Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-06-22
THE PULLMAN GHOST.
The story Told on Railroad Train by a
Commercial Traveller.

sDrinkled the stove with tobacco juice and /
continued;
s.Gemmen. am a commercial traveller, /
1 am. One or a set Of ROSTERS more slnned !
agin than sinnm', but not easy to foOl-not |
much.
0Gemmen, twelve years ago last March /
had occasion TO run out to Chicago fur /
fine great grocery house of SOrgum, Lasses !
4 Co. whom you've heered on, Of course. /
MOI You surprise me; thought every
body knew 'em. Established in '32-neV-
IN made a promise they couldn't keep, nor
sold goods as wasn't up TO sample. Bin
with 'em nign onto twenty year, till mis-
fortune overlook ZEN and they had to go
out o. business.
DBut 10 continue. Returns had bin al
mighty slow an 1 was g0in' out West u
hustle things. Bad crops them West
aru chaps told me. Bad management /
saw. Nobody ever heard Of SOrgum,
Iasses & Co. weakenin' on their paper.
las left at a moments notice 1 jess
dumped a few collars an things into
satchel and wired to Jersey City for
slower on the express. 1t didn't take me
long 20 < for the journey. You bet your
life We chaps don't tiddle-faddle much
with baggage. Samples is bother enough.
I lust made the train an givin' my
name. cot a short %. h from the con-
dUct0r-
didn't nut on so many airs in traveln'
then an didn't insist on havin' gilt grape
vines myanderin' all over the top o. the
cvar Times wuZ hard, and the i. +. Z.
yyuzu't buildin' towns to order out West
nor putin on new cyars every week as
they does now.
Il found nv berth, skinned off my coat
an vest an pants an climbed in. NOthin'
pertickler happened till just as / guessed
we might be leavin' Altoona, hand part
ed the curtains of the berth with sudden
Jerk ike an head peeked through the
opeuin' A singler face. too. All fired
dr0wsy as / WuH, il skeeTed me. Thin,
rough, gray hair, short, thick nose,
heavy Jaw an a black patch over one eye.
He stared az me for a minute or so with
out speakin' an then grOwled out in
h0arse whisper: 'CressOn-tOurth tele-
graph pole east Of water tank-nOrth side
OF traCk-in the ditch
ssThe curtins dropped, heerd n0thin'
more an suppOsin' somebody had made
a mistake i'm the berth soon dropped OF
agiu How long l slept / couldn't tell We
lit might a bin a hour, it might bin a
minit-when that there identical face cum
right atween the curtins agin and the very
same Eruf vOice-guess a little more
gruh perhaps-gTOwled out as afoTe:
CressOn-fOurth telegraph pole from water
tank North side of traek-ln the ditch
an then skipped.
This time it sOTter made me mad, so
stuck my head out o. the berth an saw
Jess nothing; On'y the lazy niger mourn
Cly blackin' boots in the passage. l was
surprised and put out. Thought some
practical JOker was tryin' to have fun
with me. So / Jess took a cOrkscrew out
D my bag an waited TO crack nm over
the knuckles when he laid hold of the
CUrtins. / waited an waited, an almost
.rirr M. tho hona Of haViuf a gVhael- af Tim
when an at once the figure had seen be-
fore shot right by the berth. / sprung
out, but he seemed TO sOrter hOat back to
the rear Of the cyar. There he stood, sOr-
ter suspended in the air like, an pointed
a long, bOny finger at the side Of the
coach. sayin' in the same hOarse whisper,
low. but mighty distinct, the one word,
There. rushed forward, but my grab
bin hams held nOthin' but the empty air.
Now I amt what you might call a
drinkin' man or l might a thought 1 had
'em. SIaggerin' fOr'aTd to where the mig
ger wuz a Operatin' on the boots l asked
him where we wuZ.
Jess outside Cresson, boss said the
darkey.
The mark, the sperrit, or whatever it
WIZ made, cum right back to me. Didn't
YOU notice nothin' in the cyarE l asked
him, sort - stern.
s. NO. sah,' said Mr.. Niger; but a sort
o. fickeTin' expression in them google
eyes Of his'n made me think he lied. l
turned in agln. but couldn't sleep no more
that night. L tried to pump the conductor,
but couldn't get nOtbin' out Of him,
though ] saw right off he knowed more
than he keered to tell. To make a long
story short, L went to Chicago, collected
some of our accOunts-we had heaps Of
bad debts that year-and went back to
New York by way Of Detroit and suspen-
sion bridge.
'.Some crooks busted a safe for sorgum,
Lasses & Co. that spring and got big lot
Of stuff, bout twenty thousand dollars.
The papers wuz full Of it; YOU must ma
seen it. No!-dOn't tell me.
''NIosu o. the stuff they got back, though,
with the help of Joe Ricketts,, the detec-
tiye-oue Of the cutest little cusses you
ever see.
'sNow Joe wuz a great fren' o mine
cause ! WIZ alluZ dead struk on the per-
lice. Ii hadn't a bin one O. the mos
successful statesmen in the hull United
States I might a tried il on ez a detective
OF maybe q criminal lawyer-whO knOws2
When I am in New York 1 generally at
ten the criminal cOurts-fndin' them
cheap, amusin' an instructive all to Onet.
''There wuZ a daisy murder case bein'
worked IN. an me an Joe hadn't missed
a day at the trial. The duck in the dock
he'd drOwnded his wife in the boss pond
an then chopped her up an shipped her
South by freight, labeled picked pork.
You remember the case. No! That's
singular. You see, he tried the 'motiOnal
sanity dodge, but it wudn't work. There
WUZ two niggers on the jury, an theY's
allus fur hangin' on gen'Tal principles,
an they hung i'm.
Zone day while wuZ waitin' fur Joe at
theCentral sauntered into the inner Office,
whar what they call the Rogues Gallery
is. Besides the ugly mugs on the walls
there WIZ about dozen albums with fOti-
graffs of al the bigges' scOunrels in the
cOuntry-fr0m Philadelfy, New 0rlins,
Chicago an all the cities. The minute
they keJCh A raskil they take his pictur
and scatter il round. He sens out his
keerds. as il were. They do it cos fell
lers like that don't have no home or is
Just as much at home in one place as
t'Other.
''Wen, I got to turnin' them albums
Ov~~, l0okin' at the ugly mugs of them
native and furrin scalawags. till at last / I
got t0oliH' with the Chicago keepsake, an
rare collection il wuz, you bet. sud-
denly / came across a face 1 seemed to /
know, but couldn't remember where. 4 {
stout buFly brute in a convict suit. He
had fought ike mad when they wanted his
pictur' and three turkeys wuz hOldin' on
TO i'm. His face waZ all screwed up to /
one side 70 Spite the likeness, but what /
made me feel sort OF interested wuZ that Z
this rooster he'd only one eye.
That was it-this one eye seemed to I
grow on me eZ lOOk'd at it. The whole 4
thing sort o dawn'd on me. This face /
and the one had seen on the sleeper be- I
lOnged 70 the same identical Teller.
when Joe cum in / never let on, but 4
after turnin' the album over for a while 4
and gettin' i'm to tell the stories Of two 1
or three Of the boss blaggards in il, I came 4
sort of accidental-like TO my man-and /
wanted 70 know who he was.
"Him:' says Joe, swhy that's One-eyed /
Mike, safe-blOwer an confidence mamie 4
was daisy AT his bizness-he wuz.'
Where is he nOWr
'Joe turned his thumb downward to the 4
door.
&" 'Dead@
"JOe nodded.
g How did he die? says I, my curiosity
bein' worked up,