Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1876-1904, 1889-12-09
THE FRsIcHT CAR.


q freight car, alfhough YOU NIGH
hardly think it. To an observan
mind, the long Ines of box and ia
cars lying congc6Sally on the sid
track of some great railroad. wit
their letters of introduction pinned ol
their breasts, as it were, in the shap
gilmore or less artistic lettering, are ful
of curioussuggestions. Here and there
too, will be seen cars In isolated posi
tions, seemingly reaching out fo
sympathy in their temporary loneIi
ness. Cars from the north, south
east and west; cars from the grea
Trunk lines; cars with signs teIlins
whom it may concctn that they belons
to the army of freight cars that rum
BILE busily to and So on the .sSunse1
Route" OF the 500 line" or the ro
mantle and rugged Canadian Pa
cific,n Here viii be- q batterA4 ant
we.s,- er worn car from the great west,
hobnobbff.sra and. IS j. We're, shaking
hands, with an IRON grip, with 8
Maine Central, or blue nose car. if q
car from the cou,iry of our loyal
neighbors can be given the same name
as the inhabitants. There are red
blue, white, brou.a and crushed
strawberry freight cars, and parti
colored freight cs<s-harlequins of
their respective roaGs.
A freight car is aIsinnocent looking
affair. 1t looks as though il was work
ed too hard to have life enough for
anything else, and ret q freight car
sometimes goes of in q tangent. So
frequent, indeed, is this weakness on
the part of the freight car that a man
called tracer" is constantly employ
ed by all railroad hEes to hunt them
dow1-, and bring them and their con-
tents back to their legitimate stopping
places. A car tracer knows some
thing about the pcculiarities of q
freight car. He knows sonnet ing about
a freight cars romantic longing to be
out and away. A genial gentleman Of
Boston, former car trac :, said the
other day in conversation with the
writer, that he had been all over the
country after recreant cars of the
freight persuasion, a1ld that he had
known instances OF 4 car eing lost
for three years, and finally turning
up unexpectedly, like a sort of rail-
road prodigal son, ready to be for
given. The person whose duty it is
to ferret out, or over, Or up the truant
cars has his hands fnll. Telegraph.
telephone and the mail are all in
voked, and if these fail, he goes per
sonally and acts the part of freight
car detective
If car could observe. and then
speak, it would have much to tell.
The unlmportant, dusty, greasy look
ing cars that huddle BY wharf and
and between immense red
Y8lhdds Yght 'pehsIVefy eiRh5 slnmber6us
Niagara drop rockward and bedew the |
hight. They have seen, or would
nave, could they have observed, the |
,ock heights and the moist depths Of |
he rugged and wild country through |
which the Canadian Pacific threads |
Is way In fact, the scenes a business
ike and vicious looking freight car
1as passed through would furnish |
Iketches by pen and pencil for the |
worlds press in imitless series Of |
articles
Besides its moro prosaic Office, the |
freight car is the drawing room, the |
car and the buffet, to GER
ain extent, of the gentry in rags and
.atters He, the member of the tat
tered gentry in question, hangs to the
inside or the outside of the freight car,
md, if he is not suffocated or other
wise annulled in the former position,
be is quite likely to let go his hold in
he latter and the next section man
hat comes along finds the mangled
and last remains of some grievous
hero of the late civil war" The
risks the tramp takes in appropriating
rides on the freight train are many,
and almost any casualty occur
ring to any train contains the name
Of some wretch, ito fortune and to
fame unknown" who left for his
long home on the freight train.
One method taken by tramps in
riding is to stand with each foot
planted on the two 'sbunters" Of
The car, and thus they measure out
mile after mile, in q sort of paralyzed
pair-of-dividers style, instead of fol-
lowing out the comforting suggestion
TO pedestrians-''one step and then an
other, and the longest walk is ended.n
A good, strong, modern freight car
IS worth $500. Some are valued at $3.50
and $3.50. The cars used to be % feet
long, but now they are usually 80 feet,
and there Is a movement to secure 80
feet cars for lumbA<
To conclude, did ,1u ever think OF
howAkITiks inanimate are offeR in
vested with almost human attributesf
So it is with freight cars. as with
many other things of much interest
and more worthy Of attention. Freight
cars are more worthy of notice than
cars, on account of their
very roughness and battered condi-
lion, and their unostentatious freight
yard retirement So it is in higher
matters, and when we have to deal
with humanity. The least display
effep hidaS the ru0Sf worth. and 81
Is in other lines of conduct also, GER
tain beneficial lesson may be drawn
from the wandering freight car
Somerville Journal
A Maine toHn Uhich eeaa the coming