Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-01
THE TOPICAL TALKER,
Major Montooth Calm and CheerfuI-The
Baseball Fever is Very AIiId-A Little
Protest From Sewickley

Major Montoorh Calm and CheerfuI-The
Baseball Fever is Very AIiId-A Little
Protest From SewiclIey.
IF the counrenance and costume of a man
afford reliable evidence of the state of his
mind, Major E. A. Montooth has not allowed
political mishaps to upset his equanmity.
When met him yesterday his sunburnt face
wore n CHEEKY smile, and in the Iappei of his
white flannel coat were a red and white rose
York and Lancaster united. The learned in
the language of flowers may read in that
boutonniere protest against factional fighting.
Major Montooth is not disposed to talk of
politics. His nearest friends say that the
strain of the campaign has told upon him
physically, but his looks do not confirm this
assertion. In a week or two he will make his
usual visit to Atlantic City and the East.
There is q strong desire among Major Mon
tooth's friends, it might be said among Pitts
burgers generally, to express their approval of
his course in declining the nomination for
Lieutenant Governor in some tangible manner
The feeling has not yet taken definite form;
but something will come of 1t.
THE mildness of the baseball fever this year
is nowhere more apparent than in the
barber shops of this city. Baseball and bar
bers used to be linked together by the warmest
having review of the ball situation sand
wiched in with each clip of the scissors. When
the Alleghenies were playing at home it was
positively dangerous to get shaved by certain
barber, SO highly wrought up were his feelings.
But that is all changed now. In barber
shop which used only to need diamond and
an umpire to be fair imitation of ball field
last year, spent half an hour yesterday with
out hearing baseball mentioned. The cranks
are in hopeless minority nov, though the re-
cent victories of the Players League team, it ID
fair to say, have encouraged the survivors con-
siderably.
F VERYBoDY who lives in Sewickley and in fact
in the valley from Sewickley to Leetsdale,
has burning grievance against the Pittsburg
and Lake Erie Railroad, For many weeks now
the patient inhabitants of this region have put
up with an outrageous nuisance. because 1t
seemed likely to be soon terminated, but now
that it bids fair to become permanent protest
must be made The Pittsburg and Lake Erie
is widening its tracks from Stoop's Ferry to
Shousetown; step toward transforming a
single into double track road. This may or
may not have connection with the nuisance in
question; nobody on the other side of the river
knows. All through the night a regular con-
cert is kept up by the locomotives of the Pitts
burg and Lake Erie with whistles of the most
piercing power that mortal man has ever heard.
Apparently locomotives are stationed at inter-
walls between Stoop's Ferry and Shousetown
to keep up continuous stream of steam yells
through the night The whistling continues
for several minutes at time. The lofty river
cliffs serve as a sounding board and send the
shrill screams hurtling over the valley with
full train of echoes. What the object of this
perpetual clamor is perhaps the railroad men
can explain. A suspicion is extant that it is
economy; the whistling locomotives taking the
place of telegraph operators In the movement
of trains.
The slumbers of a large community have
been broken intolerably for a long while, and
in many cases the lives of sick persons have
been imperiled by their extraordinary Pitts
burg and Lake Erie performances. Reason
able whistling is not objected to; other rail-
roads with 10 or 20 times the traffic do not find
it necessary to murder peace and quietness-
why should the PIttsburg and Lake Erie {?
This is no idle hot weather grumbling as the
authorities of the Pittsburg and Lake Erie can
find out by very slight inquiry.