WCP1324

[1]

Cheyenne. Wyo[ming]. W.S.A.

W. W. Tel[ephone]. Co[mpany]. Outfit.

c/o Miss Delaplaine

3923 Highland Ave[nue]. Denver. Col[orado].

Dec[ember]. 5^th 1897

My dear Pa & Ma

Your's of Nov[ember] 16 just to hand, containing our phrenological characters etc.

I will first fill up that gap at Chicago — Tuesday Oct[ober] 19. Reached Chicago at 2 P.M. after a long & tiring journey by train.

After getting some lunch & a wash we went to "Hull House" on S[outh] Halsted S^t[reet].

This is a co'operative educational community & Miss Addams is at the head of it.

They give all kinds of classes for chidren & grown ups & it is situated in a poor quarter. Alf Hicks knows several of the co'operators including Miss Addams & we were all made welcome at once. We stayed there a week & only paid for our breakfasts which we, together with [2] the rest, took at a coffee house in connection with the place. So we did it very cheaply & comfortably. They were all very nice people.

We did not do much whilst in Chicago. Alf had several people to call on & Mac & I went about a little & saw things. One day we looked up the "L.A.W" ("League of American Wheelmen") Consul & got his advice as to our route west. He gave us a list of towns & distances all the way to Denver & also a Map of the first part of [the] route for nil. It proved very useful all the way.

Another day we took our wheels & rode all round the Boulevards taking in several parks & the Exposition grounds. This took us all day. We went through all the better parts but we still think Chicago is a "beastly hole" — it quite came up to expectations.

We had been keeping our eyes on the ads & one day we went out to a & Oak Park [3] to get a painters job, but we were too late. Very little help was wanted whilst we were there (Chicago).

On Friday, One of Alf[']s friends, M^r Weeks, & his wife, invited us out to spend the night at their home at Winettka[sic] on the lake shore north of Chicago.

We rode out & spent a very pleasant time. M^r Weeks was of the M^r Jacomb[?] type — very friendly & nice — His wife was very advanced in her ideas — a socialist etc (not a new woman) She was also a speaker. He was nothing particular by himself but followed his wife. They had your "Australasia".

I think we did nothing else except loaf. One day we saw two ladies riding horses in the only rational way, & several policemen on wheels.

So much for the gap[?]. We left Chic[ago] on Monday. [4] (This paper won[']t tear of[f] the block properly & the pen doesn't suit me.) Other letters cover journey to Denver.

Wednesday Nov 24. 1897. Denver.

For more than a week we had been hanging on to a M^r heBort[?] — the General Foreman of Telegraph Construction on the W. P. Denver & Gulph R[ailwa]y. We saw him everyday & sometimes two or even 3 times — poor man! He bore it all very nicely & seemed to take a fatherly interest in us. He had half promised us a job, but the opportunity to actually employ us did not come, so at last he took us to the Western Union Telegraph C^o[mpany] & introduced us to the foreman there. That night we left Denver with free passes to Cheyenne. Wyo[ming].

We arrived at 11 P.M. & had to hunt about the R[ailwa]y yard for the accommodation cars. At last we found them & got in — but every one was asleep — so we lit a match & found an empty bunk & turned in. We had bought an empty [1 word illeg.] box for 5 c[ents]. This contained our humble belongings. [5] We did not wish to appear too "loney".

Next morning we got up with the rest of the crowd (about 20) & had breakfast in the dining car.

It was Nov[ember] 25 & thanksgiving day — & snowing & as the head foreman was away in Denver (we had slept in his bed) the men refused to go out so our first day was an easy one & we got acquainted with our mates.

There are 8 or 9 hire men including Mac & me & the rest are ground hands (or laborers). They are all good fellows — very rough & fue[?] — there[sic] language is frightful — "painful & free" is too mild[,] their morals are apparently absent, but they are not really half as bad as they make out. They take pride in saying they have done ^bad things but most of it is bluff.

