On the sidewalk below, the New Yorker and the man from Topaz City
shook hands with alcoholic gravity. The elevated crashed raucously,
surface cars hummed and clanged, cabmen swore, newsboys shrieked,
wheels clattered ear-piercingly. The New Yorker conceived a happy
thought, with which he aspired to clinch the pre-eminence of his city.

"You must admit," said he, "that in the way of noise New York is far
ahead of any other--"

"Back to the everglades!" said the man from Topaz City. "In 1900, when
Sousa's band and the repeating candidate were in our town you
couldn't--"

The rattle of an express wagon drowned the rest of the words.




V

HOLDING UP A TRAIN


Note. The man who told me these things was for several years
an outlaw in the Southwest and a follower of the pursuit he
so frankly describes. His description of the _modus operandi_
should prove interesting, his counsel of value to the
potential passenger in some future "hold-up," while his
estimate of the pleasures of train robbing will hardly induce