Trestle Fire Case Ended

New York, 1895

Justice Hendrickson's Court.

Lucien Huadberg, of Woodhaven, aged 15, who was arrested for setting fire to the trestle work of the Long Island railroad at Woodhaven Junction, was discharged by Justice Hendrickson on Friday. He came to the conclusion that the boy had no intention of setting fire to the structure.

August Bycott and Henry Miller were arrested on Sunday by Game Constable Philips for fishing in Way's pond on the Flushing road. They were charged with violating the Sunday law. They were arraigned before Justice Hendrickson, who discharged them with a warning.

Note: In an earlier article, his name was spelled Lucien Haurdberg.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 28, 1895, p. 8.

The Corpse Had a Pistol

1895

A Telegraph Operator's Exciting Experience in a Texas Railroad Depot.

"Talk about being scared to death, why, gentlemen, you don't know your A B C's until you have served in the railroad business on the frontier, as I had to do when I was quite a boy."

The speaker was a man beyond the border lines of middle age, with iron gray hair and a strong, rugged face, which showed by its lines that he had seen the service of a hard life in some forsaken region of this mortal vineyard.

"When I was a young man," he resumed, "I was depot agent for a road that ran out into the wilds of Texas. The country was not well settled, and I had a rather lonesome time of it out there. I never knew any minute that I would not be attacked the next, and train wrecking was a frequent occurrence on the line.

"One night I was sitting in the little depot by the lonely railroad track, keeping track of the trains over the wires, when something happened that I will not forget till I die. There was in the depot a coffin that had been brought there on the midnight train, strange to say, unattended by any one. It was addressed to some party in the neighborhood, who, according to my presumption, had been detained by swollen streams from coming to the station after it that night, so I had the ghastly casket placed in the depot to await the man who called for it. It was a rainy night, and as there was but one room to the depot I had the corpse for a companion that night and had about made up my mind to make the best of the situation till morning. It was about 3 o'clock, and I was clicking away with my telegraph key when I heard a noise in the direction of the coffin. Turning with a shudder, I was crazed with fright to see the lid of the coffin burst and a live corpse pop his head up with a pistol in his hand and start toward me.

"What did I do? Why, broke through the back door and left the fellow in the depot. I don't think I stopped running until I was a mile in the woods. As soon as I recovered I went back and waked the only two citizens of the place, and we went to the depot. Of course the robber had taken all the money I had and fled." — Atlanta Constitution.

Railroad Fliers

1895

LITTLE PROGRESS IN DEVELOPING SPEED OF LATE YEARS.

Obstacles That Must Be Overcome Before Fast Time Is Made on American Roads. While There May Be Changes In Motive Power, Curves Are the Worst Trouble.

The mile a minute railroad record, on an average, has not yet been reached, and perhaps the present generation of readers 30 years hence may not be witnesses to its accomplishment. The fastest train in this country at the present time, running between New York and Chicago, attains an average speed of 40 miles an hour, and from the present outlook it will be many years before this average is increased. In 1866 an average speed of 28 miles an hour was recorded between the same cities. It is astonishing, all things considered, how little progress the railroads have made in speed. The progress is so small comparatively that one familiar with the facts cannot fail to be puzzled or to have suggested to his mind the question whether the system itself is not inherently at fault — whether it was not begun and developed on the wrong lines.

The man who stands in the open country and sees the limited express flit by like an angry, panting ghost is filled with wonder at the speed and thinks it fast enough. The traveler who sits in his luxurious parlor car and looks out at the stations as they slide past his window in a long blurred streak of black and gray finds his exhilaration heighten in proportion as the train accelerates its onward motion. No speed is too great for him, provided the road is straight and the motion smooth. The switches click like clock ticks in his ear, and he looks with the eye of fascination on the landscape, distorting itself in all directions as though made of india rubber. People like to travel fast. They enjoy the feeling of superiority which comes with rapid speed. They want to go quick, whether they are in a hurry or not.

It is an open question whether the railroad has reached the limit of speed consistent with safety. Eminent engineers and practical railroad men are divided in their opinions, some arguing that the limit has been reached, others insisting that, if the curves are modified or cut out almost entirely, trains can be run from one-third to one-half faster than at present. Will it be necessary to modify the shape of the wheels and track? Will the present type of engine or motor have to be changed to one where there will be no power lost in the back stroke of the piston? Will steam give way to electricity or some other force?

