River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1889-02-21
THE vAcs AoJouRNED.
A Successful Application OF Electricity "a
-Four Dirty Tramps-

-Four Dirty Tramps-
When l learned biography, in
1875. said knight Of the key, my first
position was that Of all-night operator
the Erie railroad at Corning. II being
a great railroad point, ms ct-sef CON-
panions after about eleven o clock ev-
cry night were half dozen dirty
tramps. who would crawl out of their
berths in double-decked cattle cars for
the purpose Of thawing out by the side
of my warm coal fire in the passenger
depot Well, it SGT sort OF
monotonous, you know, to keep
awake all night and hear the
snoring and smell the sweet odor that
arose from the burly tramps as their
clothing began TO steam at the fire-side.
Perhaps you have passed train OF hogs
at East Buffalo some time in your life
and can recall TO your memory how
pleasant the situation was. At any
event / resolved TO clean them out,
and. arranging with the day operator
George QUINN TO come around one
night at twelve o'clock we began to lay
plans toward the determination of the
pests. Quinn was an original chap.
about six feet six inches tall, with
club foot. and wore a broad brim hat in
true Texas style. He was an cleo
trican of no mean merit. II vas while
working at Corning that he invented
funnel-shaped instrument that when at
tached to the relay Of a telegraph cir
emit ba xrac ah1a 20 afur a 4tsno m. ,,larr
on his cornet into the mouth Of the
funnel, and then requesting all the boys
on the wire between Corning and Ro-
chester 10 adjust their instruments dne.
they were able TO hear every note of
his. This was before Edison's telephone
had come into general use. and was
thought to DO a great thing by the
country operators. who used 10 pass
many a quiet night listening TO tho
sweet notes from Quinn's 'Musiephone.'
Well, to return TO the tramps; Quinn
came around at twelve o'clock as per
agreement, and finding four dirty fell
lows stretched out upon the waiting
room benches we proceeded to do
t.em.' but in a novel way. Going to
TIE bat,e-y-room Texas Jack, as the
boys used 70 call him, fixed up a strong
battery and attached it to a key whence
a wire was strung into the waiting
room and across the hands, and in one
instance across the knee where a hole
appeared. touching the flesh Of all four
of the tramps Then taking pieces OF
cork and splitting them at one end so
as to admit of their being
spread over the bridge of the
nose. with two matches stuck in the
other end. my friend Quinn stepped
lightly around the room, placing the
corks on the noses Of our victims.
Wake up? You couldn't wake up one
of those tramps with dynamite bomb
They probably had not had good
sleep before in a week. Finally George
gave me the wink 70 touch the key and
let the battery onto the the wire just
after he had touched the masches of.
It's surprising how fast lightning viii
travel. / declare il don't seem as
though had turned it on when such
bounding. jumping, swearing and cry
ing of fire you never heard. IL there
had been hat-pin six inches long run
into those four tramps they could not
have moved any faster than they did
out of that depot When Quinn came
out from his hiding. he remarked: j
was only AFRAID of one thing. and that
was that owing TO the length OF time
since any of our dodgers had seen
bath. feared the electricity would fail
to reach to the skin But it did. and
that was the last time l saw tramp in
the Corning depot. ~ Rochester (N. y
HMM