The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1888-04-14
A DAKOTA BRAKEMAN.
His Remarkable Adventure With the
Sioux.
[Carruth in chicago Tribune.l

lOdITutH III CHlcdBO 1ilDunc.l
There is one railroad brakeman working
somewhere in Dakota who in a certain
branch of railroading is bigger man. than
Jay Gould. don't know what his name is.
but he is large, raw boned, square cornered
ugly looking man, somewhere between six
and seven feet tall with wrong-font lower
jaw-one which was intended for man be-
tween seven and eigh feet tall.
He always works on the front end of a
freight train and enjoys nothing more than
collision with cattle train occasionally.
There can't any tramps ride on his train.
He's done more to solve the tramp problem
than perhaps any other man in the United
States. Hits 'em with a cOupling-pin and
leaves them for the local authorities to bury.
He can't remember the time when he was
small enough to take back talk.
was ON his train one day in 1887 going on
the Northwestern road from Tracy, Mimi,
to WATERFOWL, Oak. He was feeling little
cross about something, and one of the first
things he did was to twist of two brake-rods
and throw them off on the prairie. At Gary,
just across the territorial line, some forty or
fifty Sioux Indians boarded the train. They
were from the SiSseton reservation, and had
been down on the Lac Qui Parle river hunt
ing; they were rather uncivilized, but they
had made progress enough to see the advan-
tage of riding on the pale-face freight train
over walking. They scorned the cabo0se,
however, and scattered themselves along the
top of the box-cars near the centre of the
train. They were, of course, sufficiently CIV
ilized to know enough not to buy tickets.
When the train pulled out of Gary the an
gular brakeman came into the caboose and
took off his coat. His face wore bad scowl.
- guess We'll have to let them Indians
ride" said the conductor "0f course, we
can't put them off till we get to the next sta,
ton, and even then it will be the easiest and
safest way to leave them alone" The brake
man gave him one whitening glance and went
out the front door. We climbed up into the
pilot-house of the caboose, looked ahead, and
awaited the war of determination.
The train was now going full speed. cit
oH'n thisl Git of'n thisl You dirty, sneak
ing thievesv yelled the brakeman, as he ad-
vanced along the roof of the cars, taking long
steps and swinging his arms and working his
lower jaw sideways, Jump off or I'll throw
you off" The Indians only grunted and lay
down and chung to the ridge-boards Of the
cars the harder. The first Indian he came to
was o chief with feathers in his hair The
BRAKEMAN seized him by the shoulders and
pulled. The naughty leader of downtrod-
board and didn't come. Then the brakeman
ened up and threw himself back like a man
who has leaned over to feel Of buzz-saw
when it's buZZing, and that proud old chief
Of the unc0nquered Sioux came up board and
all, and the raw-boned twister of brakes shot
him off through the air, where he lodged
against telephone pole and wilted up like
an autumn leaf.
Then that brakeman went for the noble
savage. He had got taste of blood, and he
made 1t bright red day for Indians.
He began to walk right through those In
They saw their only hope was to get up and
fight him. This was what he wanted. For
the next half hour he stood up there on top
of those swaying freight cars, and fought,
and tore, and ripped, and gouged, and
wrestled, and pounded, and leaned over, and
straigbted up, and chewed, and masticated
and otherwise communed after his manner
with those simple sons of the forest. Lo, the
poor Indian, the untutored cuss, thought
there'd a Methodist Westinghouse fallen on
Some of them he shot off into the tall
prairie grass: others he rolled off into the
ditch; and still others he tossed up and left
hanging on the telegraph wire and looked
back at them sadly as II regretting that he
hadn't time to stop and adjust clothes-pin
on them.
Sometimes when he struck a car where In
dams were particularly plenty and he was
fortunate in getting good holds on them he
shot them out so fast that to us back in tie
caboose it looked as If a volcano had broken
out ahead which discharged nothing but
NOItu AuleFlCdH dDOtbihoo "a A"nbiOu
condition.
Again he would shove one over the side and
then seem to regret the action for some reason
seize the foot Of the red man just before 1t
was too late, and stand on the edge and
pound the side of the car with this original
pOssessor Of the continent.
They never got him down or once caused
him to swerye from the great object he had
In view. Once they completely surrounded
him, but he made swinging kick and six
noble braves got off the train and bit the
right of way. There were Indians to the
right of him, Indians to the left of him, In
dams in front of him, but he only swung that
lower Jaw of his sideways little, like the
gang-plank of a steamboat, and scattered
them on the prairie. The rolling coteaux:of
eastern Dakota were planted to Lo for over
ten miles. Finally he got hold of the last one
He seemed to throw him of reluctantly, as il
he wished he was rather beginning the pleas
ant task instead of ending it. But he falt-
cred only a moment and the last Indian
struck ten feet further from the train than
the first-that was the only difference. Then
he came back to the caboose and put on his
coat, and the half angry expression on his
face was gone and in its place rested calm,
cOntented air, which told Of duty faithfully
and conscientiously performed.