Writing is an art. Someday I will be an artist.. Today? I will just doodle some of this is this and that is that..

Art is not like sports. Artists are not like athletes. Both can win festivals awards. We can not beat other creativity. Artists can not come first like sports being objective. Art is subjective. Creating to be the best  - is not a waste of time nor energy. Instead we create to connect to the ideal in our mind. Hoping that the ideal will connect to the viewers. Creating in your own way because there is a right way to create something ask any reviewer. critic of art. Take the pressure off and create something for the fun of it. And focus on the unique ideas / imagination that makes up you and your magic of art. https://www.minds.com/Talon123/blog/entering-a-library-makes-you-are-reader-if-you-want-an-autho-1335046182346428417

His is a tale from Terry; Montana and a man I got to know as Jack, who was known to the town as Ole Pierce. To me, I got to know him through my great cousin Albert, who visited him as being of the same trade junkmen at heart.

The tale of the princesses.

Bootlegging whiskey in Havre, Montana during the 1918s was a dangerous field of work. Not to pay taxes was an issue to the federal government. This was not prohibition era, but the government wanted its tax revenue. The Kennedy boys were a mean, vicious lot. This tale is told by an old timer junkman to children that visit him every blue moon. Canada, the road to rum, whiskey and beer, ran through Harve towards Chicago by train and Denver via truck. Jack the storyteller was a little orphan boy who was a watcher of the Kennedy’s during the night and thief of passing train cargo during the day.

One night while the Kennedy’s stored their whiskey on a train bound to Alaska, Jack fell asleep. He awoke bound to Alaska in a contain that was filled with whiskey from Canada. Three days he had nothing to eat, only whiskey to drink. the train stopped at a port town because Jack could smell the fish. No one came, he recalls. They hoisted the container onto a ship, and all the yelling and screaming Jack could do was no one heard him. He caught rats in the container and eat them raw. The container onboard was placed high on the ship, so all his calling to ship men and crew went unheard. The steamship smoke clouded his view, so much of the time he spent hoping to catch a rat. Two weeks later, the ship docked. They unloaded everything onto a train. A soldier opened the crate and saw Jack. They brought him to an armed tent where he asked about his circumstances.

The commander congratulated Jack on surviving and told him they had drafted him. The group on the train was a combination of US and British soldiers with train men from the states. Jack got to know the brake man and learned that entire group was off to save the Czar Nicholas II of Russia and his family.

The train adventure was something out of an old medieval war story. The train, being a steam engine, would puff and stop because of the lack of coal. Several times along the way, they put the whole attachment forth to cut wood, and or look for coal. Jack was useful during these times, knowing a little Russian and Yiddish from his grandfather. Jack also got to learn how to slow the train down by applying the brakes going downhill.

One time, when people were out searching for fuel for the train, a group of locals dressed as Mongolians attacked the train with swords and arrows. The sentry with the steam-powered machine gun made temporary work of the m. The British having to bribe both the White Army of the Czar, Bolsheviks, wild revolutionaries, and the Red Army of Vladimir Lenin to get through the Siberian train railroad. Bribing the White Army was easier said than done. A lot of the old Czar’s military felt betrayed by the Czar by his lack of leadership. One White General even order a bayonet charge against the train while it was pulling away from a station. The tale of that ride brought me back for several visits to Jack, the junkman in Terry, Montana. There was the Japanese army of a million men who were taking up positions on long the road. The bribe was a jewel the size of a baby’s fist to the general in command. It attacked them several times and held the train with three machine guns and a cannon.

One of the more memorable tales was when Jack’s train had to back up fifteen miles because of no side rails to let the train of General Kaledin by. Jack's wild story here is reflective in his face. Talking about how hand braking downhill was easy, but keeping a whole train at a steady pace going backward in snow was terrifying. After that he was tired, however, because he knew some Russian and Yiddish he was forced back to work.

The tale Jack had was that General Kaledin invited the officers, and they drafted him as their messenger for a night party. The party was like a medieval banquet inside a train. Drinking wine, vodka, and dancing with women. His tale was of several professional night ladies dancing, singing and drinking more vodka and spirits than he could remember doing so in his life. All he did was watch. Thus, like many medieval tales, the General was not such a good guy. During the night, General Kaledin required an extra bribe, which the Brit paid several costly jewels and another ruby the size of a handful was the description.

That the train went to two stops to find the Czar. The first was a bust, meaning the Czar had moved, and the second was Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg.

They reached Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg. This time an American office, a British officer/royal, and Jack, as a scout, went into Yekaterinburg. The British officer spoke flawless Russian, however, no one in public wanted to speak with him.

Jack took the lead, asking for some bread. Jack was a quick child and, knowing some Yiddish, allowed him to ask the right kids around the train yard to find the family. Upon getting to the house, there was not much to the tale. The officers bribed the local official and were preparing to leave with the whole family. However, the family doctor said they could not move Alexei. The Czar would not go without his son. The four daughters could go. Getting back to the train yard, there was a run-in with the locals.

They murdered one daughter there. Jack’s description was not of an execution, more like a disagreement than the person accepting a bribe and then that person trying to retake the four girls. Anastasia Nikolaevna got separated during a melee between the Brit and five Russians. The Brit pulled out a sword and rushed the Russians, cutting three of them down and forcing the other two to flee. Knowing that name Anastasia, I asked what happened to her? He said Anastasia was next to a building when the local official pulled out a pistol and five men rushed the Brit and were being restrained by the Brit when the gun went off. They shot Olga dead. Jack only said that after they had shot Olga that Anastasia just was not there. One moment she was and the next no sign. There was snow, so he looked but could not find her. Anyway, after looking for a few minutes both officers, Tatiana Nikolaevna, Maria Nikolaevna and Jack, got back to the train. That was Jack’s saving a princess tale.

The fighting on the way back across Serbia was a wild tale. They put Jack on over one occasion in charge of braking the train while the regular brack man went to sleep or was repairing parts of the train which were kept moving as fast to the east as possible. There were three melees that Jack gave great detail about.

First was when the Red Army in front of the train required that everyone get off the train and searched. The diplomatic papers and bribes were not working this time. So the plan laid out by the Brit rather lastly was to engage the Reds upon seeing them and open fire with the machine gun. This was the plan. However, the Reds brought only a few soldiers to the train. They were easily bribed when the wrong officer was in charge. Pulling out of the blockade, however, got crazy and the machine gun was used, cutting down several soldiers of the Red Army.

The train moved along for hundreds of miles without seeing a sign of human life. Then suddenly there was a vast amount of people escaping the Red Army. The melee here was more sadness. Jack said the people were trying to escape the cold, but their numbers and rioting were slowing the train down. They ordered the soldiers on board to clear a path, which they did with swords and bayonets.

The final big melee was between the Japanese, which had sent several thousand troops into the area to secure the railroad. This part was interesting in that the Japanese at first deferred to the General that had let them pass through the first time. But during their passing, a new General arrived, and he was more honorable or had not bribed was trying to retake the train. The melee was short, the machine gun cutting down several hundred soldiers in an open field.

He said that the British office married Titiana, and that Maria ended up as a missionary in Africa. His tale was fun, and he had many more about Butch Cassidy being a bootlegger in Nevada and such, but this one, when he got done, he pointed to a cabinet. Inside was one of those Russian eggs, which looked like the frame made of gold. https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/faberge-third-imperial-egg/index.html