Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-01-23

TOOK OFF MY PLUG HAT.
reply to the letter just wrote to the su-
perintendent-to st. Paul and thence |
down TO st. Louis. From st. Louis to
Omaha and the mountains. The upper
Mississippi has never been adequately
described. Though lived there twenty
years, was always so busy trying to
solve great national questions that 1 did
not get a chance. l was endeavoring
part of the time to prove that free trade
would keep people poor and break up
happy homes, and part of the time l
was proving that high tariff would do
the same. One was as easy as the other
and the salary the same.
Going up the road the other day, with
the broad and decollette bosom of Lake
Pepin glistening in the crisp air and pull
sating beneath the bright, declining sun,
and swiftly darting by the historic
Maiden Rock from which the beautiful
but plainly educated Indian girl leapt to
her death, falling to the cruel rocks be-
low with the low, dull plash of dis
heveled egg on the broad brow of a
lecturer, l thought of those dear old days
when Minnehaha had not been embalmed
in song and interurban lots between st.
Paul and Minneapolis could be bought
for a string Of glass beads, even as
William Penn purchased the state of
Pennsylvania.
1t was in Pennsylvania only a short
time ago that we met, running out of
Altoona, the justly celebrated conductor
who can extend his cars, like jack-in-
the-box, at will. l do not recall his
name, but / do remember that after
had askedhim something about whether
we were late or not several times, no
held his head down TO my lips and shot
his ear out at me like the warm, dank
nose OF a baby elephant. He has a ma
tional reputation that way, it seems, but
/ did not know it. Others who knew
both Of us enjoyed the meeting very
much. Since that ] have been less in
quisitive about trains. One can hardly
realize how strange the sensation is
when he is greeted in that way by one
10 whom he has no letter of introduction.
also took n ride out Of Philadelphia
in the cab Of n locomotive engine later
on. 1t was the Henry F. Shaw of the
Baltimore and Ohio, and had to get up
at 9 o'clock a. m. 10 do il, but as / went
10 bed at 5;4S, having been TO the Union
League club 90 see some friends the
evening before, who had detained me, il
did not matter. Securing pound OF
cotton waste do not mean this in the
society sense, for that kind of cot
ton waist has little TO do with this
letter. went down TO the Il. & o.
depot, and, looking once more at my
little volume of mechanical terms, SO
that l could talk intelligibly with the
engineer, clambered up the front stoop
Of the cab. We rode out TO Chester and
back. That is all know about it.
heard a roar, a hiss, snort, a whistle,
ring, the quick rumble of the pilot,
the gasp of the mud valve, the low vi
bration of the crown sheet, the surging
of the cut of. the sigh of the monkey
wrench. and we were off.
"Is not the life Of the engineer one Of
extreme pcril?' asked Harry S. Burial,
our handsome engineer. He did not
hear me, for it was a suburban train
and as we were quite busy stopping and
starting he VOTED not what i said.
"And, as we say in England, do you
not enter with hearty zest, after awhile,
upon this jolly life as you gayly tool
your trap down the void and out across
the mere, like perdition beating tan
BARK
At that moment the ruddy fireman,
Mr.. j. II. Metzgar, swung wide the fire
door, opening X. U. E., ran poker into
the hot nav of the engine, letting out a
fame which reached for my 1.-the and
gazelle like limbs, gently scorching the
embroidery at the base of my DIR. Jigger
underwear, roared at the top of its lungs
and drowned my voice.
"And do you not at times have to
throw her over and run for the woodbox
or jerk the poor child of some unknown
Pennsylvania duke from the track,
handing her back to her parents I'M
soathed and receiving $3.50 therefor. at
the same time getting laid off for thirty
days for not keeping out of the way of
the regular through express, beside hav-
ing to pay for Pullman car, which is
worth far more than u child, especially
where IL was u poor child with several
brothers and sisters? And do you not
think, seriously, that u child or two,
more OF less, especially among working
people, should have little TO do with the
running time of trains?"
At this point / was quite exhausted,
and 80 was the engine. So the engineer
did not hear me. l took Off my plug
hat, put out little fire that had started
on the top and said:
81 suppose you have loved ones who
recognize your whistle and at night put
lamp in the window two times If well,
three times for Group, four times for
worms and five times to indicate buck
wheat cakes for breakfast"
He pulled the handlsof the under feed
throttle and threw large lump Of btu
minous coal mt dog who was not of
gentle birth rs we scooted into a tunnel
and all conversation was drowned In ths