The Aberdeen weekly., 1922-03-10
CHAPTER ~.
At the Back of Beyond.

To my chagrin, the railroad ticket
offices in Denver didn't know any such
place as Placerville in the Red desert
region, which was then, as now, trav-
ersed only by one railroad. The sin
gle 'Placerville" they had listed was
station not far from Telluride, in
quite another part of the state. Nor
could the Mining exchange gentleman
help me. However, he suggested that
if l could find some old resident cold
timer" was the word he used) whose
memory reached back a ways, there
might be something doing.
steer me-" 1 begged; I'm a half
orphan and a total stranger in Den
YER"
He laughed, and then thought for a
minute, and said:
''The Du Pont Powder people have
been doing business here for a good
many years, and they know the pow
der buyers all over the state. sojust
possible that they could tell you. Sup
pose you ask at their Office"
1 went, forthwith and the gentle
man TO whom l presented my card at
the cashiers window had the dope
L L
me, was strictly a has been" The
placers had long ago been exhausted.
and the place had afterward figured as
shipping point for some mine or
mines on the desert slope of the East
ern Timanyonis. He was not quite GER
tain, but he thought the name Placer
vile" had been changed to something
else.
As to the manner of reaching the
"has been" this, as he pointed out,
was simple enough. There were
through sleepers by way of the P. S-W.
and Copah all the way to the Pacific
coast.
Armed with this information,
quickly shook the dust of Denver (no
slam here intended at the Queen City
of the Plain) from my feet, taking a
through ticket to Angels; and the fol-
lowing morning, when l ran my win
dow shade up previous to turning out
for breakfast, the train was rollicking
along over endless reaches of the
dryest, dreariest, most barren-lOoking
country that the sun ever shOne upon
red sand, it appeared to be, with with
cred bits of grass here and there and
scattering punches of what / after
ward learned was called 'greasewOOd."
1t was While luncheon was getting it
self served that the train stopped TO
water the engine at the most desolate
place that ever lay out of doors. | do
think. The place was utterly deserted
there wasn't a human being in sight,
either on the platform or in the street
upon which the station faced not even
the bunch Of loaferS which usually ma
terializes out of nowhere to see q
train came and go. l was looking out
of the window and wondering how any
body. even a hermit telegraph opera
tor, could stand it TO live in such a
of a place when l got my
shock
1t was a dog that connected up the
wires for me; a shaggy
with his ears cooked and a
red ribbon of a tongue hanging out as
he jumped up on the high station plat
form as if TO say Hello, strangerI'' to
me. For right down the center of that
dogs face and dividing 1t as accurate
ly as If il had been drawn by some
craftsman, was a line |
marking off a black half from white |
halfl
l was just taking swallow of hot |
chocolate when the dog appeared, and |
it nearly choked me- Luckily, l got |
the swallow down before / saw the |
horse-a grasshopper-headed COW |
pony. saddled and bridled and standing |
hitched to a gnawed wooden rail in
front of one of the tumble-down |
shacks. "PiebaId" is a sort of an elias |
tic word, as the dictionaries define it, |
and it might apply to almost any
out of the ordinary. |
But the horse was gaping at fell cas-
Ily within any or all of the definitions;
Il was a true calico" white and light