These are the principal points which are in doubt, and about which engineers draw very different conclusions from their experience. There is now very little, if there is any, doubt as to whether steam will give way to electricity or some other force which produces a better relative result, with less noise and less wear and tear on machinery and is less susceptible to the weather. It is no uncommon thing for a fast express engine to slow down speed in very cold weather, owing to what they call "freezing out the steam."

There is no theoretical doubt that the rails and wheels can be so modified as to make the engine and train stick to the track better and reduce the margin of danger. There is also no doubt, in theory, that an engine could travel much faster if some plan of mechanism could be devised which would do away with or reduce to the absolute minimum the effects of the back stroke of the piston and connecting rods. The shrewd railroad managers of the country have about come to the conclusion that the motive power has almost reached perfection, and that their roadbeds are now the real obstacles to great average speed. With curves and the deadly grade crossings eliminated, who can tell what may be done? Cities and towns, no matter how small the latter may be, have rights which must be respected, and while they are the speed of trains must suffer. In England everything is plain sailing. When the roads were originally constructed, they found thickly populated districts on all sides. In America we built railroads first and imported the people afterward to patronize them. Over on the "little island" everything is fenced in, and grade crossings are unknown. The engineer pulls open the throttle, the train starts, and he knows he will have to look out for nothing but tower signals and other trains. American engineers are looking forward to the establishment of a similar state of things in this country.

Of course the real danger in increasing the speed of express trains driven by steam does not lie in incidental risks. It is not denied that a modern locomotive might be built which could run up to 90 or possibly 100 miles an hour, if the lines were straight. It is the curves of the existing lines which render any such speed impossible unless the weight of the locomotive and train were also increased far beyond what the bridges and permanent way would bear. At the first sharp curve the 100 mile express would fly off the rails. The necessary relation of these curves to speed is accurately known, and it is that, and not the want of power or novel dangers from wind pressure or boiler explosions, which sets the limit to modern train speed.

As the force tending to throw off the line a train running at the speed of 150 miles an hour would be about 6-1/2 times greater than that which a steam express train resists a curve when running at 60 miles an hour, it is plain that the present lines could not be used for the lightning express, even though the electrometer were substituted for the steam engine. The lines must not only be stronger, but straighter than would be possible by any modification of their present form. — Washington Star.

Fun for Engineers

1895

The Stories Written About Them by Reporters In Search of Heroes.

"Old railroaders smile frequently when they read in the newspapers the accounts of alleged thrilling adventures of engineers," said a member of the craft. "For instance, I noticed a story in some Chicago paper not long ago of the terrible experience of a man whose hair was turned white in 15 minutes or something of that kind by the close call he had for going through a bridge. There had been a heavy rain, the supports had been undermined, and the whole business would have gone down under the next train that struck it.

"All this would have happened if the 'eagle eye' of the man at the throttle hadn't taken in the situation about half a mile back on a heavy down grade and reversed his engine. The queer part of the story was that this 'eagle eye' — that's what we call 'em on the road — daren't reverse his lever until he had nearly brought the train to a standstill with the airbrake. 'Otherwise,' said this story writer, 'the engine would have jumped the track' — that is to say, if he had put on his air-brake and reversed his lever at the same time the sudden stoppage and reversal would have thrown her off.

"Now, all this reads very well, I suppose, to the general public, who don't care whether a thing is true or not just so it interests them. It amuses a railroad man for another reason. He knows that an engine won't do anything of the sort. Whenever there is danger ahead which compels a man to stop right quick, he doesn't have any time to waste setting the brakes and then waiting for his train to slow up before he throws his lever. He gives the air-brake a shove with his foot and throws back the lever, all by the same motion, you might say. It's all done in a second.

"Then, if he has a chance, he looks out for himself. He has done all he can, and he jumps. As a general rule, if the accident which he has prepared for really takes place, he doesn't have time to jump, and although engineers are as brave as any set of men alive, because a man takes his life in hand whenever he goes out on a run, they often get the credit of being heroes and sticking to their engines in the face of danger when, as a matter of fact, it was the only thing they could possibly do. When a man discovers a washout or another train coming toward him on the same track, it is usually too late to get out of the way before the smash takes place. The heroism comes in in holding a place year in and year out which is liable to cost him his life at any hour of the day or night through the blunder of some one else or some accident that nobody could foresee or prevent." — Chicago Tribune.

A Train in a Snowdrift

New York, 1895

When a quarter of a mile east of Southhold Tuesday morning the early Greenport express, bound for Long Island City, butted into a nine-foot snowdrift. The train came to a standstill with a shock, and the locomotive was thrown from the track.

