The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1877-02-16
Miscellaneous.
TEN MINUTES LATE.

In '52 there wasn't likelier fellow on
the line than George Kirke.
He was the son of poor man, and his
mother was dead. His father was a con-
firmed invalid of the rheumatic order, and
George played the dutiful son to him in
way that would astonsh the young men of
to-day.
Somehow, nobody knew exactly how,
George had managed to pick up good edu-
cation, and he had polished it off, so to
speak by two years course at commercial
college, which they tell me is school where
they teach people something as is practical,
and not them Greek roots and Latin folder
OILS that is drilled into young mems heads in
our universities.
Krke began on the Stony Hill railroad
old. First be was brakeman. This rail-
way business is Il 1guar succes sion, and, ,
generally speaking, u man has to work his
way up. 1t amt oi'en that he gifts right up
to the dignity of conductor at one step,
with he chance to pocket stray ten cent
scrips, and the privilege of helping all the
good looking and well dressed ladies out of
the cars, and letting the homely ones, with
babies and band boxes on their arms, stum-
BILE out as best they may.
George did his duty so well that he was
soon promoted to fireman, and after he had
learned the workings of the machine, he was
made engineer and given an engine.
This engine was one of the newest and
best on the line, and was called the Flyaway
and George was mighty proud of her, you
may well believe.
tell you, sir, your true engineer, one as
is out and out for the business, and feels hi:
responsibility, takes as much pride ir his
engine as the jockey does in his
tavorite race horse, and would set up rights
or neglect sweethearts, to keep the hrasse'
and fligree of his machine SOS you coulC
see your face in EN-.
There was another man wanted George
chance. There's generally more than on,
after every paying job.
Jack Halliday had been waiting SOM
|
when he lost it he was mad enough to pul
hair. He was a brakeman likewise and hat
been on the road full two years longer tha
Kirke, and it would seem that the chanc
! really belonged to him, and he was
quarrelsome, disagreeable fellow, with indo
pendence enough to set an emperor up i
business and still have some left
When Jack realized that George had &C
the inside track of him, his anger was 6
white heat lie cursed Kirk and cursed tn
company, ,and old Whateley the superintenC
ent, and all things generally, until it SCENE
> a pity there was not something else to ours
he was in such fine cursing order.
There was more than one thing that mad
: Jack Halliday down on George Kirke. Get
. had been his rival in many respects, an
particularly wherever the iairer part of ere
alton was concerned. George was grci
,, favorite among the girls, for he WAS hanC
{ some and generous, and good-natured, an
: Jack was sarcastic and always on th
. contrary side, and the girls avoided him, {
they always should such a man.
We all expected that i'll would come
" George, from Jacks bad blood against hin
and we warned him more than once, but b
. always laughed and reminded us of the ol
saw that barking dogs seldom bite" whic
- is true in the main,
And, as time went on, until two, thre
. four months had passed since Kirke's pr,
motion, and nothing occurred, we forgot a
about our apprehensons Of evil, and il v
thought of the matter at all, we conclud,
'r we had wronged Halliday in our susp
cions.
ar 1t was dark night in November, wi
u considerable fog in the air and strong a
~ pearances of rain.
er was at Galosha, the northern terminl
er of our road, looking after some repairs on
81 defective boiler, and | was going down
New York on the 1850 train-kirk
IN train,
y About seven there came a telegram frC
al old Whateley, whose summer residence "
lie nearly midway between Galosha and n
M York, and the old heatheu had not yet
et' saken 1t for the city, The telegraph ope
tor came into the engine house, where XII
was at work-for he was always at worl
and read it TO him. Kirke made note
Tit ia his pocket books