The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-06-27
IN THE NICK OF TINE.
Clever Action Of an Operator Dur
ing Imminent Danger.

Miss Lily Somers, night telegraph
operator at the Floodwood station, sat
before her table, on which the tele-
graph instrument clicked busily, a
thoughtful expression upon her face.
A face whose expression was its
charm, that never could be called pret-
", but that, nevertheless, suggested a
possibility-only possibility-of be-
ing handsome. For there is vast diff
ference between pretty and handsome.
Pretty people seldom know very much;
but to be handsome, person must
have brains; an inner as well as an
outer beauty.
Floodwood was forlornly desolate
spot and one where any woman, ex-
cept Lily, would have been afraid to
come, much less to stay alone all night
with nothing but the wind sadly sigh
Ing through the wires overhead and
the shrill shrieks of the wild cats away
up on the mountain side to keep her
company through her nightly vigils.
But to her there was something fasci-
Mating in the very desolation of the
place. From early childhood she had
been accustomed to commune with ma
ture in her widest scenes, and played
and wandered at will in the mountain
glens and canyons. With no foolish old
woman or silly nurse girl to frighten her
childish senses with stories of hideous
ghosts and monstrous goblins, she had
grown to womanhood naturally brave
and fearless. In truth she did not yet
understand the meaning of the WORD
fear.
Her Office was nothing more than 6
roughly built shanty, seven or eight
feet square, with small window il
each end, and one in the door which
faced the railroad track. 1t had beer
hurriedly put together with green lum
Der while the road was in course O.
construction, with the intention of only
using it temporarily until a better
one could be built, but as usual in such
cases, it had done duty for its origina,
purpose ever since.
The rough, unpainted boards were
now badly warped and shrunken BY
long exposure to the elements, and in
many places large knots had faller
completely out.
No doubt, in the winter time, the
oleak mountain wind cheerily whistle6
through these many apertures, and
While one side of the unhappy operator
vas being nicely Drowned like piece
Of toast by the red-hot stove, the Other
side would be refrigerated like frozer
rabbit.
itwas about one o'clock in the morn
ing when Lily received an order from
the train dispatcher which read as fol
lows:
10 OPERATOR, FLooDwooD: Hold No. 2
patll No. 02 arrives. EXC"
On receipt of this order she immedi
aely.displayed the red signal light
which Is furnished all telegraph sta
IONS for this purpose, in a conspicuou
pace, IN plain sight of passing trains
ana also where it could be seen from
she Office window.
Ihsnecessity for this order and posi-
aon Of the two trains. briefly stated
we're as follows:
no. Y had arrived at Silver CreeI
en miles west of Floodwood, a few
minutes after No. q had passed Red
WOOD, which was thirteen miles east O
Sioodwood. As No. % was late an,
could go no further on the schedule
aoccrdlng to the rules of the road, the,
YOU'D ! be compelled to lay at Silve
SFeek until No. 81 arrived there, unles
saey could get orders by telegraph t
aaset them at some other station. Flood
soeo' being the only intervening tele
ssapn ofice between the two trains
~ dispatcher gave the above order t
sa station, and as soon as it wa