The passengers were shaken up. The pilot of the locomotive was bent double and the air brakes were wrecked, while the forward truck of the passenger car next to the locomotive was also badly shattered. The thermometer was 5 degrees above zero. It took three hours to clear away the drift and get the train back on the track.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 8, 1895, p. 1.

A Dishonest Ticket Agent

New York, 1895

John H. Ferril, aged 21 years, residing at Rockaway Beach, and employed by the Long Island railroad company as ticket agent, was arrested on Monday by Detective Sarvis for stealing tickets from the office at Woodhaven Junction. Ferril was arraigned before Justice Hendrickson at Jamaica. He pleaded guilty to a charge of petit larceny and was sentenced to the county jail for 90 days.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, N.Y., Jan. 18, 1895, unknown page number.

Our Day On Earth

1916

Augusta registered its first Chinese voter this. year, Chin Bong, who runs a laundry there. He was born in Seattle 28 years ago and is married, his wife being at present in China. Previous to coming to Augusta he lived for sometime in Boston and was a voter there.

A. Leon Esty, who was in the automobile with James W. Rafter in the smash-up at the Gardiner railroad crossing of Nov. 2, 1913, has brought suit in the United States District Court of Vermont in the sum of $10,000 against the Maine Central Railroad. It will be remembered that Mr. Rafter won in his suit for damages and was awarded $15,464.99. It was claimed at the time that the gates were not properly operated at the approach of the train.

A grand record for faithful performance of duties was rounded out last Wednesday by Edward G. Wyman of Bangor, when he retired from active service at the First National Bank of that city, after 52 years of continuous service, of which 38 was as cashier. He was given an assistant and granted a long vacation, on salary. Few men anywhere has a longer or more honorable career to his credit.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 1.

Trainmen's Higher Wages a Burden to Farmers

1916

New Orleans, La., Saturday. — That the increase in pay of members of the four railroad brotherhoods, caused by the enactment of the eight hour day law by Congress, will rest ultimately upon the farmer was asserted by Henry N. Pope, newly elected president of the Association of State Presidents of the Farmers' Union, in a statement issued to-day.

Mr. Pope declared that the farmers of the country stand for a fair wage for both labor and capital and favor an eight hour working day, but that he personally doubted the wisdom of Congress fixing wages for labor employed by private enterprise. "I doubt," he said, "if it is in the interest of either labor, capital or the people to make the wage schedule of railroad employes a political issue."

The condition of the farmers of the country is worse than that of the most lowly railroad laborer, Mr. Pope stated, with an average farm income of only $1.47 a day, out of which must be paid the expenses of the family.

The condition of women laborers in the fields he described as worse than during the days of slavery.

"Not a word has been spoken by Congress in defence of the woman who rakes the hay and gathers the sheaves," said Mr. Pope. "Little has been done that has increased the income of the farmer or enabled him to pay a higher wage to his laborers.

"But to-day we find the highest paid laborers in the world, making three times more money than a farmer, demanding twenty-five per cent increase, and Congress hastening to their relief. This increase must, in the end, rest upon the back of the farmer and will reduce his income, increase his hours of labor and call for another levy of farm mothers from the home to the field.

"The farmers of this nation must fight to hold what they have and to get what is rightfully theirs from the government. We must do it through organization."

Mr. Pope stated that by the enactment of the eight hour law Congress had thrust upon the people of the country a new responsibility, and organized labor now stands committed to the principle of government regulation of wages. The government, he said, should fix wages for all classes of railroad employes and should have the power to decrease as well as to increase wages to remedy comparative inequalities.

"In my opinion," he continued, "the next session of Congress should readjust the wages of all railroad employes, from railroad president to section laborer, giving all a square deal and fixing a schedule of pay based upon business justice and human rights. I submit a schedule of wages taken from official government reports which presents conclusive evidence of the inequalities of the present daily wage scale of railroad employes:—

"General officers, $16.11; other officers, $6.49; general office clerks, $2.53; station agents, $2.37; other station men, $1.99; enginemen, $5.28; firemen, $3.23; conductors, $4.49; other trainmen, $3.11; all shopmen, $2.37, and trackmen, $1.50."

Mr. Pope declared that the foregoing schedule showed that the 350,000 section hands in the country were condemned to a life of poverty. He said he believed that Congress, having undertaken to regulate the wages of higher paid employes, should review their wages.

