Page:Leaves of Knowledge.djvu/164

Rh go to pieces on account of its great velocity. After awhile a freight train came along and pushed us into the depot. I was in St. Joe long enough to have lunch, ice cream soda, and to be one of the spectators at a very lively runaway.

Our train going to Kansas City, I changed cars going on to St. Louis, where I stopped to view the city and the preparations being made for the commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase, whereby our government acquired what now consists of fourteen states and territories, among them the greater portion of our noble State of Montana.

St. Louis is on the west bank of the Mississippi river, through which an immense traffic is carried on, both north to its head and south to New Orleans, and its mouth at the Gulf of