Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1918-08-14
INTERESTING TRIP FROM
WTLLMAR TO SYRACUSE, Y.
A Minute and Descriptive Account
of Long Trip Thru to
the East.

of Long Trip Thru to
the East.
Editor. Tribune:
We left our home town at 2:45 on
Monday afternoon and arrived in time |
for hearty supper at the Sherman |
hotel at st. Paul with boys from other |
parts of the state. At eight o'clock we |
crawled into our sleepers, more famili- |
arly known as first class day sleepers |
and reached Kenyon the first real town, |
eighty miles other side of the cities |
AS to the sleepers. don't worry. A>bet- |
ter lot of so can't be found in any coach |
We all feel fine and yell and laugh as
they all do. Sumner Peterson of Atwat- |
er and ! are together so far and we
have two seats for our own. A head of
us are the boys from Swift, Meeker,
Todd. Wilkin and other counties. A
| number of the boys ride as far as Chi
cago and there change for Louisville,
Kentucky. The rest of US continue on
thru the Windy city over the New York
Central to our destination. Got &C
quainted with young fellow from Rice,
Benton county, and he drove the minutes
| away between ten and eleven o'clock
D. M Monday night. A fellow like that
is pleasure to meet on a long and
| monotonous trip especially during the
nights. Well, it's getting time for a
turnal wood saving I creep close and
nestle in the arms of my sleeper.
We have all been checked and recheck-
| ed and had orders to breakfast at $50
| am. as we are due at Chicago at eight
o'clock, Tuesday morning. We were
| treated royalty by some St. Paul ladies
and / am going to eat what I got be-
| fore 1 retire. Am finished, so Good
night
Had about an hours sleep, If that is
| possible, but I wanted to be awake now
| to say goodbye to good old Minnesota
and hello to the state of Iowa. The
farewell is now passed, so I'll try my
| hand at some more SnOoZing.
1t is now 1870 a. m. and passing thru
Oelwein Iowa Ask the people in some
of those towns if they missed any sleep
| that night. a. m. at Dubuque, some
| little town with a. little sprinkling of
| troop train seekers at the railroad sta
| ton. We crossed the Father of Waters
here and also passed short dark tun-
mel. 1t is about one-half mile long, but
we came out at the other end all o. k.
It's now 600 a. M and just came
from a light breakfast Passed thru
two Illinois towns while eating and also
| over a large river at $50 and another
just as wide at 7:45 Shot by like
flash thru st. Charles, Ill. which is
about SO miles from Chicago. Crops
!
machines are busy in the fields on both
sides of the line
Only 80 miles from Chicago and pass
ed over that distance of double track.
Here the c. G. and VS. tracks are about
Is feet over the other roadbeds. At
S:15 passed the first Electric line, the
Aurora Elgin and Chicago with train
of two cars about Is miles out of Chi
| cagO. Gave a glance at Forest Park but
I
whisked thru Chicago in record time.
| This is some flyer we are riding on.
Time flies so here we are in sight of
Lake Michigan at 10:30 This road is
thick with little villages but we did
strike one fairly sized manufacturing
town and had glimpse of the Gary
Steel Mills. Porter river left behind at
1920. Can't say the crops here are very
good but maybe they will improve furth-
er on. Now is twelve o'clock, noon, and
rounding the city of Rumely. Next
was La Porte, after that Blooming
Prairie and then South Bend at 1890
where 1 took splendid picture of the
bunch. Enjoyed a well cooked lunch
at one o'clock at Elkhart served by the
Red Cross and others. Forgot to men
ton that they gave some candy, cigar.
\ cites and Red Cross cards at Chicago
, and you ought know we value such
treats. Were surprised to receive orders
to get out and stretch at Goshen but
everybody whooped with delight and
yelled as loud as the rest of them
These middle states are baking in the
sun. Chicago I was told sweltered with
the mercury 1912 above while in Mime
sofa it usually happened to touch the 95
degrees and we regarded that as the
{ limit. Nevertheless, can't seem to feel
r the difference. I'm getting adapted to
, climatic variations l guess. If you
want to warm up, in the true sense of
) the word, take a spin after us into Illi-
nois and Indiana. But sorry we can't
wait for you, seeing how this train is
T eating up the miles. This N. Y. Central
, is some splendid road and I know it be-
) cause my paper doesn't slide all over
, the seat. On the rock built road between
St. Paul and Chicago, it was we'll nigh
,, impossible to jot down a few lines
Stopped again. This time at Ligonier,
Ind, at 2.15 p. m. Still hot and seems
! to be getting hotter every minute. One
{ boy just asked for a bed sheet. He's
hopping his face and so am I. 1t seems
as if we will never get out of this state.
at Kendaleville. Now it is p. m. and
out of the window, I can see the corn
, burned up and the grain very poor.
Better crops in Illinois than in Indi-
ana.
: We bot out confectionery store at
7 Waterloo, Ind. There are five coaches
of drafted men and five coaches of ordin-
airy people. Get the wit? So with bag
, gage and mail our engine pulls IA cars.
, We are now pulling out of Indiana at
last and the next large place we meet
will be Toledo, Ohio, it is now $3.50 and
time hangs somewhat heavy on our
hands. We've got quite an orchestra
) | here several vfOlins and clariOnet play
ers. They surprised the folks in one of
the towns by giving them a concert.
Not often do we see rivers or lakes as
, we do in Minnesota. Passed over one
, while ago but they are pretty scarce.
Lined up along the road are miles and
miles of old time rail fences. Pardon
riding and tell you where we are now.
: At Toledo and my watch is 500 D. m.
, Tuesday. Here we received our best
, treat so far and that city has pleasing
, appearance. 1t resembles our Twin
= Cities in that a river divides the city
in two sections. Affairs look much bet
ter here because it seems that farther
East we go the country appears more
prosperous. At 7:45 p. M. we sailed into
Cleveland. Ohio and there we boys got
another Red Cross treat and best of all
some real sleepers. Now we'll do some
) | real sleeping and we sure do need the
rest. We passed thru quite a number
| of towns but I don't see any of the
, other fellows awake so I hit the hay
myself.
Change of scene. This is Wednesday
morning at 5:45 and we all feel as fine
as top and much refreshed. Passed
by Buffalo, N. Y. and Rochester and
several other large cities during the
early morning. I slept like a rock and
! know I'm not to be blamed. The mer-