Show V t V SV i I V IN A WESTERN STERN S V i V How ilow Ysaye Played AH All for V t 1 L V 5 Passengers in SnowBound Train air V I T S One of the most moat realistic features of at Owen The Virginian Is the ac account acCOunt acV count he gives of the six stalled passenger pass n nger nger ger trains trai Out but In the sagebrush county country and of the conduct of ot the passengers of the trains during the blockade said a special agent of t the government whose position requires him to carry his office In n his hat the t e major portion of the time Ume to the Washington Post I 1 happened to get mixed up in an al most identical mess out Vf in the land of the sagebrush myself back In the spring of 1879 I was on my way to Portland Ore on the Union Pacific and when wo we got past Pocatello Ida it was found that the snows were melting so 0 fast that a nod Dod deal of or the track was under water We Ye had no sooner got past Pocatello in fact than a big hunk of the track was washed away entirely When we reached Glenns Ferry Ida It t was a 1 case of halt The big trestle over Indian creek a few miles ahead was wobbly and so it was a case of stay there until something could be done We had no idea Ideo what that something was going to be or when it was going to be done there was no finding out We Ve found five trains already stalled at Glenns Ferry Ferr two of them that like our trainS train tr ln were bound west and that go on on account of the twisted Indian creek trestle and three bound east that were unable to proceed on account of the mussed messed up track around Pocatello Well Yell the folks on those six trains made up a great outfit There were mil mU in palace cars buck soldiers in tourist sleepers emigrants in their odor rollers miners and cowboys and prospectors in day coaches all sorts and all alt kinds but nil all of ot them perfectly good natured under rather measly conditions and all of them ready to take tak the game me as t come along Fortunately the little eating room of ot the station happened to be well stocked with provisions for tor the grub on the stalled dining dl cars a tho the big mob of people on the six aix trains all of them rendered unusuallY hungry by the keen sweet winey air of the sagebrush country W Wate Wate We ate in that little eating room in relays the rich man mann alon alongside the emigrant the dainty weman from the coast c ast or her hr way Uy to Rivera alongside the buck soldier a picturesque crowd of eaters you may mn believe me inc Glenns Ferry is a little bit of a settle ment mont set down on the north bank of the inconceivably sinister and gloomy Snake river which is loomed over by hy tall em at that point A few fOw little things happened while we were vere stalled I there that came pretty close to showing just how small this world is The ser sergeant geant in charge Oi 1 a detachment of regu regular V lar army soldiers on the way to a post at the mouth of the Columbia river was a crackerjack marksman one of the best in the American army On the second I afternoon of the blockade he was stand ing ins over on the bank of tho Snake river amusing a bunch of swell passengers by shooting at and invariably hitting silver coins that they the would toss into the air He had a regular pistol along alon with him and he certainly knew how bow to shoot a lot lotWell Well Veil Teli he wai wa still away at the coins when a little woman clad in a long Newmarket coat and amI wear ing a cap strolled over from her car and watched his performance for fora a little while Then she did something that attracted the curious gaze of the passengers who had been watching the sergeants shooting She pulled a long pistol from one of the pockets of her Newmarket and walked to the very verge of the steep embank embankment embankment embankment ment overlooking the V Snake river She stood with her pistol at rest for fora a little while and then one of those sage sagebrush sa sagebrush e brush magpies birds that have all aU of the eccentric craziness of swallows in their way of flying appeared flying in wild swift circles right over the middle of the river The little woman with the gun cun leveled her weapon upon the swiftly circling bird for about half hal a minute get Jet getting getting ting a line on its movements and then she blazed away The magpie tumbled out of the air all into the Snake river The sergeant was at the little womans side sid in three strides with his cap in his hand Lady he said there Is only one woman in America who could do a thing like that and her name Is Miss Annie Oakley 4 That was my name replied the lit Ut little tle tie woman blushing but Im married now you know ana anc she handed the ser set servant vant nt her card She