Glacier County chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1931-1940, 1940-01-12
Discarded Newspaper Led
Avon Old inner Westward
Pierce KOoken Picked Up abandoned Copy
of Helena Record in Columbus Rail Depot

telling me to report to Toledo, O.. if
I wanted my old job back. When I
arrived in Columbus I had about six
hours to wait for a train.
In the waiting room I picked up
paper that somebody had left on the
seat. 1t was the Montana Record,
printed in Helena. 1t wasn't much Of
a paper, but it devoted most of its
space to describing the country, its
beautiful valleys, glittering snowcapped
peaks, its gold and silver mines. That
got me thinking. I'd always wanted
to see the west, but never thought OF
Montana-it was Texas where l want
ed to go.
90? I had plenty OF money and most
Of my clothes and personal property
along. 1 could stay a while and then
go on to Portland and drift back home
around through California and the
southwest.
u walked over to the ticket window
and found out that l would nave 70
go to Ogden, Utah, and take the stage
from there to Helena. l was young
Teller then and what was job to me?
l telegraphed my employers to get an
other man, I was heading west; then
took the first train to Chicago, from
where I was to take the Union Pacific
TO Ogden.
When I arrived in Ogden, learned
they had just completed the oregon
Short Line to Butte. That was the Ole
narrow gauge and I could get 10 within
a hundred miles of Helena by rail. Il
I still wanted TO go there. Wen. l
had come this far SO it was WnO.e hO3
or none. I bought my ticket right away,
which as I remember. cost around SO.
The first pullman lett IN the after
noon. but was so crowded that l had
tram
late that evening I met coffee drum
mer from San Francisco who was also
on his way to Butte. About II OcIocN
we boarded the train at OEuCN ana
he was my travelling companion al
the way.
pullman cars were quite different
those days than now, and none 100
comfortable. That was before me Gay
OF the upper ana lower bertAS. al!
the single berths being on one side and
the double on the other. There were
curtains around each berth which we're
tied TO the ceiling during the day anc
coud be let down for the night; but
as there were only men In the car,
We never let them down.
About or 10 o'clock the next
morning the train stopped al an eat
ing house somewhere on the bordef
of Utah and Idaho. The old kinky-
haired negro proprietor stood IN the
doorway OF his cabin and watched us
pile off the train. After counting us
he said in a kind of mourntul voice,
Oh Lawd! I can't feed you all. Then
the argument started:
The conductor talked to MIN but
he didn't seem TO hear as he Stooc
there with his arms folded across his
chest looking out across the SagebruSn
flats. Finally he agreed to get us some
thing and we went into his eating
house, which was nothing but cabin
and not a very good cabin at that.
For a table, stakes had been driven
into the ground in one corner, and
boards nailed to them. AS there were
no chairs. we ate standing up.
Breakfast consisted OF a cup OF col
fee, an egg. a minute strip OF bacon
and a petrified biscuit The price was
81. The coffee was so strong that the
most of us couldn't drink it. AS for
my biscuit, it probably went back IN
the barrel to await the next victim.
When I paid him I asked how much
he had to pay for eggs. He said II
cents a dozen. so I asked why in the
blazes he didn't keep enough on hand