XXVI 



RECREATION. 



WESTWARD WITH THE IMPERIAL. 

 STAR. ' 



The desire to live a little longer has 

 led me to quit the unwholesome climate of 

 the national capital, the house where wife 

 and children dwell, and to wander across 

 the continent to the mountains of Colorado, 

 hoping to find in their quiet solitudes, un- 

 der their cloudless heaven, a new lease of 

 life. 



r\ journey twice interrupted and delayed 

 brought me via the C. & O. and the Big 

 Four to Chicago, where I procured pas- 

 sage over the Rock Island to Denver. It 

 was a kind friend, whose goodness has 

 often, heretofore, been a gladness to me, 

 who directed me to that road. I take this 

 means to thank him for his kindnesses ; 

 not this alone, but many others. I shall 

 carry to the grave a grateful sense of all 

 his goodness. 



How shall I tell the readers of Recrea- 

 tion how well the officers and employes 

 of the Rock Island know the meaning of 

 courtesy? I have not always fared sump- 

 tuously at the hands of railroad men, 

 though I have many times, in the course 

 of much travel, found friends and genial 

 companions among them; but I record my 

 grateful thanks for a kindliness which be- 

 gan with John Sebastian, and ran through 

 every officer I met and through all the 

 train crews, even to the dusky porter on 

 the chair car. This diluted son of Ham 

 was as watchful of the passengers under 

 his care as if he had been father of us all. 

 The conductors between Chicago and Den- 

 ver were changed several times, but from 

 their uniform kindness and courtesy they 

 might all have been one. 



The train was of the latest, roomiest 

 vestibule pattern, and the roadbed was per- 

 fect, the train bowling alonor as smoothly 

 as if it ran on a track of glass. We left 

 the station in Chicago at 10.00 p. m., made 

 the long run of 1,083 miles, and pulled into 

 the Union depot at Denver on the second 

 morning at 7.45, not a second late. 



In the great station in Chicago is a res- 

 taurant where one may find an excellent 

 meal, splendidly served, at a reasonable 

 price, and on the train is the dining car 

 where one may get as good a meal as at 

 Delmonico's at a price so fair as to sur- 

 prise him. A lady, next seat in front of 

 me, said she got an excellent breakfast for 

 35 cents. 



Let me advise every brother of the trig- 

 ger or the quill, to trust himself, in case 

 he should follow the Western star, to 

 the Rock Island. He will not regret it. 



In the years gone with the past, I picked 

 up a smattering of palmistry. I had scraped 

 a casual acquaintance with a fellow trav- 

 eler, and offered to read his future if per- 

 mitted. My offer was gladly accepted and 

 a brief sketch of the future was rapidly 

 read off. A young lady sitting in the next 



seat forward, overhearing my forecast, 

 timidly turned to me, thrust her little hand 

 between the chairs, and asked me to read 

 her fortune. I could not well decline and 

 when I had completed that task I found 

 another hand held down over my shoulder 

 with the request, "Tell mine, too." I 

 chanced to hit her past correctly, and gave 

 her a flattering picture of her future. She 

 was a mother in Israel, nearly or quite to 

 the half century mark. When I finished 

 her reading I found the whole end of the 

 car packed with a throng, all anxious to 

 try their fortune. Some were as gray as 

 I ; others were not yet out of their teens, 



"Standing with reluctant feet 

 Where the brook and river meet." 



Some were married, some wanted to be, 

 and some perhaps wished they were not. 

 For half an hour I held levee. Even the 

 staid conductor held out his kindly palm, 

 and the brakeman wanted to put his for- 

 tune to the test. Last of all came the por- 

 ter, patient, polite, waiting till all the 

 "white folks" had been read, holding to 

 me his broad and generous hand. I am 

 glad to say that he seemed happy over the 

 little I could - tell. One elderly lady, from 

 the extreme front of the car rushed to me, 

 held out a dainty hand, evidently unac- 

 quainted with toil, and asked for her horo- 

 scope. I chanced ae-ain to tell her of her 

 past, and in prediction told her that she 

 was the mother of a young man in whose 

 future her heart was deeply concerned. 



"Yes," said she, "what can you tell me 

 of his future?" 



"Madam," said I, "it ends in tragedy." 

 I was sorry in an instant, for she caught 

 her hand away, and went forward to her 

 seat. I think she must have left the car 

 at the next stop, for I soon missed her. 

 The time passed plpeasantly en route, and 

 so I am housed once more in the Rockies, 

 where the skies are bluer and the breezes 

 sweeter, to me at least, than anywhere else 

 on earth. 



W. H. Nelson, Boulder, Colo. 



I wish Recreation would help do away 

 with pump guns for hunting deer. There 

 are fellows who will go to the woods after 

 deer with a gun full of bullets, and at the 

 first move in the brush begin shooting and 

 continue until the magrzine is empty. If 

 they had to hunt with a single shot rifle 

 they would not shoot so recklessly, but 

 would wait for a sure shot, and thus, per- 

 haps, avoid killing a fellow hunter. 



C. R. M., Trempaleau, Wis. 



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