The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1914-03-06
NOTES OF A WANOERER
An Orovillean Seeing Sights
Away Down South In
the Lone Star State
Hubbard, Texas, Feb. 81, 1914.

Publishers of Gazette:
AS you are denied the pleasure of
my cheerful and cheering personality
in your midst l thoueht perhaps a
few lines from me might not come
amiss, and that an account of my
rambles since l left Oroville may
prove interesting to some of your
| readers at least.
| | left Oroville January 21, arriving
at Spokane the same evening, leav-
ing Spokane January %, on the Kan
sas City express, very good train
with no change of cars to Kansas
City. We were four hours late out
OF Spokane, but made up an hour by
the time we reached Whitefish, where
we changed engines and train crews.
From Whitefish to Shelby the snow
was pretty heavy, and we did well to
hold our running time. On awaken
ing the next morning at east entrance
to Glacier national park found that
we had entered a different climate, as
thermometers registered 10 degrees
below zero, quite contrast to the
balmy spring weather | had left in
Oroville. At Shelby we leave the main
line of the Great Northern, and are oil
on the second lap of our journey to
| vi Cdt ais, WHlCu We IcdCDcu DIT y
| p M, after travelling all day over
fine rolling prairie, which is being
made to blossom like the rose under
l. S. reclamation projects. The land
is planted to alfalfa, potatoes and
small grain. At every town can be
seen nice large grain elevators, some
| towns having two and three. The
thought struck me that a grain ele-
vator would look very good in Oroville.
We continued on through this fertile
country until we arrived at Great
| Falls, on the Missouri river, hand
scme uptOdate city, with railroads
branching out in every direction. AZ
| ter stop Of Is minutes we continued
on our way to Billings, the Power City,
where we arrived at 10 p. IN. Billings
struck me as very attractive town,
and the best lighted place that have
| seen. short stop here and we were
OIL on our way to Kansas City. Six
hours run and we arrived at Sheridan
wyoming, great coal mining town,
shipping in the busy season as much
as five or six thousand tons of coal
daily. 1t is also a heavy cattle ship
ping point. Sheridan by-the-way, is
| the home of our popular express mes
! senger, AL. Harding. AS l gazed over
the gently rolling prairie the stories
he has related to me of how he used
to chase the festive steer over the
plains came vividly to my mind, and
| wondered if he did not sometimes
| wish for-a reOccurance of those COW
punching days.
About this time fellow boarded the
| sleeper, and he hardly got settled be-
| fore he gave the porter a bill and re-
quested him to bring some liquid re-
freshments. The porter filled the Or
der, and gave the stranger back
change for $40 bill. The fellow
promptly set up howl, claiming that
he had given the porter $40 bill.
This the porter denied, and we had a
| lively time for few minutes, the
honors being about even. However,
the white man did not get any more
change. From that time on things
were quiet on the Potomac, or rather
the sleeper.
| After two hours run we got stuck
behind freight wreck, and l walk
ed over to the engine to have a talk
with the engineer. Knowing that one
of our engineers used to work on this
line l asked the engineer if he ever
knew man by the name of Arthur
| DouCy' ilC 4ulChly PullCu dSluC Llc
storm curtain and said, Come up
here" l obeyed and found there Ar
thur BOdeys brother, who had come
over to talk with the engineer who
used to run with Arthur. We visited
together until the wreck was cleaned.
Once more We were on our way, and
] that evening we passed the lower end
OF the Black Hills, S. D., so called be-
cause of small growth of timber,
which is the only timber for many
miles and can be seen for great dist
ance. Passing Edgemont, the june
ton of the branch to the gold mines
of South Dakota, we entered Nebraska,
the home state of Hon. w. ]. Grape
Juice) Bryan. On 200 miles and we
came to place called Mullen, where
went to from Sioux City, Iowa, 25
years ago to take up homestead.
found the ground so poor and sandy
that / would not file on it and went
home disgusted. Some farmer boys
got on the train at Mullen, and | asked
them what farm lands were worth in
that country They replied from $75
to 500 per acre. Just another case
of what might have been.
Going on we soon pass Alliance,
Grand Island, Lincoln, the capital
with its big salt well, and at day
break We cross the Missouri river,
and stop 80 minutes for breakfast at
lSt Joseph, Mo. AS we were coming
into st. Joe the party in the berth
adjoining mine set up a howl that he
had been robbed of $135. I suggested
to the Pullman conductor that he lock
the doors and search the car, COM
} mencing with the porter, but he did
not seem inclined to do so. AS the
} next stop was Kansas City every one
, went his way, and l expect there was
some celebrating in niger town that
| night. Kansas City is a wonderful
: big and busy town, but the railroa /
terminals and surroundings are dis
!, igrace l understand new depot is in
course of construction and nearly
, completed. This being Sunday, and
, having missed my train by getting in
: late, I took trip to Butler, Mo-, 79
, miles east, on the Missouri Pacific
and on getting off the train the first
, man | saw was my friend AL. New
, some, nephew of Ed Campbell.
remained in Butler Sunday night, re.
= turning to Kansas City Monday morn
ing. / took the Rock Island limited, 6
a very nice train called the "Firefly," fol
Ft. Worth, Texas. The first stop wa: