Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1886-08-04
From the Detroit Free Press.l
THE COUPON TICKET.
LUKE SHARP.

Well, yes, said the conductor of the
train as he took the cigar l offered
him, [ have. OF course man that
travels much has to. Can't help it.
But the worst case [ had to deal with
was about two years ago. Of course
you've heard OF the case of Jeffries
against this road. No? Well, it grew
out of that Meedville accident. Never
heard of the Meedville disaster? Well,
I declare I thought everybody had
heard of that. There were columns
and columns about it in the pa
pers for days. Jimminyl how the
newspaper fellows tried to interview
me! Course [ knew better than to say
anything, but it was pretty hard to
get rid of the reporters. Well, it was
like this. was on No. 5 and we were
behind time. Johnnie was a-whoop-
ing her through for all she was worth.
Just this side of Meedville the air. break
tubing snapped and on went the
brakes quicker'n lightning. You see,
that's one advantage of the air. II
anything goes wrong it don't wait till
you need 'em, but it just cramps your
train where she stands. You may
risk a cracked wheel, but you can't
monkey with the air. You'vegot to fix
that right there or you can't go ahead.
Still, it was an unlucky affair for us.
Welt there's curve at Meedville and
we sent back a man with q red lantern,
but before hegot round the bend down
comes wild special right on us. It
was down-grade, the engineer lost his
head and jumped, fireman did the
same, and before you could say
Jack Robinson that special had
climbed halfway through the
sleeper. 1t was an awful wreck!
Half-past 1 in the morning and as
black as cats Whewl I don't care
to talk about that. General thing it's
the emigrants in front that suffer IN
an accident, but this time it was the
rich folks in the sleepers. Jeffries was
one of the killed. He was railroad
man who used to be in Chicago till he
got position on the Central in New
York. His family lived in Chicago,
and SO he came through now and then.
Mrs. Jeffries sued the company for
$10,0OO-I think it was $4,000,
although they generally 60 in for
larger amounts. Anyhow the COM
pany claimed he Travelled free and held
they were not liable. The company
lost the suit before the jury, but they
carried it up and the higher court re-
versed the decision, and as Mrs. jeff
ries didn't seem to have money enough
to carry it any further it rested there
against her. 0, yes, [ suppose she
could have got lawyers enough who
would fight the case on spec when she
had one verdict. [ don't know the
particulars Or why she dropped it;
I'm only telling you just what [ heard
that the case was dropped. Well,
mebby it's as you say. Perhaps the
company is liable for passes as well as
regular tickets; anyhow, I'm giving
you my version on it. You see the
conductor that took up the tickets
that trip was killed. was braking
then-and whether they got the
tickets and passes or not-well, I
don't know anything about that.
They didn't have to pay for Jeffries,
anyhow.
The night after that suit was decid-
ed I came through the sleeper collect
ing tickets. In seat No. 4 sat a man
that / thought was asleep. He had a
SLOUGH hat drawn over his eyes. I
''1icket, please" said. He didn't
move, and somehow the moment l
touched hum felt as if he wasn't aliv-
Jag man.
Il want your ticket" said, louder.
He didn't seem to breathe or stir, and
I was going to shake him when he
slowly raised his head. / shall never
forget the look of that face. The
nh uyoro err, ond tho ,ool1;J H.
were drawn back from the teeth that
glittered in the light of the lamp had
on my arm. His complexion was like
paste, only dark and notified, There
seemed to be g. bruise or cash on his
forehead, but he had pulled the
SLOUGH hat over it so as to partially
hide it.
He handed out g soiled coupon ticket
that had evidently been bought at
scalper's. [ looked at it suspiciously.
It was dated more than a year before,
but it was an unlimited ticket and
Tas good enough. I tore off the cou-
pom to Chicago and gave him check
When | gathered all my tickets | sat
down in the smoking-car to arrange
them and make an entry of the cash.
o, that's all right, we do make an en-
try of it. If a man takes any of it he
takes big risk with it | can tell you.
I thought would take another look
at that coupon. Well, sir, I couldn't
find it, No, sir; hunted every pocket
I had Couldn't find trace of it. II
went back and met the conductor of
the sleeper and told him that had
lost a ticket or else | hadn't torn il