President Begins Speeches

1916

Long Branch, N. J., Sept. 23. — President Wilson today actively opened his campaign for reelection with a speech replying to Republican criticism of his settlement of the recently threatened railroad strike.

With emphatic gestures, before a large crowd gathered at Shadow Lawn, he defended the eight-hour day and declared also that the nation must be freed front the possibility of interference with its transportation.

"The chief cloud that is upon the domestic horizon is the unsatisfactory relations of capital and labor," the President said, adding that "so long as labor and capital stand antagonistic the interests of both are injured and the prosperity of America is held back from the triumphs which are legitimately its own.

"Human relationships, my fellow citizens, are governed by the heart, and if the heart is not in it, nothing is in it.

"I have recently been through an experience which distressed me. I tried to accommodate a difference between some of the employes of the American railways and the executives of the American railways, and the distressing thing I discovered was that on the one hand there was unlimited suspicion and distrust of the other, and that that suspicion and distrust was returned by the other side in full measure.

"The executives did not believe in the sincerity of the men, and the men did not believe in the sincerity and fairness of the executives.

"When I carried it to Congress, some very interesting things happened. In the House of Representatives the plan was passed, was sanctioned by a vote which included, I am told, about 70 Republicans as against 54 Republicans; and in the Senate, I am informed, that the Republican members of the Senate had a conference, in which they determined to put no obstacle in the way of the passage of the bill. Now this was because the proposal was reasonable and was based upon right.

"But, ladies and gentlemen, that is not the end of the story. This thing ought to have been done, and it had to be done at the time that it was done, so as to bring about a reasonable trial of the eight-hour day and a careful examination of the results of the eight-hour day.

"But that does not finish the matter. Let me call your attention to what I believe we ought all to be thinking about so as to set the stage for this and all similar cases.

"There are some things in which society is so profoundly interested that its interests take precedence of the interests of any group of men whatever. One of these things is the supply of the absolute necessaries of life. It would be intolerable if at any time any group of men by any process should be suffered to cut society off from the necessary supplies which sustain life.

"These men were dealing with one another as if the only thing to settle was between themselves, whereas the real thing to settle was what rights had the 100,000,000 people of the United States?

"The business of government is to see that no other organization is as strong as itself, to see that no body or group of men, no matter what their private interest is, may come into competition with the authority of society, and the problem which Congress, because of the lateness of the session, has for a few months postponed, is this problem."

A Lost Freight Car

1901

It Disappeared From the Middle of the Train

The mysterious disappearance of freight car No. 4849 from the center of a moving train between way stations on the Santa Fe road made a lot of trouble for two train crews in last March and puzzled the officials of the road not a little. The car was loaded with fruit for the eastern market and dropped out of sight midway on the journey without damage to the rest of the train and without any one having seen it go. Tracers were sent out, but the car was not to be found on siding or in depot yard.

The tracers' reports showed that the car had been loaded with select oranges on a spur leading to a well known fruit packer's establishment in the San Gabriel Valley, California. It was a new car, equipped with all the modern cold storage appliances. It was joined to a train of cars of the same class, all loaded with fruit and all destined for the same market.

The heavy train had wound its way without incident over the Sierra Madre and the Sierra Nevadas, up the gradual slopes, across the continental divide, through many villages and over sagebush plains and sandy deserts. It had toiled through eastern California, Arizona and a part of New Mexico, it had climbed the rugged steeps of the Rockies, plunged into and through the, great tunnel at the crest of that range and started on its downward flight to Trinidad.

That was as far as the tracers had been able to track it, for in Baton, a division station on the Santa Fe, No. 4849 had been noted in the conductor's report when the train was turned over to a new crew. Yet when the train reached Trinidad No. 4849 was missing, and no trace of it could be found between Trinidad and Baton. For all that the tracers knew, No. 4849 might have been whisked up into the air by balloon and transported to some foreign land.

A lot of discharges had been made out for the members of the two freight crews, and there was trouble in the air, threats of strikes and all that sort of thing because of the injustice done to the men, when suddenly the mystery was cleared up. A cowboy reported a strange find on his range, and it turned out to be the missing freight car. No. 4849 was lying at the base of a precipitous cliff in a thicket of underbrush, with its sides distended, its roof bulging and a confused mass of choice oranges appearing through the clefts of its wrecked outlines. The car was on its side, dismounted from its trucks, a mass of ruins, with its contents preserved by the crisp mountain air under a cloudless sky.

The train, in its rapid descent at sharp curve, had broken the flanges of a set of wheels, and the car was thrown from the track.

