The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1874-08-07
Gatting a Free Pass.

Getting a Free Pass.
''Is the superintendent about"
The clerks at the Boston and
Providence railroad Office, in Bos-
ton, looked up from their books and
accounts, and saw genuine speci-
men of the genus New England Yam
kee since the days of enterprise
| yearly getting scarcer. An old man
of about seventy years Of age,whose
face continually exposed to the sun
had Drowned to a mahogany color,
whose thin iron gray hair struggled
out from under felt hat little the
worse for wear, whose"store clothes"
we're a dozen years old in fashion,
whose expanded bony hands and
vast extent of wrists projected far
beyond the coat cuff, and broad
square brogans, tied with leather
strings and guiltless of blacking
stuck far through the ends Of his
pantaloons.
One of the officials, in answer to
the inquiry, pointed towards desk,
where sat an alert looking, clean cut,
all alive sort of a man, and said,
"That, sir, is Mr.. Folsom.
''Harnsome!' said the old fellow,
"yas, so, so; but praise the face
is open disgrace, as Aunt Jerusha
used to say.
"What can 1 do for you to-day"
asked the superintendent, curiously
eyeing the visitor that stood before
him, in the midst of a subdued
snicker from the clerks.
ebay? Yaas, fine day. Don't spose
you remember me, do YEP
"Your name must have forgot
ten."
"Mustapha Cotton? Thunder, no!
Cotton was the feller that done the
gradin,' 1 only furnished the sleep
ers."
"What grading do you mean2 I"
said the superintendent.
"Gradin' done mean! Gosh all
hemlock! 1 should think it was.
Bottom dropped right aout ont"
"What contract are you talking of
sir, and what do you want of me2"
said the official little nettled.
"Who do want to see, who yew,
if yew are the superintendent. Yew
are, amt YEP"
"Yes," said the railroad officer,
with nod, 81 am.
Wall, We see, I'm little deaf, and
1 used to furnish sleepers for the
road, l did. Sold nigh six hundred,
an only forty thrown out"
"You must be mistaken" said the
railroad man, shouting into his
visitors ear" we haven't made any
contracts for sleepers for some
years."
"Seven years! Wall darn it all,
twas longer ago than that I made
the trip with Reymund Lee-d'ye
remember Reymund Lea little
feller, not ser tall as yer-smart ez
er steel trap"
eyes, I remember him, he was su-
perintendent on the road twenty
years ago."
Twenty years ago! Yaas, yaas.
Wall moved east more'n ten years
ago. l was farming on it then up
back of Attleberry, owned a piece
of land up there on sheers with Jos.
Fairbanks-him as broke his leg in
harrow in the widow Burt's field
darned fool-told him the steers
would start as he might hev
known"
"Well, WE'LL" said the railroad Off
Ger impatiently, "what is your bust
ness2"
wall, 1 hev been runnin' a
thrashin' machine last fall down ter
Agusty, Maine, tendin' a saw-mill
till last week; lumber amt mov'n
so quick ez it used to, and"
"What is your business here, /
mean?" bawled the superintendent:
"What do you want2"
"Want2 why, / want to go to At
tleberry!"
"Well, why don't you go? There's
the station, and the train leaves in
ten minutes"
"Wall, I hadn't got any ticket-en
ef you could give me a free pass"
"Why should I pass you free? 1
can see no reason"
"Why, you know, 1 sold them
sleepers to Raymund Lee a cussed-
sight too low, an he said"
"What!" shouted the exasperat-
ed officer, "Do you mean to come to
me for a free pass over the road be-
cause twenty years ago you sold Mr..
Lee fifty dollars worth of sleepers?
This is too much"
"TeW much! No, sir, yew couldn't
buy them air sleepers naow for
double the money, an Raymund
Lee he want so close of his passes,
fur when 1 cum down here an set
tied with him an got talkin' with
him, he told me if I'd only go up to
Attleberry he'd gin me a pass"
"Good gracious!" said Folsom,
sinking back into his chair, hoarse
and exhausted with shouting, with
the great drops of perspiration on
his forehead. So will if you'll only
go. Mr.. S., buy him a ticket for
the next train, and charge it to my
account. Iwon't write him a pass,
he might come back here on it"