Empire Builder
The Empire Builder is delayed an hour arriving from Chicago Computer problems said a woman in the waiting room who received a text from her boyfriend on the train Computer problems I thought Some empire
Empire Builder of course was the magnificent moniker bestowed upon James Jerome Hill JJ to friends A pint-sized barrel-chested dynamo who worked his way up from a shipping clerk along the St Paul docks to buying a railroad and dynamiting a cheaper and faster route over the Rocky Mountains finally reaching Seattle in 1893 Anno Domini in the year of the Lord from whence all time before and after began A transcontinental route to spread the gilded gospel of Christianity and Commerce with a capital C
A large oil painting of Hill occupies a wall in St Paul’s Union Depot I gaze at the three-quarter profile of the bearded empire builder in a top hat and overcoat hand resting on a cane and wonder what the businessman sees staring off into an unseen but limitless horizon I get as comfortable as I can on the hard wooden bench and as fatigue takes hold my head falls to my chest
And lo Here comes JJ now swaggering down Summit Avenue A man on a mission Too late he’s already seen me Step closer my good man don’t be shy Why do you know that it is through Commerce that civilization and Christianity have spread to the remotest parts of the world Indeed it was the railway that made it all possible Next to the Christian religion and public schools the railway has been the largest single contributing factor to the welfare and happiness of the people And you want to be part of that success don’t you Of course you do Yes sir commercial expansion is the lifeblood of these divinely blessed United States of America
And it wasn’t just about moving passengers from point A to point B The passenger train is like the male teat Hill says neither useful nor ornamental No sir The real money is in moving freight and here Hill waves a dollar bill under my nose then stuffs it in my shirt pocket And that’s not all Hill boasts that he helped settle the country along his tracks by building towns that flourished with businesses that generated goods that needed the railroad to deliver those goods to markets across the burgeoning nation A perpetual motion money-making machine moving the country ever forward Growth expansion and the triumph of capital The truest index of progress by George And we must do what we must do by whatever means necessary Seize the homelands of indigenous nations Protect the risk to investors Exterminate the Indian menace Drive the Golden Spike through the hearts of the savages the Cheyenne the Lakota the Arapaho and the Pawnee Give me snuff whiskey and Swedes and I will build a railroad to hell Hill bellows as he flicks tribal blood off his lapel like cottonwood fluff then turns and continues on his way
JJ Hill
Patriot
Pathfinder
Pioneer
Empire Builder[
All Aboard
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Behold the Empire Builder Amtrak train 11 departs St Paul blazing westward toward a Golden Providence shining a benevolence on all who answer her call We shoot buffaloes by the hundreds from passenger windows The rotting stench rises to high high heaven as the iron horse races across the tallgrass prairie leaving behind a rich manure of lies and betrayal We retire to the club car for whisky and cigars I raise my glass to Manifest Destiny and as I do the conductor interrupts my reverie
Excuse me sir but is your seat ok
My seat
Come to think of it it did feel a little damp The conductor explains that a little girl had just wet the seat and offers to relocate my seatmate and me My seatmate’s seat was dry so she did not need to relocate but did anyway So I slid over to her dry seat with more room to spread out Crisis averted Empire dreams resume with intermediate stops in
Staples MN
Detroit Lakes MN
Fargo ND
Grand Forks ND
Devils Lake ND
Rugby ND
Minot ND
Stanley ND
Williston ND
Wolf Point MT
Glasgow MT
Malta MT
Havre MT
Shelby MT
Cut Bank MT
Browning MT
East Glacier Park MT
Essex MT
West Glacier MT
Whitefish MT
Libby MT
Sandpoint ID
Spokane WA
Ephrata WA
Wenatchee WA
Leavenworth WA
Everett WA
Edmonds WA
Seattle WA
Arrived July 2021 Anno Domini
I’m staying at the Hotel Max an ultra-hip spot for techie millennials near Pike Place Market light rail and several dispensaries all critical necessities for a base camp minus the headlamp They allow me to register as long as I promise to not hang out in the lobby
Stopped by Metsker Maps to get the lay of the land and am confronted by geothermal heat maps devouring the earth So if contemplating a move anytime over say the next ten twenty or fifty years my advice avoid the hot zones they will depreciate quickly and permanently with
