Evening star., 1920-11-15
President nt-EIect's Party
Likened to Adventures
in an Undiscovered Land

Special Dispatch to The star
| POINT ISABEL. Tex, November Is.
should a visitor from Mars or some
other planet drop in mere To-Day ne
would have a hard time believing thai
| in this muddy extremity of the United
States. at the very southernmost point
of American jurisdiction. sojourns the
next President Of the United States
| the man who less than fortnight
ago was chosen by most overwhelm-
! ing majority for the biggest task of
reconstruction the nation has faced in
generations.
1t would be hard to explain that
here is a President-elect struggling
| for recreation. and not party of ad-
yenturers exploring na undiseovsred Sc {.
and the group who have followed him
to this marshy existence in south
Texas is such as befalls anybody who
goes anywhere in life without look
| ing ahead. Usually Presidents have
advance men to look things over. This
time Senator Harding. bent on fulfill
ing an old promise to an intimate
| friend. chose Point Isabel without
, knowing anything about the northers
| that come in from the gulf and dis
turb ones rest and comfort and make
everything muddy for miles around.
Shoes on Wild Jaekasses.
| But even the bond Of friendship
| couldn't keep Senator Harding here
the full length of the vacation. The
start was made to Brownsville on
lSunday in order to get more comfort
able quarters, il only for two or three
fdays prior to the departure for New
Orleans and Panama The little rail-
Brownsville is served by two box cars
and six Mexicans. One of the box
cars is energized by a discarded auto
mobile engine as motive power. The
other box car. ribbed with plank Sc ats,
lis the parlor car. OF the six Mexicans
one Is chauffeur. another oil feeder
and gasoline shooter, two stroll ahead
| of the train to shoe wild jackasses
and rattiesnakes from the tracks. and
two take turns gathering a small va
riety Of cactus which all six smoke in
their pipes. Messrs. Creager and SEQ
hey. the hosts here, protested that
they couldn't have foreseen the COM
ing of bitter norther. but Presi-
!dent-elect Harding is not a man to
complain. and his face showed utter
troubled Bags had been packed.
, trunks lifted aboard the cars and
good byes said to everybody in Point
! Isabel
Now the road over which runs the
! thirty miles of track was quagmire
in the world could have negotiated
! FIVE miles of it, and a war tank might
have quit at the problem. The only
tway out was over the ancient road of
rails. SO special train was rigged
UP. 1t had three box cars instead of
one. the extra being sent by Messrs.
Scobey and Creager as sort of trib-
ute to the distinguished company.
| Mud -Four Feet Deep.
| With glad cries and ululations of
pleasure. the whole party Of thirty
scrambled aboard. waving happy
farewell to old Point Isabel, the
houses of which were just visible
chilled the bones of a Peary or may
| hap driven an Eskimo to shelter.
The Mexican superintendent started
on at a trot to accompany the train
for the first Ave or six miles as sort
of pilot engine. The crew drank a
bit of teQuila, and the special train
moved at the handsome rate Of three
miles an hour. From time tot ime
THE superintendent stopped his burro
Hooked back and made urgent signals
!crew tried to respond, the engine
broke down. So a mile and a half from
Point Isabel the party was marooned
not daring to leave the train TO stretch
their legs, for the mud was four feet
ideep and as adhesive as glue. Finally
1.-THE whole train was backed up into
lPoint Isabel again and the party was
WELCOMED back to the hamlet by the
lmournful melodies of a jackass
lQuartet. Some of the members of the
Iparty went to bed, others crouched
beside oil stoves and others sought
food at the single Mexican eating
jhouse. Today the senator prepared
Ifor another start. The superintendent
tof the road has sent down a flock OF
iburros and wire cable and IL the
train will not run any other way, he
proposes to have il hauled TO Browns
tyille by burro power. The President
elect has two days for the experiment
las he must be in New Orleans not
ilater than pm. Thursday, when he
sails for Colon.
(CopyriSht 1901