Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1890-10-23
THE GUARDS STORY.
How an Engineer Saved Life and Wealth
and How He Was Rewarded.

Coming down on the elevated road
late at night short time ago | fell
into conversation with the guard, saws
a n. n. Star reporter. He was a
pleasant fellow The night men are
apt to be. They haze less traffic and
the natural social instincts of men dis
play themselves in spite of corpora
tons ard iron-bound rules. As we
swung into South Ferry station he
shouted out. There goes the money
train." | looked and say single car
al, lched to an engine steaming up the
track. | had only glimpse of it, but
that was sufficient to rouse my Curl
osity. My companion was full of the
subject, and / gathered some interest
ing details on an important feature of
railroad routine.
Singular you never saw that be-
fore, said the guard. The car is
oval in shape, holds three or four men,
gathers up the tickets and DOODLE
and is naturally looked after pretty
sharp by the company. The men in
the car all carry guns and are gen.
orally loaded for bear so they're not
troubled much. The car starts out
about l or O'clock in the morning
and goes up and down the Second ave-
nue. road stopping at every station and
collecting the tickets in the boxes and
the cash from the Office. Next trip
is taken on the Third avenue road and
then on the others in regular order. the
car laying up for the day about 5 a.
IN. near Fifty-eighth street, on the
Ninth avenue line. I've heard say
that sometimes she carries about 500
600. In fact, that's only a light esti-
mate.
Nobody monkeys with that train
or with the men in it," continued my
informant, smiling grimlv to himself.
1T woud't be healthy. | do remem-
Der time though, when there came
near being circus. There had been
some trouble with laboring men
something of that kind-and they laid
Oft to wreck the train. You can't do
it easy. The ilan~e on the wheel al
ways catches when you run up on the
guard beam on each side of the track,
and you can't run into the street. The
gang knew this, and they tried some
thing new. They put an inclined
block on each track so the train might
run up and over. That might 60. 1t
was dirty trick. | suppose they ex-
pected to lay below and rob the car
when she smashed in the street. Kill
ing the engineer, of course, didn't
count. All the same they got left.
There was "a quick Young fellow on
the road that time. He saw the blocks
in the flash of the engine light and
stopped the train in her own length.
He saved everything and kept his wife
from being widow in the bargain,
guess. think | read IA poem about
it in one of the illustrated papers
Harper's Weekly, it seems to me. The
company was very grateful to that
young engineer
Pm glad of it." said l heartily.
He certainly did them service. What
did they do for himp Let's see. He
saved at least $40, 600 for the road. |
suppose they gave him $1,000.
Not much, said the guard. folding
his arms and winking at me coniiden-
italy. When corporations do that
we'll be near the millennium, aud
won't have so much need of the minis
tiers preaching the New Testament at
the directors on Sundays. The way
things go they don't have no call to let
up on them sharps. | never heard
that Sheridan got cent for what he
done. suppose directors think that
a mans bound to save his own life.
any way, and as for payin' him for
their own they're keepin' all they get,
make no mistake. | understand they
gave the engineer an earlier run, and
he was glad enough to get it. The
strain on him in those hours WANT so
great, and it was less rough on his
Kidneys"