Bumping over the rough roadbed and ties had detached the couplings at either end, and the disabled car rolled down the stoop embankment to the valley, hundreds of feet below. The train being on the down grade, the rear section soon closed up the gap, and by means of the automatic couplers had again become attached to the front section, all unknown to the train crew. Thus No. 4849 dropped out of account, leaving its disappearance a deep mystery. — New York Press.

To Test New Mail Device for Trains

1910

WASHINGTON. — After a series of tests continuing since February the Postoffice Department has arranged for a formal six months' tryout of an invention for delivering and picking up mails by fast trains. As a demonstration of the practicability of the system a live pig, weighing 85 pounds, was recently delivered without injury at Carrollton, Ky., the home of the inventor, without the slightest injury from a train running 25 miles an hour.

For years the Postoffice Department has sought an improved method of picking up and delivering mails over the old catcher-hook system, and the new device was the result of four years' advertising by the postal authorities, urging inventors to produce something that would meet the requirements.

It is 40 years since the catcher hook came into use, and in spite of the progress in railroading and the tremendous improvement in the mail service along other directions no forward step is recorded in the matter of exchanging mail sacks by moving trains. Under this system only one small sack could be picked up at any one station, and it is a matter of official history that not infrequently, instead of catching the suspended sack of mail, the hook, operated by a mail clerk standing in the open door of the car, would snatch up a chicken coop or something else not to be found in any classification of mail matter.

The delivery of mail from moving trains is still more primitive, consisting merely of having the clerk hurl or push the sacks out of the car as the train rushes past the platform. Great numbers of persons have been injured and some killed by being struck by the whirling and rebounding sacks, thrown with the force of a catapult.

In a number of instances the bags of mail have rolled under the wheels of the train and have caused wrecks or have been ground to pieces and the mail destroyed. And these defects do not take into consideration the tremendous wear and tear on the mail bags and pouches, one of the largest items of expense to the railway mail service.

The new device has passed through a successful test of six months at Burnside station, and this decided the government to give the more extended trial.

---------
Note: In 1910, back in that general time, "post office" was one word.

Train Arrives Three Years Late

1910

A train of a railway system in the southwest once arrived at its destination nearly three years late. The circumstances were these:

The train left Bolivar. Just across Galveston bay from Galveston, on September 8, 1900, and was caught in the great storm that so nearly destroyed the Texan city. Bolivar is 75 miles from Beaumont, which was the point of the train's destination. Before the train had traveled far on its journey it was caught in the storm. Thirty miles of the track were washed away, and the train was left stranded on a sandy waste. Many persons who lived on Bolivar peninsula were saved from death by taking refuge in the train. After the storm subsided they walked to Bolivar with the passengers; but the abandoned train was left on the prairie.

The storm bankrupted the railway, and no effort to rescue the engine and cars was made until 1903. Had not the road suffered so seriously in that storm the property would have proved of great value a few months later, when oil was struck at Beaumont. In 1903, however, the road underwent repairs, when the train was drawn into Beaumont, where it was greeted by a cheering crowd.

The Story of The Train Wreck at Great Falls, Montana, 1900

1900

THE STORY OF THE WRECK

Conductor Bingham Tells How His Train Was Ditched.

THE DEED OF A FANATIC

Switch Thrown Was the Only One Unguarded — Two Carloads of Perishable Freight Caused the Attempt.

The Great Northern passenger train wrecked at Great Falls at 10 o'clock Wednesday night arrived in Anaconda at 3:35 yesterday afternoon. Conductor Frank Bingham was in charge.

Shortly after the arrival of the train Mr. Bingham was seen by a Standard reporter. In speaking of the affair he said:

"It was a miraculous escape and the wonder of it all is that it was not attended by some loss of life. I had all along looked for trouble, but hardly thought that strike sympathizers would resort to such a dastardly trick. Before we left Havre we were threatened with trouble. There were two carloads of perishable freight to be taken through by us, a car of mineral water for Goodkind Bros., Helena, and a carload of beer for John Caplice of Butte. Before we coupled these cars onto our train we were warned. In fact, one of the strikers went up to one of my brakemen, George Alexander, and told him that if he dared to couple those two cars of freight onto the train he would be brained with a link. When I heard this I assumed the responsibility of this work myself. One of the strikers came to me and said: 'Bingham, you would not take the bread and butter out of our mouths, would you?'

