Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1884-12-11

mil abdicated as autocrat of the Erie
pioneer train, and the Irvine and
piece of wood manipulated by the con-
ductor controlled its management.
That was the origin of the bell rope,
now one of the most important append
ages of railroad trains. The idea was
quickly adopted by the few roads then
in operation, and the bell or gong in
time took the place of the stick of wood
to signal the engineer. Captain Ayres
continued conductor on this road un-
der its different managers until he was
superannuated and retired on q PEN
sion.
The oldest conductor in the United
States in point of active service is Con-
ductor William Coulter, who runs the
fast morning express between New
York and Philadelphia on the Penn
sylvania Railroad, and has been a rail-
road passenger conductor for nearly
half century. He began railroading
when there were but three railroads in
the country-one in South Carolina,
one near New York City, and the old
Newcastle 81 Frenchtown Road.
''Railroading in those days." said
Mr.. Coulter to the writer, ''was not so
comfortable a business for the con-
ductor as it is now. We were COM
PEELED to assist in loading, help the
baggage-master and not unfrequently
lead fight against the roughs who in
sisted upon riding for nothing. In
place of the neutrality-suspicious.
cars now in use, connected with the
engine by bell-rope and with patent
steam brakes, we ran compartment
oars, after the English fashion of to-
day, with the passengers facing each
other. There were no cushions nor
any backs to the seats.
Old conductors have large fund of
information and anecdote. One ex-
perienced conductor gave some of his
recollections in q recent talk with the
writer He commenced by comparing
Grant, Conkling and Blaine, saying:
Roscoe Conkling generally gets one
seat in drawing-room, and he gets all
the newspapers he can buy, reads them
and throws them all over. the drawing
room in mass; besides, he always has
portmanteau full of law papers,
which he strews all over every seat
in the drawing-room. Conkling is a
very vain traveller and wants every
body in the car to look at him. Now,
there's Blaine; he's just the opposite.
He always buys the whole drawing
room and shuts himself up. But
was President of the United States he
nearly always travelled in a special car,
Citizen t Re travels Just hf aboaf the
as ordinary folks. You can always
find Grant in the rear end of
the smoking car with cigar in his
mouth, and there he sits, with hand on
either arm of his chair and smokes and
smokes, seemingly oblivious of every
thing around him. He never looks at
any one. Sometimes he will look out
of the windows for hours. When he's
not doing that he's glancing over a
newspaper Hos indifferent to every
thing that's going on. Why, if the
train he's in stops on the road in the
open country for some minutes he never
moves, never inquiries what is the mat
ter, but sits and smokes stolidly until
the train starts, while all the other pas
sengers put their heads out of the win
dows or get off to see what's gone
wrong.
81 remember" continued the veteran
made in my car some time ago. His
.,--- - l:--~-4is- ~ :.-I L. H., ,,L . ..-a.
! travelling alone, and who, by the by,
knew very little about travelling. She
| had her window up for some time, and
it was pretty chilly; beside, the black
smoke was pouring into the car. l
watched Grant a little while, and saw
he was annoyed. Presently he got up
and, leaning over the lady's shoulder,
put his hand on the catch and let the
window sash down. The little woman
gave an involuntarily start, and turned
around fiercely, but Grant never no.
ticed her and dropped back into his
chair. After little while the lady
hoisted the window again, and some of
the passengers who had seen the affair
smiled at one another. Then the little
lady beckoned to me and said "Con-
ductor, who is that hog back of meP"
That's General Grant, said /.
"'Oh! exclaimed the little woman,
and she dropped the window imme-
diately. Grant heard the question, but
never let on, and went on reading his
,~.~f1tasvifu 95biee. h9dshafeH aS0SJ IvsV-
less traveller l ever saw and Bob niger
sail the least. When Bob Ingersoll en-
tiers car to go on journey the first
thing he does is to hang up his big
SLOUGH hat, then he begins to make him
self comfortable, and by the time the
train starts he just acts as though hewe
home in his study. If there's no one
on the train that he knows it don't
take nm long to strike up an acquaint-
ance, and everybody seems glad to
know him. He's very jolly, liberal
traveller, smokes nearly all the time on
the cars, and always carries a
bundle of choice cigars with him.
remember one night there was
freight wreck and our train had
|, to lay up for three or four hours.
1t was terrible night; wind blew a
hurricane and the rain came down
Z in torrents. Ingersoll was one OF
|, the passengers. Everybody got tired.
! Nobody could get anybody to talk to.
At last wiry little Scotchman,
} who was travelling through America
z sightseeing, learned who Ingersoll
, was, and he tackled him then and
} there. Ingersoll was just II Tic hu.
NOR, and in less than ten minute:
: everybody in the car crowded around
! him and listened to him for over
+ two hours, and the passengers seemed
t so pleased and entertained that they
forgot all about the weather and the
: accident.
( "But Oscar Wilde took the cake
Oscar Wilde was more bother than al
: the womenwho ever rode on q railroad
| car. He had an idea that he was tn,