Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-06-18
THE OLD HAIR TRUNK.
HAIRED Isaggageman Tells
4 ''% stories About Trunks OF
other Days.

Ill b,cragemaster, whose brow is
Al ON. and Who has wrestled with trunks
ilo', ,,oriols main lines of railroad for the
Oh, on twenty-five years, says OF the deca-
ia,, ,o Of the hair trunk:
de aTt makes me feel sad when | think
..! tbo hair trunk is no more. They are
t. .I;n no. Of the past. They are an extinct
lL.:nnsS--and there was melancholy
yI.;n his eve when he remarked that
Asl', iii N not be long before they have
~. "" ont of the memory OF baggage
Ia Sn and they will be known only in
,bair tradition.
ti l.T,aTa was something one could not
Ia but like about the hair trunk. 1t
A 4.$ hack bone and sand and get up, as it
u'~ , # seldom gave baggagemen any
ng,-,ba said he as he yanked the trunk
I'm off the truck with a crash, "and it
-o never required to bandage up hair
,,,,nl, with clothes-line, as we are fire.
-,'antIv obliged to do with trunks now-a-
f'rs The hair trunk, [ tell you, always
..r,n ont best in a wreck on the road.
Tba baggage car might be strewn along
t,r ouarter OF q mile in kindling wood,
md fine baggagemaster not be worth
,:.,ino ND to be buried, but somehow the
Eair trunk would always show up, look
.,r only little ruffied and irritated, and
msTbaps with slight scalp wound.
u remember an old sorrel trunk, with
,srbqps a few silver threads among the
,5d for it had been on the road long
me and was owned by a Methodist
,rpgcber that was in the Alingo disaster
an tbe Panhandle road near SteubenvilIe,
ohio. Well, You know things were con-
sjerlblv chewed up in that wreck, and
NE hillside below the road was strewn
with splinters of trunks, and all kinds of
clothing was hanging around on the
msbes as if put there to dry. Amid all
his chaos, trunks were the last thing, of
course. to be thought of, and in fact there
we're no trunks in sight. Some, as | said,
we're living in small fragments Of trunk
hoard. with bits of paper hanging to
them. and others had been reduced to an
invaluable powder and blown away.
We'll. after the dead and wounded had
been removed they began to clear the
tracks. The cars were piled away on one
side and they put jackscrews under the
engines. They thought they had removed
All the dead, but one of the workmen
reached under the pilot OF the engine
and drew back, saying that another poor
crl was under there with a sealskin
S9coue on When they got the engine
nised up a little more they saw that it
was the Methodist preachers hair trunk.
The engine must have been partly rest
ing on the trunk, but, sir, no injury to IT
could be discovered but slight sprain
in the small of the back. Just
then the preacher came around holding
his hip with one hand and a cabbage leaf
on an eve with the other. Well, can
/ tell YOU, that meeting was affecting, and
4 strong men wept. The preacher stroked
4 it down fondlv until it looked as neat as
ii it had had hair cut and shampoo. |
tell YOU that was a trunk TO talk about
after YOU are dead. a cyclops might
have hammered it | believe with a thun-
derholt and never sprung a hinge or
broken a rib.
Trucks were stronger in those days.
They had to be. You see, hair trunks
We're generally well loaded, and when one
was fired at a truck, as we did fire them,
he said, smilingly, "why the truck had to
get on his four legs and hold his ground.
recall little hair trunk, as glossy and
tough as a cinnamon bear, that used to
come into nv hands on the Pennsylvania
railroad. 1t was a sort of dude, too, and
wore its hair parted in the middle. Now,
that trunk was run down by a freight
train, and how it ever got under Modoc
engine has never been explained, but it
did. and laid down quiet until eighteen
cars had passed over it, when Tor some
cause it reared up, as it were, and nearly
histed the caboose off the rails.
Now, | saw another instance OF the
resisting power OF the hair trunk" con-
tinued the baggage-master, as he took a
chew of tobacco and hurled it against one
ofWells Fargo & Co. IS iron boxes. "When
was out in Colorado a little mule had
kicked loose from a hack down by the
railroad station, and continued to kick
straight out behind simply at space, as II
to satisfy an uncomfortable desire to kick.
This iIritated the driver so he tied up the
beast securely and showed large dry
goods box up toward it with pole. There
was sharp report, a shower OF splenterS
and cloud of dust, and when II cleared
off there was the mule still kicking trult--
lesslv in thin air. / wandered over and
called the driver to one side. He was
mad at the mule and had been betting
him with an inch board. l asked him II
lie would like to have the mule par
AGED. Says he, taking my hand,
Galvze him I took a brindle HAIR
trunk from the platform, placed 1t
against bank so that it would keep IN
the same place, and backed the mule IN
and tied him. You see, he smelt the
hide and thought it was a mountain hon
Or something, and instead of kicking Tor
m he struck out as if his life depended
omit. Every kick, however, appeared TO
stun the mule, and he began to deliver
them at longer intervals, and finally WITH
one leg at a time, and then he walked
right straight ahead as far as he could,
and looked away off in a careless sort OF
a manner as if he didn't know anything
about it. Well, sir, that mule ialriy
bushed and famed himself with ms
ears. You never saw an animal SO hui
inflated. He was paralyzed for tact.
Yes" he added thoughtfully, Jew
baggage men of to-day know much ABOUT
The hair trunk, and its noble hold-to'
throw-me-hard qualities"