Limited from Chicago Poems (1916)
~by Carl Sandburg
I am riding on a limited express, one of the crack trains
of the nation.
Hurtling across the prairie into blue haze and dark air
go fifteen all-steel coaches holding a thousand people.
(All the coaches shall be scrap and rust and all the men
and women laughing in the diners and sleepers shall
pass to ashes.)
I ask a man in the smoker where he is going and he
answers: "Omaha."
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crack - adjective
INFORMAL. excelling in skill or performance; first-rate: a crack shot, crack troops
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This is another of the photographs taken by my uncle, James H. Swearingen, in 1923 on the "family transcontinental trip by auto." Please come back for an upcoming post featuring a Fourth of July piece from Uncle Jim's memories recorded on tape in 1982.
He sure was something special and I'm grateful I had more than a few opportunities to spend time with him before he passed to ashes . . .
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