Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-09-11

and placed itin my outside coat pocke4t
in plain sight. filed the bag VIII
iron filings at the mill, and my friend
and myself laughed ut an imaginary
robber finding . bag fall Of iron ttingk
We were not On the road IN hour,
when three men rode Up. from behind
and cleaned us out, particularly taking
my bottle and overlooking the bag!
The company made good the lost gold
dust, and I never tried since to fool q
robber. I think my quondam friend
helped to work the game. "'@.S'
I'VE carry millions of money for the
Government, and have never lost q
penny, except in cas- Of wreck and
fire. and then it was known what
money "a burned, and it was easily
replaced. The other day we took eight
million dollars from Washington in
n Lot and transported it to San
Francisco, CAL, and of course had no
more trouble than if it was one thousand
dollars.
I'VE operate some thirty-eight thou
sand miles of road in this country and
Canada, and ten times that amount
throughout the world, and the percent
age Of the loss on goods in transit, oE
total loss, has been for many years al.
most nothing. There are fully fifteen
thousand men in our employ, includ-
ing all, from platform men to superin-
tendent, and we have the strictest Kind.
of civil service rules, every man being
promoted in the order of his seniority
without regard to influence, and OBJ
tanning promotion in no other way.
This is one reason why the express ser.
vice is SO efficient, for no man a
enter it on any other mans recon.
mendation and overstep another who
has already served and is capacitated.
We run ten thousand horses and, eight.
thousand wagons of all styles and make
a speciality of raising horses particu-
larly fitted for our service. There. is
probably no private corporation in. ex-
istence' in which the detail is so, thor,
oughly arranged as ours and in which.
a loss or delay a be SO readily traced.
A feature in our history which proves
this is the total freedom from en-
bezzlement and ~defalcation among our,
employees, which is accounted for .,by
the simple fact that they can not 90,
far without detection, and all trusted,
which is always responsible.
Eat any n moment of the day Or
night our company has millions OF dol.
lars worth of merchandise, and wall
uables in transit. and each morning,
with the regularity OF, clockwork, we
are assured of safe delivery and: the
ceasing of responsibility by the COM
pany."
The great utility of express service
was shown while the reporter was in
the Office by a young man entering,
rolling an immense bicycle before him,
which was booked, and taken to, the
same train that carried him into the
country, and delivered at his hotel III
good order, for a price that seemed
ridiculous when compared with the
service rendered.
"We carry cats, dogs, mules, and
frequently valuable racing stock. We
have taken lunatics and convicts and
any number of babies; in fact, our
messengers are broken in. o. a milk
bottle. and can dance a baby just like
a real woman. Singular as it may
seem, we carry whole cities, too. hay
ing sent three train loads of ready
made houses to a point in Texas, and
followed them with the worldly goods
of those who were to occupy them
when built. The only.time 1 ever knew
the company's men to be knocked out
vas when some fellow shipped a Me-
phitis Americana on Of our ears
in New Hampshire. This animal had
been caught and chloroformed, and as
the train ratified on it came to-, and
shortly after the car was vacated and
all hands found lying on the roof gasp
ing for air; The station. people were
sickness among them, and we had
great time before we could make them
understand the case. The car and con-
tents were s~ide-tracked and burned,
| and we never knew who served us the
trick."-PinsburgA Dispatch.