LITERARY LISTERS: Here's the quote.....in context at no extra charge.
"Thirty or forty years ago, in one of those grey towns along the Burlington
railroad, which are so much greyer today than they were then, there was a
house well known from Omaha to Denver for its hospitality and for a certain
charm of atmosphere. Well known, that is to say, to the railroad aristocracy
of that time; men who had to do with the railroad itself, or with one of the
"land companies" which were its by-products. In those days "IT WAS ENOUGH TO
SAY OF A MAN THAT HE WAS CONNECTED WITH THE BURLINGTON'. There were the
directors, the general managers, vice-presidents, superintendents, whose
names we all know; and their younger brothers or nephews were auditors,
freight agents, departmental assistants. Everyone "connected" with the Road,
even the large cattle and grain shippers, had annual passes; they and their
families rode about over the line a great deal". Willa Cather, A LOST LADY,
1923 Part 1, page 1.
If you want more...how's this for a "word picture"
"The night express shot, red as a rocket, from out the eastward marsh lands
and wound around the river shore under the long lines of shivering poplars
that sentinelled the meadows, the escaping steam hanging in gray masses
against the pale sky and blotting out the Milky Way. In a moment the red
glare from the headlight streamed up the snow covered track and glittered on
the wet black rails"
Not Harry Bedwell, not E.S. Dellinger, not Charles Dulin, but Willa Cather's
description of the arrival of the train bearing the coffin from THE
SCULPTORS FUNERAL 1905.
A visit to Red Cloud, NE (Cather's Black Hawk) will let you see in person
even today, (sans the train) the scene she describes.
Pete Hedgpeth
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