, 1884-02-06

l then ran and caught the last car. I was
triumphant, and from the rear platform,
shook my fist at him as he stood disconsolate
200 yards behind us. I saw no more of Joe
until we got to Cincinnati 1 was standing
by the train as the passengers were getting
off when l felt myself touched on the arm.
Turning around, I saw Printer joel He said
coolly; Captain, I've got a match; If you
will lend me a cigar 1 will smoke.' l was
outdone, and not only gave him the cigar
but said l would give him his dinner IL he
would tell me how he had managed it He
agreed, and in a neighboring restaurant he
explained that he had caught the express
and got in ahead of my train" .
A RAILROAD MAN LEFT.
Talking about staying behind to keep a
bum Off, y said another sage, "reminds me Of
Charley Evhns. He was a brake on the
Atchison, Topeka g. Santa Fe. and had been
told by the CON. to see that a notorious bum
didn't get on. 1t was somewhere in Kansas
and the fellow had been logging the train for
several hundred miles. Charley found his
man on one OF the platforms and made for
him. The fellow stepped off, and walking to.
the other end Of the car, got on again. But
Charley was at his heels and he had to go Off
on the other side He repeated this, being
followed by the determined brake the
pace increasing all the time, until they
Wtfo III u Iuu rum, gong dDOaru on
one side and Jumping off at the other.
The train soon began to move and the
racers showed some rare ability in getting on
and Off. They kept the game up a little too
long and the train was about to leave them
both, when they started on a dead run for the
rear car. The bum had a few feet start, and
being the faster man, managed 30 jump on
just before the car passed over a culyert.
Poor Charley had to stop to keep out of the
hole and got left. l was standing on the
platform watching the sport, and l never saw
a better pleased tramp or a madder railroad
man than / saw that day"
This called forth an anecdote about a tramp
who slipped into a berth of u Pullman car
which had just been vacated and rode all day,
head under cover, getting out at night to find
that his boots had been nice polished by tho
porter or some other train dignitary.
Cen Ickie and the Gas Company.
- G"Uncle Bill in Chicago Herald.
Sickles is brought to mind by a victory
which he has this week won in a long fight.
l suppose that sympathy with gas companies
is rigidly confined to stockholders and en-
ployes. By everybody else they are regarded
as robbers. There is a hazily defined but
none the less deep impression that gas ought
to be as free as air and water, and that all
charges for it are ridiculous and extortionate.
II Is also a settled idea that n gas bill is some
thing that's got to be paid, without reference
to its size or justice. Sickles is the only man
l ever heard Of who looked at the hands and
figures of his meter with a liked determine
ton to be guided by them in paying or re-
fusing to pay. He made "a memorandum Of
the dial's condition on his departure last
summer for a trip to Europe, and on his re-
turn found that the record had gone on dur
ing his absence just about as fast as usual.
The doors had been kept locked, and his
~neighbors in the apartment house had seen
no lights in his rooms. Either from leakage
or habit the meter had worked right along.
A similar adherence to usage was shown by
the company's employees. They rendered a
bill in accordance with the meters account.
Here Sickles interposed an obstacle. He
refused to pay. That seemed an absurd OBJ
struction OF gas manufacture, and a suit was
brought to collect the debt. The contest was
long aud bitter, but the court has at length
decided that live witnesses are more credible
than a meter. To put it in shape to guide
consumers of gas, the ruling is that, no mat
ter IL the gas has passed through the meter,
the householder need not pay for it il he can
prove that he did not burn it. Having thus
served the cause Of civilizations illumina-
ton, Sickles declares that his law practice
has achieved a glorious enough climax to
stop with. Who shall say that his exploits
as a soldier were more than Il beginning of a
crescendo which has symmetrically risen to
the height of conquering a gas bill