The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-05-25

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 The eating stations along our route were doing o rushing bus- mess that Spring of 1ss6 when our ree-sectioned train of Pullmans came laundering along, and halted --one section at @ time-With It's load of ravenous tourists.
 The scenes at these stations in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), New Mexico and Arizona-were full of novelty to us Fasteners. There was the picturesque Cow. boy--with wide sornbrero and smiling tanned-face, ringing a bell and shouting-"Right this way la-dees an gent-ul-mun for tn di-ning halll" And there were the Indians--genuine I ndains--wrap- ped in highly colored blankets, on the platform and on the ground below--big chiefs, young braves, squaws and papooses galore-all eyeing us with afniable curiosity, (which we exchanged in kind) and offering for sale their home- made wares of bread and leather ornaments, bows and arrows, and Q variety of pottery.
 Our car being in the first sec- ton of the train of course gave Us an advantage in the 'di-ning hall': and we had the first pick of the Indian souvenirs and made good use of 1t. I was lucky in get. ting on exceptionally fine Indian water cask but 1t involved great responsibility as I had to watch 1t jealously by day and sleep with 1t ct night; and beautiful though 1t may be, an Indian water-cask is not the most comfortable bed- fellow imaginable hn Q sleeping car berth.
 Ccmstock always made Q big hit with all the Indians-from the most battle.scarred old chief to. the youngest papoose. He had been familiar with the northern Michigan tribes in his timber op- crations. He knew the rules of Indian etiquette. To the most ven- erable chief he made little pres- ent of choice tobacco, and he didn't forget the fair sex and bright-eyed little papooses, for when he made his gift of tobacco he also placed in the old chiefs hands 6 box of candy--w!th an explanatory gesture toward the feminine and infant group: and the quality of the old chiefs grunt and nodding of his head was proof of his appreciation of Comstock'S chivalry and discretion.
 And always when our section of the train pulled out of the station there was an exchange of hand- waving and expressions of good- will and good.luck between the red-men and the palefaces; and frequently some of the young braves would gallantly mount their ponies, bareback, and give us an exciting race-with all the passengers cheering from the car windows and platforIns-till the steam-engine would get the best of the plucky little mustangs, and with the parting salute of a brave toss of dusky, bare he ad and the wave of Q muscular young arm-each horse and rider would sweep out of our sight.
 At one of the eating stations Q little mishap occurred one day. The waitresses, in the hurry to serve us all at the same time, carried pcrilous loads of pyra. mided trays of dishes and pttch- CTS of coffee and milk. and one nice girl, who waited on our table, was doing her very best to meet the emergency and was stagger- ing under the weight of his load- ed trays and also attempting to carry a large pitcher of milk hooked onto her little finger,
 Nobody but a professional jug gler could have been expected to get away with it--and in trying to reach the pitcher over Hem rvs head to place 1t on the table, the catastrophe occurred - and nearly drowned poor Henry. He IOoC HI U AuAu O4 OaoC- C-6aoPhA6 for breath and spouting like a whale. While the first-aiders were mopping him up with our nap kins, Henry was wiping the milk out of his eyes so he could view the extent of the disaster-for his first impression seemed to have been that he was only one of many victims of some Western freak of nature.
 Meanwhile Brandon and Com- stock were risking apOplexy in their effort to hide their joy: the waitress stood aghast, specchless and motionless-and the man. ager was coming toward her with a dangerous expression in his eye; but, as luck would have 1t, just then the train conductor came in and shouted: "All-abooordI"
 Then while Brandon helped the a.