was indeed Annie Oakley the most famous woman shot i country ever produced There WIS another incident that oc GUtted on the third day daj we were tied up In Glenns Kerry lerry that went still sUIl further toward showing the smallness of ot the th world That third day of the hap happened happened pencil to be St Patricks day and the railroad Iro d folks were going to have a dance at their little hall ball on that night During the afternoon a rough railroad hand went through the trains hunting bunting for a fiddler w Whom om he had heard was aboard ene one of them Some of us knew who the fiddler was but we were not saying anything an A train hand found the fiddler a huge muse man with a big smooth fat face mend nd he asked him if he Play PI ay for tor the dance that night Certainly I the fiddler would as h he announced in a 1 rather taking foreign for accent 4 Well Vell theres a flyer fiver in it for you ou said the th train hand whereupon the man manI with the big shock of hair smiled and the thing was aV V arranged ar ed Quite a crowd of the passengers sen ers who wanted to be in on I the inn w wn n over to see what would hap happen happen happen pen Well nothing happened for tor a long longtime tUne time There was wis a woman at the piano whose ability wn limited to tune I of f the I variety and with per her the fiddler played the dance to sev hours and with unwearied unwearied un unwearied wearied good V Waltzes polkas polk lancers all of ot that sort of stuff out of Or an old oid dante dane dan e what he played with without without out Veer over a Ing s smile mile willie while some ft of ofus ofus us sitting In Lit 11 of oC the little hall hail were vere re l rolling roiling on n the floor over the fun of tf situation n Several e times I the stodgy women woman seated at the piano chided the tb for playing the dances either V too fast or V too slow and he took all of the chiding humbly huml and each time prom promised promIsed leed to try to do better with the next selection Well Vol I the railroad d men m R had to get to I their work wo k pretty early the th next morning f fand and so gO the dance came to an end promptly at midnight And it was at midnight that the tle t thing happened P Ysaye Y the t ir fiddler er was Ysaye gra graciously clous handed back the 5 note which th the floor floar fIo manager extended to him for his services and then with a sort of dreamy Antony d m I look loo in his big gray gra lamps he put his under his chin and began to do doI things with it I may live to be bo a very ery I old man mann but I 1 i shall never forget the ex cx on the faces of those railroad i J men 1 nd their women folks when Ysaye began to do d real things to that instrument of his He made three crashing chords before every man and Woman of them stood frozen He went on and the wo woman wot WOman man who had been playing the piano for forthe t the dances n turned d red I They all ff began to ask each other otner Who Vho is it It is only on Ysaye Ysa e perform performing performIng ing lug a Hungarian HUD rhapsodic replied one Of the th passengers and then the whispered whisP red word went around among them and their trance Increased Ysaye that look of dreams on his huge leonine face played on for fifteen minutes and the way he played pla well the use Who Vho could ever describe the way that colossal Bel Belgian Belg glen gian played way out there on the north northbranch northbranch ve branch g of the Snake river in the sage sagebrush sagebrush brush land for a handful of dazed sweet sweethearts sweethearts hearts and a few stalled passengers To this hour It causes me to subside into a n sort of trance myself m to think or how Ysaye played Pla e don on his Strad ad on that at strange strangeSt St Patricks night Charley Charl y Fair Flir who met so lamentable I a death with ris Is wife in the automobile accident in France awhile ago was a pas paz passenger passenger on V one ne of the stalled eastern bound trains and he and a bunch of west westbound westbound westbound bound cowboys became breame great pals They got hold of ofa a lot ol of causes at a ranch l Isek rk of or the Glenns Ferry settlement and they gave about bodt ibo t as realistic an imitation Ot 01 shooting imp UP a town as aa want to loov Ion at without you vou had a suit of armor The trains goIng eastward got away on the th fourth day but we on our way west were stuck for a full week and even then when we came to Indian creek we had to c rry all an of the baggage on a footboard across the long trestle and take takeI trains waiting fer us op og the other ot r side I That Glenns Ferry job had Its discomforts discomforts forts but its In a pleasant thing to look back to all alt the th same |