Los Angeles herald., 1890-10-06
Who Does Not Like the Inter-
state Commerce Law.
But He Gets There Just the
He Revenges Himself on Brutal
Brakeman
And is now Ready to Encounter Other
Perils on the Rail While Bound
for Seattle.

When the Republican convention
concluded its labors the reporters were
very tired, but they met as usual on
Saturday night to exchange reminis-
cences at their favorite place. There
was cowboy like gentleman present
who said that he had just arrived from
Arizona and was on his way to Seattle.
He was very much discouraged at the
working of the interstate commerce bill
which had prevented him from getting
passes to travel first class, as in the days
of yore, on the strength OF having held
down job as reporter on one OF Ari-
zona's cosmopolitan journals. He said
he had no talent for riding on brake
beams, and walking on the track he con-
sidered very tiresome, although he had
such long long legs !eggs His trip to Los Angeles
he believed to have been one of the most
wearisome efforts OF his life. An invita-
ton to smoke pipe and take pull at
the jug, brought the young man out.
"You see," said he, II had been in
the U. S. cavalry, and being a good
rider became cow-puncher after my
ambition, so let steers alone and got a
job on the Tucson "Nebula." My
efforts were not appreciated and pretty
soon got fired. had two dollars and
an India rubber overcoat. l tried hard
to get pass over the road, but l got
left, as usual. So l started afoot to-
wards Yuma. 1 walked sixty miles
without seeing anybody but dead man
who had died from want of water. l
don't mean to say that he had been
without LIQUID refreshments, because he
had bottle that had contained whisky,
lying beside him. The place where |
landed is named Casa Grande. The
overland express passes there at night
and / screwed up my courage to Jump
the blind baggage when it stopped. l
got TO Maricopa before l was discovered
and-bounced. The following morning
Just climbed on freight train that was
ready to pull out. AS l have said l
can't rest easy on brake beam, so sat
down on broken wheel, lying on fiat
car. The train left, and was in hopes
of reaching Gila Bend without much
trouble, when sixteen miles out from
Maricopa hot box was discovered and
so was /. the breaky who saw me Of
fered to let me go ahead provided put
I needed my dollar so bad that / could
not give it up. He had a big club
which he used to turn the brake wheels
with, and he threatened to break
my head with it unless
"came up'' or left the car. l left, OF
course. had sixteen miles before me,
and not drop of water, although there
were plenty OF prickly pears to be had.
But my good fortune was to begin soon.
/ had passed several Chinese section
hands, when a man called at me who
turned out to be an old friend. He was
the section boss. After taking me to
his home to dinner and treating me in
royal manner, he pumped me out on his
handcar to the end of the section, and
by great luck we arrived there just as
the Gila Bend section boss was ready to
begin his return journey. This old fel-
low was just as cordial as the other,
and we went down the incline at a
great rate. was made welcome at the
section house where old Pat, who was
bachelor, fixed up grand supper In
regular bachelor style. He and l went
over to the saloon, and there another
surprise was in store for me. The man
who kept that place was friend of
mine, too, and as he had business some
Wu6Tt tlSc, lie WduJeu d DdTkccptT lOT
couple of weeks. He had tried one who
got drunk the first day and spent all the
earnings of the bar at poker. So be Of
fered me the job, and, although l am
good hand at drinking cocktails and
knew nothing about the manner of their
concoction, l had the gall to take it.
The parting injunction of my boss was
that whisky was good enough for any
one, and if l became tired of mixing
cocktails, just to tell the epicurean sons
of-guns so. He also showed me a
couple of revolvers for emergencies, inn
plored me not to knock down too
much and told me where to hide the
DOODLE at night.
"Well, the next morning, who should
come in, with several others, but that
breaky who had bounced me off his
train. He didn't recognize me, because
was wearing white shirt and had the
boss Alaska diamond sticking into it.
That splendid jewel was about as large
as bull's-eye lantern glass, and gor-
geous-oh, my The boys played sew
eral games of cards for the drinks, and l
noticed that my breaky never paid when
he had lost, but kept saying: Charge
it, AS the game broke up, the fellow
coolly told me that this was on him,
anu ne wanted TO leave. DuC stoPpeu
him., and explained to him
that he couldn't get away without
pungling. So he took square
look at me and he says: Why, you're
that there fellow kicked off that there
train?' And, yes,' says you're that
there fellow l am a'going to kick out OF
this here saloon, unless you pay right
nowp He thought that he could bluff
me, but he couldn't. Jim, he said, gave
him credit when he wanted it and
ought to do it too. 1 merely pulled out
one of those two big revolvers and in
formed breaky that when Jim was run
ming the shebang he could do as he
liked, but when l was I'd have my own
way or bust So he wilted and paid
the cash. Although hevowed he'd never
= come. into the house again, he called half
an hour later, said was q good boy,
blooded, etc., and promised thereafter to
let me ride with him for nothing"
''There were some Maricopa and Pima
Indians there, and they tried all sorts
of tricks to get whisky. OF course, 1
would not supply them with it, but they
managed to get some of my liquor all
the same. The day had made up my
mind to vamoose from Gila Bend, two
young tramps wanted fifty cents worth of