nd listened to the homely
conversation of a group of men who seemed not only to know one another,
but to know the same people in towns along the line. Between stations
they gossiped, smoked, chewed, spat, and swore together like so many New
England crossroad sages, but when the train stopped they gave
encouraging attention to the droll performances of one of their number,
a shaggy, unshaven, rawboned man, of middle age, gray-haired and
collarless, who sat near the window and uttered convincing imitations of
the sounds made by chickens, roosters, pigs, goats, and crows.

The platform crowds, the negroes in particular, were mystified and lured
by this animal chorus coming from a passenger coach. On hearing it they
would first gaze in astonishment at the car, then edge up to the windows
and doors, and peer in with eyes solemn, round, and wondering, only to
be more amazed than ever by the discovery that the car housed neither
bird nor beast. This bucolic comedy was repeated at every station until
we reached Wyatt, Alabama, where our gifted fellow traveler arose,
pointed his collar button toward the door, bade us farewell, and
departed, saying that he was going to "walk over to Democrat."

Presently the conductor dropped in for a chat, in the course of which
he informed the assembly that a certain old lady in one of the towns
along the way had died the night before, whereupon our companions of the
smoking room, all of whom seemed to have known the old lady well, held a
protracted discussion of her history and traits.

After a time my companion and I put in a few questions about the State
of Mississippi. Boiled down, the principal information we gathered was
as follows:

By the 1910 census Mississippi had not one city of 25,000 inhabitants.
Meridian, with 23,000, was (and probably still is) her metropolis, with
Jackson and Vicksburg, cities of about 20,000 each, following. The
entire State has but fifteen cities having a population of 5000 or more,
so that, of a total of about a million and three-quarters of people in
the State (more than half of them colored), only about one-tenth live in
towns with a population of 5000 or over.

After a little visit the conductor went away. Now and then a man would
leave us and get off at a station, or some new passenger would join our
group. Presently I found myself thinking about dinner, and asked a man
wearing an electric-blue cap if he knew what provision was made for the
evening m