright against some
trees. This washout, as did many
others, required. new grades and new
tracks, and these mean slow orders
and creeping trains. Hundreds OF
men were working all along the line,
many of them wading in mud up to
their knees. But with all it's mis-
fortunes the katy" is a good road,
and it's trainmen are the most pleas.
ant and accommodating of any we
have yet butted into.
San Antonio people are rapidly ac-
quiring the Colorado habit of telling
strangers, that they never before
had such miserable weather as they
have had during the last few days.
Especially solicitous are they to con-
vince all, that never before have they
had, and never again will they have
a food like that of December 3. The
San Antonio river which ordinarily
carries about as much water as the
Muchakinock creek, and which comes
up out of the desert less than five
miles from the city, suddenly sprang
into raging torrent, Hooded about
one-fourth of the business cestion OF
the city and played havoc generally.
Though the newspapers failed to re-
cord it, there is no doubt that the
water was three feet deep in the lob
by of the elegant new Hotel Gunter.
! - - -
Though little material damage was
done to the hotel, the water, in the
words of a barber, put the whole
shooting match" out of business for
day. The flood came so suddenly,
also, that no one was prepared for
anything of the kind, and the base
ments all along the river were en-
quilted. And what river that San
Antonio is! 1t is about four miles
from where it enters the town to
wnere it leaves it, but it so crooked,
that it meanders over thirty miles,
and being in the heart of the city it
is crossed by sixty five bridges. The
water is all from immense springs,
and as clear and cool as a mountain
stream. The river made the town, as
otherwise the site of San Antonio
would still be part of the Great Amer