The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1918-09-11

have speech with US and remove from
us small pittances of the stuff that
is the root of all evil in exchange for
baskets, bead-work and pottery.
That is, think they were squaws,
not having taken the trouble to bring
their corsets along, it being difficult
at times to prove it. There are evid-
/ emily no BARRIERS down in this south
western country, consequently the
men are greatly at disadvantage.
| At Los Vegas, Arizona, there was
one old woman l shall never forget.
| She was certainly alive when Sodom
and Gomorrah got into difficulty and
as certainly the only bath she had
ever had was when she proved she
was good swimmer and kept afioat
until the Ark locked and the folks
in the land of Nod closed down their
umbrellas and breathed in relief that
the rain was over She was the color
of a Creme cigar after it's been
dropped into the cuspidor and she
was wrinkled until you wondered
just how big she really would be II
you could apply the electric fiat iron
and iron her out. She was barefoot
and dressed only in one-piece
wrapper with a safety-pin about
forty-fve degrees down to keep her
out of the tolls of an enraged public
opinion. She had bandanna over
her iron-gray locks that looked as
though it had been carried around a
matter of seventeen months by a
Slav section hand and utilized again
without antisepticizing and she sup
ported herself by cane so full OF
knots and twists that it made me dlz-
Nv to look at it. Her line was beads
and for a nickel you could buy as
many all strung as you can get OF
beans in Sherburne's restaurant for
a quarter with katsup thrown in for
the swiping. Somehow that old wo-
man epitonized the southwest to me
the country of yesteryear, the ira
gedy of the people who have gone
and who are really needed to make
this country consistent. Poor old
woman! Set her down at Broadway
and Forty-second street and she'd go
bughouse as a bat. 1t seemed hard
to believe that she was human
creature-that she lived in the same
world say with some of the women
I've known who simply didn't have
rag to their names unless they had
, seventeen crepe de-chene little things
hung up in the front room wardrobe
1 and we're at the mercy of cruel
world if it developed upon them to
cook anything beyond a dish OF
fudge and dill-pickle. 1t was far
cry indeed from poor old granny to
the messaged heroine of Robt. W.
: Chambers novel. l say again, truly
: this world is very, very added.
l There was no dining car on the
train. Folks who go to California by
way of the Sante Fe, eat at the Fred
Harvey restaurants. Out in the
southwestern deserts, hundreds OF
: miles from anywhere, this man Har-
t vey has built a. line Of public eating
| places that make the New York cab
5 arets look like chain of all-nlght
lunch carts. They are massive stuc-
co buildings the size of a Vermont
summer hotel and the trains are tim
ed so that they stop morning, noon
and night for twenty-five minutes
= while you pile and feed your face
, You leave the train, cross over the
tracks and up the steps of two YER
andas wide enough to turn an auto
l mobiles around. You herd with the
: rest of the furnishing into the high
cool dining-rooms and in a profusier
7 of sparkling silver and snow-white
l linen you sit down to show what
t beast YOU are. The moment you
drop your hat under the chair 6
flock of young ladies in black who
1 look like the French ladies' maids OF
: the movies, scatter through the din
E ing room bearing platters of food
: Within three minutes after you make
a grab for your chair you have YOU
4 plate filled with mamma from Kansas
> City. Soup, fish, choice of three
1 kinds of meat, two kinds of veget
S ables, two helpings of dessert and {
n chaser of ice tea or cold milk are Sc
before you within fifteen minutes ant
YOU spend the other ten buying
e chewing gum to aid digestion. You
e feel around feebly for your lid ant
: stagger to the pay booth expecting
: to be trimmed for about ten bits. Ye
= all you have to cough up is seventy
7 five cents and in thirty minutes from
l. the time the train slowed down yo'
5 are out on the desert again smoking
/ a Havana in the smoking car ant
: hearing the travelling salesman Il
the seat opposite recite some OF tn
:, bright sayings of his two-year-ol'
kid.
L How does Fred Harvey do it? Yo1
can search me! Some say his res
. taurants don't pay and are assiste'
l financially by the Santa Fe as part o
u their service to attract travellers
: But doubt it. think he gets b
Il because he's reduced packing tn
- public graw to science. He serve
i good wholesome food by scientifi
IS management to the multitude, de
e pending on volume for his profit
i Back east if you can get a har
!, sandwich and cup of coffee in