Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-02-27
mssrsitaneous
The Lost Freight Agent"

One of the Oldest in service of the men
employed by the Maine Central Railroad.
is Mr.. Chas O. Baker. the Lost Freight
Agent Mr. Baker travels over the
Maine Central and all its branches, the
Provincial railroads and several Massachu-
sets roads, hunting for lost and stolen
freight. and lost cars. This is all he does
from one years end to another. He enter
ed the Maine Central service on the I'd day
of July, 1849, and three days afterwards
he had a very peculiar adventure, the story
of which he rece ntly told me.
"Three days after l went on the road."
said he, 81 was so overcome by the heat
and the sickening motion of the cars, then
new to me. that on the trip up to Winthrop
had to leave the train at Auburn. | could
stand it no longer. 1t seemed as if my
head would burst, / went to the old
Maine Hotel and lay down. A hackman
was to call for me at O'Clock T. NJ, to
carry me to the station to take the train
down | went to bed, locked the door of
nv room and went to sleep. The hack
man failed to call for me and when the
train got in, the conductor, Almon Dodge,
INQUIRED for me. He sent man down at
ter me and held his train. They pounded
on my door. and answered sleepily, but
would not get up. | was partly out of
nv head Finally they stove open the
door and took me to the station. This
performance made the train Is minutes
late, and that 10 minutes saved disaster
and several lives.
at CHANGED that on that afternoon an
engine got away from the driver at North
Yarmouth and ran wild up to CObb's
bridge, between Danville and New Glou-
cester, where the steam gave out.and some
section men threw sticks of cord wood on
the track and stopped 1t. We stopped our
train within 80 feet of that wild engine
But for my illness, which delayed our
train fifteen minutes, we must have collid-
ed at full speed"
Referring to his present duties, Mr..
Baker said "A good deal of freight is
lost and much is stolen. When package
of freight is lost, claim of about double
its worth is made on the company, 50 it
pays to run it down if possible. We try to
find every package, no matter if it is not
worth more than IS cents.
"A short time ago man. coming from
the Provinces to Augusta. reported he lost
a sack containing valuables to the amount
of STA. | was put on the trail and found
the sack in a junk store at Bangor. The
dealer had bought it with a lot of rags I'M
loaded from the same train. | shook the
stuff out of the bag and what do you sup
yose it contained? A lot of old duds not
worth over S., all told, and smelling vile
enough to make you sick, Isent the bag
to the fellow at Augusta, and he said that
was all right.
lawyer shipped case of books from
Boston to Maine town, and it was lost.
He brought in bill of SIG. | hunted
for that case of books from the first dav
of July till the first day of October, and
found it in the Belfast freight house. He
had put the address on card and fastened
the card with tacks. II had been torn off.
"a Topsham firm reported the loss of a
fierce of lard. found out that Portland
firm had shipped tierce to Brunswick
man and a tierce to the Topsham firm the
same day. By mistake of the marking
clerk, both terces were forwarded to the
Brunswick man.
These statements illustrate the way in
which freight is lost. About stealing
Well, discovered queer trick at Read
field, not long ago. Somebody had bored
IL l'lt IlfIOuSu bllt DOlIOtl vi d VI COIl
and taken out two or three barrels of it
and then plugged up the hole. Packages
of fruit are often rfled This is source
of great annoyance. Your Lewiston rum
smugglers steal from each other like thun-
der. There seems to be a way to stop
this kind of stealing, bnt it causes lot of
trouble. am now hunting for two cases
of shoes that have been stolen. This
reminds me of a curious case that came
up few years ago. -Four cases of shoes
were shipped at Franklin, Mass, for Lyn-
donville, Vt. At the station somebody
crossed out the vt" and wrote ME"
with pencil, The shoes were sent to
Lyndon, away up in Aroostook county land
remained there some time. | have no
doubt that somebody intended to steal
them. 1t costs the Maine Central $1,000
a year or more, to pay claims for lost or
stolen freight which we cannot recover.