ating effects sending caravans of seekers upriver closer to the headwaters to settle along the banks in tiny homes with High-Def and 5G
I’m in search of provisions for the next leg of my journey Across the street from the ferry terminal a walkway of modern urban design rises above a narrow street lined with homeless encampments where you can toss coins down onto the tarps and make a wish
At the corner of Denny and Westlake the Whole Foods Market is an island of serenity and fresh peaches A hate-free zone No racism is allowed behind the yellow line Cross that line and you’re on your own No false gods allowed either except for the one on the greenback that JJ stuffed in my shirt the one with the eyeball floating over a pyramid What deity is that thing supposed to be and why don’t I already know the answer to the most fundamental of all life’s questions
I turn to the Buddad at the bar nursing a gin and tonic The Buddad blows a smoke ring in my face and sez to me in a voice that rings tired and raw from too many unfiltered Camels the what and why come together metaphorically speaking as a duality to form one unified deity
Sounds heavy man I say but what exactly does it mean
Look closer my pathetically ignorant friend above the pyramid read it
I study the greenback and read aloud Annuit Coeptis
Now the Buddad smiles and remembers like it was yesterday Ah yes Virgil Twenty nine years before Jay Cee came on the scene Latin epic poem Hero’s journey The line is from a prayer by Ascancius just before he slays an enemy warrior he cries Jupiter Almighty favor my bold undertakings The Buddad holds up an empty glass to the bartender
Yeah I say but I still don’t get it
The Buddad sighs Try and keep up Fast forward eighteen centuries A learned gentleman in a very itchy wig had a brilliant inspiration You see he was privileged to be taught Latin and Greek in a fine all-boys boarding school He remembers the line from The Aeneid and slaps it on the back of the American Federal Reserve Note dropping Jupiter Almighty too pagan He briefly considered adding a cross instead of a pyramid but that was too obvious and over the line So they went with the floating eyeball thing The Eye of Providence to the uninitiated over the unfinished pyramid a symbol of strength and duration A harmonic convergence of righteousness of cause the defeat of all enemies and a triumphant return from battle What else would help you understand it The Buddad’s lips curl in a sneer A movie starring Captain America
I give nothing back but a blank stare
Buddad looks at me as if I am an idiot For God’s sake man It’s a direct philosophical link to the founding myth of the Roman Empire We bring down the sword on the neck of our enemy and cry to our god Providence favors our undertaking Now do you fucken get it
I shrink back on my bar stool Maybe I am an idiot Maybe I was absent from school on the day when the ultimate truth was revealed: Providence favors our undertaking Protect the Risk to Investors Exterminate the Indian Menace Got it
I step away to make a not so graceful exit when the Buddad stubs out his cigarette and sez But wait there’s more Check the scroll underneath the pyramid Without my glasses I squint and read: Novus Ordo Seclorum
Virgil again sez the Buddad Eclogue 4 in which a small boy is believed to be the savior and one day when he is of age he will become divine and rule the world Sound familiar I’m not sure what to say afraid to show off more of my stupidity The Buddad screams Heads turn to see what the commotion is all about It’s the origin myth you simpleton Virgil had it first long before the apostles ripped him off The ages’ mighty march begins anew A Sunday hymnal pleaser for sure Open your wallet young man The collection plate is coming round Lesson over the Buddad stumbles out of the bar leaving me with the check
On my return trip the landscape rushes by like a movie shown in reverse The train blows a blue note horn in forests of deep pine We’re rolling now somewhere between Cutbank and Havre picking up speed along a straight track cutting the prairie of north-central Montana where native spirits once roamed The Empire Builder roars through nameless towns that vanish as quickly as camp smoke in the wind past yards of discarded dreams and boarded up shops clinging to the land like glacial till from a receding lover Roots and vines climb rusted junk to flower along trash-strewn tracks Eventide paints the underbelly of the clouds in pink and purple like soft cotton flannel A discordant juxtaposition of majesty and misery The American Era yet unfurls in perpetual prosperous perpetuity fulfilling JJ Hills prophesy as the Empire Builder plunges headlong into a tunnel painted onto the side of a mountain