"I answered that it had cost me 12 years of hard, steady work to get my present job, and that if perishable freight was attached to my train and I was ordered to take it out, I most certainly would do so. As the brakeman was afraid that some one of the strikers would carry the threat to brain him into effect, I went forward, coupled the cars onto the engine and coupled up the air myself. No one attempted to interfere and we pulled out of Havre without further incident. Our run to Great Falls was made without any trouble, and we got into that place five hours late. It was feared there that there might be some trouble, and deputy sheriffs had been stationed at every switch to prevent any attempt that might be made to ditch our train.

"We were just about clear of the yards when a man rushed out and, after the engine, the two cars of freight and the baggage car had passed over, threw the only switch that was not guarded. I was standing in the front part of the smoker, and when the switch was thrown the car I was in and the day coach went crashing into heavy ore cars standing on the track next to the main line. The sides of the two passenger cars were crushed in and several of the passengers were thrown on the floor, but luckily no one was injured. One of the brakemen saw the man who threw the switch, but I was inside. Had I been on the platform and seen the fellow when he made the attempt to murder us I should certainly have taken a shot at him.

"I see by the papers that the strikers state that they were attending a meeting when the switch was thrown. This may be true, but by a singular coincidence a number of people were seen to climb up on cars, and all were watching us as we pulled out, and appeared to know that something was going to happen just when it did. As soon as the wreck occurred three engines and a crew of wreckers were set at work and the spot cleared as soon as possible. We were five hours late when the train was ditched and about 12 hours more was consumed in clearing the wreck, but we finally pulled out and I delivered the two carloads of freight. that occasioned the trouble, to their destination."

"What will be the effect of the strike and what merit is there in the strikers' side?"

"It will he over in a short time. I have a personal acquaintance with a number of the men who went out and some of them are good fellows, but they went at this matter in the wrong way. There is no strike and none was ordered. The men simply refused to work under the new schedule, and they quit. That is all there is to it. They are no longer in the employ of the company and if they do not return to work other men will be brought in to take their places."

Locally the strike has been of no effect. Passenger trains are running as usual and freight is being received for points along the line as though nothing had happened. A great deal of freight is being congested at Woodville, the northern terminus of the Butte yard limit, but it is expected that by to-day sufficient men will have been received to man the trains abandoned by strikers, and that trains will be moved as before. All along the line scores of deputy sheriffs have been sworn in to protect company property, and for the first few days trains will he run under the protection of armed men.

—The Anaconda Standard, Anaconda, Montana, May 4, 1900, page 4.

Note: In the fourth paragraph from the bottom the original article says, "I delivered the two carloads of freight. that occasioned the trouble, to their designation." Designation, not destination. I don't know if that word works, but I changed it anyway.

Building Old As U. P. Road

1915

Its Proprietor Still Lives, a Victim of Generosity and Poverty

LARAMIE, Wyo., Dec. 16. — In the ordinary city which began no further back than 1868 the oldest building would be of little consequence, but in a city in the West, whose existence dates from May 9 of that year, when the Union Pacific Railroad laid its first rails into and thru the townsite, the oldest house seems very old indeed to the residents and to the people generally.

Laramie's oldest building today is a long two-story building which was built by Patrick Doran, who is living here at present, as a hotel, and in which hundreds of transient and regular boarders were accommodated for years.

Doran had his own way of keeping books. He chalked the accounts on the inner side of the front door. If a customer disputed the bill, mine host would go to the door, carefully erase the score and tel1 the dissatisfied customer that they would start all over again.

The old building is of logs, cut in the mountains several miles southwest of the city and floated down the Laramie River. The building is now used for a blacksmith shop.

In the early days of the frontier hotel Mr. Doran would charge a dollar a meal from those who could pay a dollar and lesser sums from those who could not afford to pay. No man ever went away hungry that had any money at all, and Mr. Doran would never take the man's last cent, so that one can imagine the large number of accounts the inward side of that door used to carry. Doran himself was quite wealthy at one time, but accepts charity from the county.

Loses Life But Saves Hundreds

Printed Jan. 1908

Tunnel Track Walker Wins Glory In His Death

New York. — A few laboring men dropped around to Tommy Ryan's house on West Forty-ninth street "to help pack up and move." They took their hats off in the dark hall below and walked up the stairs with muffled feet. In the front room a neighbor's daughter was trying to amuse two pretty babies, one four and the other two years old.

