The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1885-02-27

ono way or the other to-day. Il that
pioee dwood:is not on the end of this
cord ,br the SINE we ges to Turner'S
Z vd7 lot to-lick me Or In lick you.
The stick was not on the string when
the train reached Turner'S. The Cap
tain pulled off his coat and told Hams
mil to get off his engine. Hammil de-
clined to get OF. Captain Ayres
climbed to the engineers place. Ham
mil started to jump off on tiref opposite
side. The conductor hit him under the
ear and saved him the trouble of jump
ing. That settled forever the question
of authority of railroad trains. Ham,
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 q conductor on this road I'M
der its different managers until be was
superannuated and retired on . 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
sylvapia Railroad, and has been 2 rail-
road passenger conductor. for nearly
half q century. He began failroading
when there were but three railroads in
the country-one in South Carolina,
one near New York City, and the old
Newcastle & Frenchtown Road. y.
..Railroading in those. days.. said
Mr.. Coulter to the writer, sswas not SO
comfortable q 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 tight against the roughs who in
sisted upon riding for nothing. In
place 81 the spiendidly upholstered
oars now in use, connected with the
engine by bell-rope and with patent
steam brakes, we ran compartment
ears, after the English fashion of to-
day, with the passengers facing each
other. There were no cushions nor
any backs to the seats.
tIssDid conductors have large fund Of
| information and anecdotes. One ex-
perienced conductor gave some of his
recoilections in a recent talk with the
writer. He commenced by comparing
Grant, Conkling and Blaine, saying:
Roscoe Conkling generally gets one
scat 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
. pOrt.nanteau fun 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 che car to look at him. Now,
there's Blaine; he's Just the opposite.
He always buys the whole drawing
room, md shuts himself up. But
Grant Is queer old fellow. When he
Twas President Of the United States he
NEARLY always travelled in q special car,
bat now, since he has become private
citizen. he travels Just about the same
Is 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
eishef 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
AZ the windows for hours, When he's
Not doing that he's CHANGING over q
Fnewspaper. He's indifferent to every
thing that's going on. Why, il the
Etz1in he's stops on the road in the
open countEy for some minutes he never
moves, never inquiries what is the mat
i ter, but sits and smokes sto1idly until
/ ihe train starts. while all the other pas
j ssuRots put their heads out OF the win
d0Ws or gel: OF to see what's gone
Wrong. So
II remember . continued the veteran
conductor. - trip to Chicago Grant
i made in my car some time ago. His
seat was directly behind q lady whowas
travelling alone, and who, by the by,
knew very little shout travelling. She
had her window up for some time, and
il was pretty chilly; beside. the black
smoke was pouring into. the car.
watched Grant little while, and saw
he was annoyed Presently he cot up
and, leaning over the ladyss shoulder,
nut his hand on the catch and lee the
window sash down. The little woman
gave An involuntarily start, and turned
around 6ercely, but Grant never mo-
ticod her and dropped back into his
chair. After little while the lady
hoisted the window again, and some Of
the passengers who had sean the affair
smiled 1t ono another. Then the little
lady beckoned to me and said; Con
ductCts who y Chat hog back Of mee''