The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1880-01-22

come by degrees to attend to all the
work which the place required. That
is, was the ticket agent, the baggage
master and the keeper of the station,
besides acting for the express company
and continuing my charge of the tele-
graph key. These combined labors
made it pretty close work for me, but
they all yielded a very comfortable in
come; and, as / was troubled with no
unsatisfed ambitions, counted myself
well fixed. As | have intimated, l
slept in the station, partly to keep guard
on the Company's property, and partly
from choice; for, being a bachelor and
without kin, | had nothing to attract
me elsewhere. Ny duties had grown a
sort of second nature, and had lived
in the little town so long that the
younger generation had come to speak
of me as "Old Billy" That was, |
suppose, because my hair was getting
gray and my joints trile stiff.
The Red Ravine Station was wooden
building, about 40 feet long by 20 wide.
1t was divided into two compartments,
the larger one being for freight and bag
gage, and the smaller one for passengers.
NV own little room was only a piece
partitioned off from the freight quarter,
about 10 feet square, and connected by
door with the box OF an Office in the
passengers room, which served both
for selling tickets and holding the tele-
graph key. In this latter apartment,
also, was placed the old-fashioned iron
safe, in which | locked up valuable
express packages when any happened
to come to Red Ravine The village,
/ ought to explain, had grown up
entirely through the influence of
the great iron-works of Eldridge
& Ricketson. There were rich beds of
ore few miles to the north, and these,
as well as the big foundry, which en-
ployed four or five hundred hands, were
controlled by the firm | have mentioned.
There has been some trouble at the
works recently strike or something
growing out of delay in paying the men
their wages. That is how it happened
that the $4,000 money package came
into my keeping for night.
Well, when l had made all snug about
the station, and got off my wet clothing,
| sat down comfortably with pipe and
newspaper, to enjoy my customary read
ing. The storm outside continued to
rage more and more fiercely, but within
things were as coy as could be. l had
a blazing fire in the stove, a cheerful
light, an easy chair, plenty of good to-
bacco-the one luxury in which | was
really extravaganza fresh newspaper,
and a bottle of good Holland gin,
wherewith to make my regular noe
turnal toddy. Certainly, these were
pleasant surroundings for an old fellow
like me, and, as rule, they yielded as
much solid comfort as man has a right
to expect in this world. But that night
things all seemed out of gear, as have
said. My pipe didn't soOthe me as was
its wont; try as l might, couldn't get
interested in the newspaper; an uncom-
Portable feeling of dread-a feeling that
some shadowy but horrible thing was
about to happen-possessed my mind
and even when l mixed up a toddy con-
siderably stronger than usual it failed to
bring the relief | had hoped for.
alt all comes of that pesky money
package, y muttered to myself "Why
couldn't it have got here on the II 80,
and saved me the job of keeping it over
night?"
just at that moment came a terrific
clap of thunder, and flash of light
ming vivid enough to make the lamp
seem dim. | had locked up the pack
age in the safe, and put the key-there
was no combination lock-in my pocket.
But had not the largest faith in the
security of the old safe. 1t had oc-
CURED to me often that person could
open it, even if he wasn't a skillful
craftsman. Itwas my custom to leave
my door open between my little room
and the Ticket-office, so that if Red Ra-
vine was called on the telegraph-key
could hear it. The instrument had
been clicking away at a great rate for
the last hour; but as it was none of my
business, l had paid no attention to
what was going over the wires.
judged now, from the clearness of the
and the jerky sounds of the
instruments, that the storm was play
ing the mischief with the messages. l
passed into the Ticket-ofice, where a
light was left burning, and stood for
some time thinking whether the money
package would be less exposed in the
safe than it would be under the mat
tress of my bed and finally concluded
that the latter place would be hardest
for any possible thief to reach. So
took out the heavy brown envelope, and
slowed it away under the mattress.
Then | took a second glass of toddy,
which was usually against my rule, but
which | thought the circumstances war;
ranted.
Once more l sat down to my newspa-
per and pipe, but with no better success
than before. The storm seemed now to
have centered right over the little sta
ton. Peal after peal of thunder rent
the air, and the lightning played about
the sky like phosphorus on an inky back
ground. If you have ever CHANGED to be
in a telegraph Office during a thunder
storm, you may have seen the electricity
dash down the wires in way to make
timid people nervous. Even veteran
operators, like myself, wouldn't want to
to receive that sort of mes
sage. was tempted to close the key,
but the meaningless ticking had a sort
of fascination for me in the mood | then
was. 1t was like the incoherent NUT
terings of a maniac, where now and
then, at long intervals only, could one
distinguish word or sentence Maybe
the extra allowance of toddy had made
me more imaginative than usual, and
given a weird coloring to nay thoughts;
for, listening to the rapid click-click, /
e Il
hand had got hold of the key, and was
pouring out wall of woe over the
wires.
was too restless to sit still and too
to 60 to bed. Besides, even if