Tom Ryan, big, hearty, good-natured Tom, who loved his wife and children, was not there. He was buried and his two babies were cared for at the home of a neighbor while his friends followed him to the grave. The children do not know he is dead. Neither does his wife, who is sick unto death in a hospital where for four weeks she has been battling with typhoid fever. She thinks that she is so sick that the nurses will not let her see even her husband. And no one, not even the hospital physicians, have yet dared take the responsibility of letting her know the truth.

This story should interest those persons who took the 9 p.m. local train for Westchester county from the Grand Central. Their train went safely through the tunnel, carrying them to their waiting families in the suburbs, but they never knew why. They didn't even know that as they passed the signal lamp at Eighty-sixth street in safety their train had swept over the body of the man who had saved them.

Thomas Ryan had been married about a dozen years. His oldest child had died and six months ago, to give his wife and the remaining children the home he wished, he took the hazardous position of lamp man in the New York Central tunnel. He was a sober, industrious man, six feet in his stockings and perfectly healthy. His day began at 6 p.m. and ended at 7 a.m., and it was his duty to patrol the tunnel and keep the lamps burning on the signal towers.

Two weeks ago his wife was taken ill with typhoid fever, and grew rapidly worse. He told his fellow-workers he feared his wife would die before morning. Nevertheless, he set about his task of seeing that the lamps were all right so that the passengers hurrying home would pass in safety. At 9 p.m. he saw that the distance signal lamp on the outbound track three was smoky. He remembered that several accidents costing human live had happened because of smoky lamps.

He ran across the tracks, dodging a down train and reached up for the signal lamp. With his pocket handkerchief he rubbed the chimney bright and turned down the wick a little. As he did this the lamp swung around in answer to the signal tower man, cautioning the up train to go slow. A down train came tearing through the tunnel, making a great noise and drowning the noise of the approach of a train in the opposite direction. Then he stepped down on the track, conscious that he had probably saved an accident — and the next instant the train hit him.

"The engineer, with his eyes on the signal — as was his duty — did not see the shadow that flickered for an instant under the forward wheels. But the track-walkers, passing a few moments after, found the crumpled mass under the light of their lanterns. They found the handkerchief with the lampblack on it, and saw the finger-marks of the man on the signal lamp chimney, and they understood. The case was reported to the police and entered on the station house blotter.

But it was "just a man killed in the tunnel — a trackwalker or a lampman." It was not till days after that a stray word dropped by a trackwalker revealed that big Tom Ryan had given his life to send a trainload of commuters home in safety.

Kansas Chickens Meet Motor Trains

1910

TOPEKA, KAN. — In any one of 20 Kansas towns today one may see hundreds of chickens running and flying, with many squawks and cackles and calls, to meet incoming motor trains. At every station along the lines where motor cars are operated the chickens have learned to hike with all their might to the depot whenever they hear the sharp blast of the siren whistle of the motor cars.

Chickens usually run away from steam trains, but they run for the motor cars. The chickens are as regular about meeting these cars as the bus driver and the postmaster. Every old hen, pullet, rooster and cockerel not penned up answers the call of the motor car siren. This whistle sounds more like a fog-horn than a railway whistle, and can be heard long distances. When the siren sounds the chickens take the shortest cut to the station.

What's the reason? Grasshoppers, Just, plain, old, ordinary, tobacco-chewing, green, red, yellow, streaked, striped and spotted grasshoppers. Bunches of 'em, fat and juicy from feeding in Kansas corn and wheat fields.

All the motor cars have pilots, fenders or cowcatchers of a big scoop-like pattern. They are made of heavy steel bars and covered with a wire screening. As the cars go hiking through the country these fenders gather up thousands of grasshoppers. Going the six or seven miles between stations a motor car will often gather a bushel of grasshoppers on the fender.

These are the big T-bone sort of grasshoppers that are found only in the fields. They are the porterhouse and sirloin cuts of the hopper family and they make a very delectable repast for the chickens. The chickens cannot catch very many of them in the fields and gardens, as the hoppers are quick and make long flights.

The grasshoppers are not any more plentiful this year than in former years, but the chickens never had a way of catching them as they have this year, this being the first season of the motor cars on most of the lines. The chickens of the small town, when the whistle sounds, make a quick dive for the depot, ready to pounce on the hundreds of stunned hoppers lying on the fender.