To each other they are kind & even polite in their way & on the whole I quite like them. They are a curious mixture — they wash hands & face regularly before every meal & their feet now & then, yet they wear their shirt & draws night & day for weeks. After work in the evenings we read or play cards — no one has any money so we can[']t get drunk. We turn in at 8 or 9. The work is to reconstruct the Tele[phone] line between here and Denver — i.e. put in new poles & change over the wires. We go to work on hand cars like the navvys have in England only you work them by a double handed lever like a ship pump, each one will carry 8 men.¹

When we have got about 6 or 7 miles, the whole out fit will move to the next depot & work out from there.

I have been doing all kinds of work up till [the] day before yesterday & then I was told to take an ax[e] & cut down all the old poles & take off the old cross arms. It's a fine job. I work by myself & although the weather is bitterly cold (about 6°F & blowing hard) I can keep warm.

It is good practice too. My left handedness comes in very useful too as sometimes the poles are so close to a fence that I have to cut 1^st right handed & then left.

[6] Mac is framing poles — i.e. putting on cross arms & roofing the tops. Then another gang digs holes & still another sets poles & then 6 line men change over the wires.

We get $35.00 a month all found.

Plan of our sleeping car:²

There are two tiers of bunks[.] the lower ones hold 2 & the upper ones one each. each compartment has [a] wash basin & stove & the one we are in has a large cupboard. There are windows all along the sides & at the ends[.] the dining car is like this.³

I am writing this on the dining table.

On the whole we are very comfortable & they feed us like kings — really splendid stuff[,] plenty of it & plenty of choice. 3 dinners a day[.]

The last few days have been very cold & the wind & snow terrific. We wrap our legs in pack cloth & tie up our faces in hankerchiefs & put on all the shirts we can find. We look like ar[c]tic explorers.⁴

We move out 10 miles tomorrow.

We come in to dinner from 12 to 1 & start home at dark. When on the handcars we have to look out for trains & once we nearly got caught & we had to through ^throw the hand car & tools down an embankment in a hurry[.]

[7] We have only had one exciting incident. One night we were pumping home by moon light when two of the men began to quarrel. In a little while one turned round & hit the other in the eye. N^o 2 then put on the brake & swore horribly. He picked up a hatchet & jumped off the car — but it was still going pretty fast & he fell & rolled right over. He got up & ran round the car after us, waving the hatchet & evidently meaning business — he couldn[']t catch him so he tried to throw the hatchet — The rest (3) had got off to try & catch him & take the hatchet away[.] No 1 got behind me so No 2 couldn[']t get a good clear shot. Whilst he was trying to get round the rest collar'd him & after quite a struggle, they got it away & quieted him down a bit[.] Then we went on & every now & then N^o 2 made a reach for the hatchet & once he hit out with his fist at N^o 1 but by the time we got to the car they were quiet again but N^o 2 had a black eye. Later that evening the two were talking together & next day were fairly friendly.

The moon light gleaning on the bright new hatchet added to the effect. Well I think that is about all the news. I have heard that our gang may be taken off this job & sent down to Oaklahoma[sic] in a few weeks.

The Blizzard in Denver was very sever[e] for a day & wrecked about 7000 miles of wires. I am glad you got some orchids from Percy Burrell, but I don[']t think he is home yet though now [that] I think of it[,] his year must be up. I am surprised that he remembered you[.]

Will send oppinion[sic] of our characters later. I wil get Alf Hicks to say what he thinks of both of us too & send the lot[.]

Love to you both & Violet | Yours affectionately W. G. Wallace [signature]

P.S. During the cold weather we used to get icicles on our moustaches & beards an inch long & sometimes we were frozen up so that we could not open our mouths.

I heard the other day that Don Burrell was married.

I got a very annoying letter from Casson a week or two ago. He seems to have enjoyed his Parkstone[?] visit very much. We asked him why the West was called "Wooly"[.] He said because so many sheep go there to be fleeced! We are more than 10 miles from a town now & there is only one house in sight.

I will try & get the cook to post[?] this somehow.