No Soda Fountain on U.P. Trains

1911

Recently a story was printed in a number of newspapers to the effect that the Union Pacific would install soda fountains on its passenger trains this summer. Gerrit Fort, Passenger Traffic Manager, has sent out the following slip to all agents denying the story:

"Dear Sir: In response to your inquiry concerning the alleged arrangement to place soda fountains on our trains:

"The story in question is absolutely without foundation, and had its origin in the fertile brain of an Omaha reporter who was short of news on the day in which the story was printed. Yours truly, Gerrit Fort."


Important Things of Life

Holiness is an infinite compassion for others. Greatness is to take the common things of life and walk truly among them. Happiness is a great love and much serving. — Olive Schreiner.


Wifely Devotion

"A man must have so much on his mind," is the belief by which a wife often supports a cheerful face under rough answers and unfeeling words. — George Elliot.


A Cracker Dainty

A friend in the Walton News tells of a visit to Wilkes county, where he was treated to a new dish, "rabbit sausage," which he declared was "simply fine." — Macon Telegraph.

Lives In Same Caboose 35 Years

1920

Old "O370" Is "Home" to Freight Conductor

PERRY, Iowa — Railroad men and other humans with a love for their homes will appreciate this story, a tale of how Conductor L. C. Newell of the middle division of the Milwaukee Railroad has for thirty-five years made his home while on the road in one caboose, the O370.

That one caboose could withstand the knocking about it gets for so long a period is something worth remembering. And to have the same conductor all these years is another story.

Sometimes, for short periods, it has happened that Conductor Newell would be compelled to get along with some other "tail cracker" to his trains and when it did happen he was always lost and unhappy. Just recently the O370 has been in the shops for some minor repairs and Conductor Newell's delight when it was returned was plainly apparent.

Conductor Newell has had this caboose since 1885, so long, in fact, that he looks upon it with an air of proprietorship that is understandable and permissible. It was in January, 1885, thirty-five years ago, that Conductor Newell was transferred from the Eastern to the Middle division and he was permitted to take the caboose with him. As he has been on a regular way freight and has worked steadily, he has made many thousands of miles journey in that caboose.

The O370 has been his home practically all these years, for it is fitted with bunks and it has always been customary for the crew to occupy it nights when away from home, and the walls have undergone at times a certain fanciful decoration that makes it home-like and inviting to railroad men.

Once the caboose, after leaving the shops, was sent to another division, but as soon as Superintendent of Transportation Whipple, who is a personal friend of Mr. Newell, heard of it, he promptly had the old O370 returned to Conductor Newell and his crew.

Rides to His Death in Locomotive Cab

1920

Engineer Stakes His Life in Effort to Save Train

MUSKOGEE, Oklahoma — Joe Lambert of Denison, Texas, engineer on Missouri, Kansas & Texas southbound passenger train No. 7, was killed when his train crashed into the rear of a southbound freight which had been forced to stop when it struck a company motor car in a heavy fog one and a quarter miles south of Muskogee.

Lambert stayed with his engine when he saw the caboose of the freight loom up out of the fog and was crushed between the tender and dock of the engine, as the cab crumpled up in the impact. His fireman jumped and was uninjured.

No one else was injured, but passengers on the passenger train, a thru fast train from Kansas City to Dallas, were severely jolted.


1915

Self-Control

One valuable way of practicing self-control is in checking grumbling, and in unnecessary display of vexation at petty inconveniences.

A workman has fulfilled his task imperfectly, some order is wrongly executed, some one keeps you waiting unreasonably; people are careless or forgetful, or do what they have in hand badly. Try not to be disturbed, be just, and show the persons to blame where they are wrong, even (if it be needful) make them do the thing over again properly; but refrain from diffuse or vehement expressions of displeasure.

A naturally quick, impetuous person will find that to cultivate a calm external habit is a great help towards gaining the inward even spirit he needs. — H. Sidney Lear.

Sad "Ghost" Foils Police

Pennsylvania, 1915

Wraith of Man Killed Who Was on Railroad Tracks Upsets Old Neighbors

Philadelphia. — On Garrett Hill, in Radnor township, the police are looking nightly for the "ghost" of a man who was killed several months ago at the railroad station at Radnor. The man lived at Garrett Hill, and has returned, his old neighbors say.

A number of residents say they have seen the wraith. It flits out of dark corners, they say, stares at them with sorrowful eyes, and then passes, moaning. A woman tells of being called to her door the other evening, and of finding the man there facing her with his piteous stare. As she stood, she says, paralyzed with fear, he vanished.

So many tales of the "ghost" have reached the police that they have begun an investigation, on the theory that a crank or a maniac is annoying the residents. So far, however, no trace of a flesh and blood marauder has been found.