Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1891-03-21
RACING FOB A BRIDE.
Three Lively Railroad Races for q
= Farmers Daughter.

10feo Lively Railroad Races for q
= Farmers Daughter.
Along the line of the Santee railroad
no trainmen werc better known than
Billy Perkins and Jack Smith, the only
passenger conductors the road found it
necessary to employ. Every man and
boy along the route watched for the IA
m1liar trains, and when the mail passed
east in the morning each station lounger
was ready to shout ''IIello, Billy" while
they never missed greeting Jack in the
same manner an hour or two later, when
he passed in the opposite direction. In
the evening when the trains returned
the genial ticlset-punchers again re-
celved ovations at each stopping place.
Even the passengers were apparently
all acquainted with the conductors, for
as they went their rounds each traveller
would have some remark to make or
some sly inquiry about Bob Yocum's
Sallic, which would bring color to the
checks of the officials. TO Northern
stranger it sounded ludicrous to hear
the uniformed youths (ncither was
more than twenty-thrcc) addressed as
Captain Billy or Captain Jack, even
though accustomed to the universal
Southern habit of adding that title to
conductors names.
The total length Of the Santee rail-
road was only forty miles, but the
natives regarded the conductors with
that awe and admiration which country
folk always feel for railroad men. Did
not Billy run every day to Carthage,
the junction of the main line, and
know all the prominent officials of the
great through route of which the San
tee road was branch?
No telegraph line ran along the
branch, and the trains were run in the
good old way upon the single track;
that is, sidings were placed few miles
apart, and when Il train scheduled to
pass another at given point did not
find the other at the switch it simply
waited until the bclated train did come,
or after an hour or two started on it's
Journey at snail's pace, a fagman
running in front.
In the morning the trains passed at
n lonely siding in the woods, but in the
afternoon the meeting point was direct
ly in front of Bob Yocums plantation,
md rs the farmhouse, with its shady
porch, stood near the railroad, the
trainmen had long ago struck up an ac-
quaintance with the owner and daily
resorted to the cool garden to while
away the time until the opposing train
arrived. Sometimes one train reached
the point first, sometimes the other
would be in ahead. The engineers had
no signals to hold them back, and very
often the farm would be reached half
an hour ahead OF time. The schedule
was slow even for the old-style engines,
md unless there was something un-
usual to dctain them or the wood was
rct tho rn,,11
manage to spend about twenty minutes
nt Yocum's, TRANQUILITY smoking or romp-
ing with Sallic. the planters daughter.
Now it was this same Sallie who caused
SO much disturbance in the brea sts of
Billy and Jack. Each strovc to cut a |
favorable figure in her sight, and |
she was the lOadStonc which drew them |
daily to the garden. Luckily for them
each had an engineer as wild and rccls-
less as the most ardent lover could de- |
sire, and when the conductors told the |
man at the lever to 'let her CO." he did |
let her go until some faint-hcarted pas
senger protested at icing bumped into |
jelly.
Only a reckless man would dare to
ride one of the rattle-trap old engines !
over the uneven road at the rate of |
forty miles an hour, which speed was
occasionally reached in sudden bursts
Forty miles an hour over old-style
''U" rails, laid on rotten ties five feet
apart and joined with fish-plates is
equal to sixty miles an hour on
smooth track, so far as sensation goes.
To the observer the Santee railroad
was hardly visible, high grass growing
between the rails, but where the track
could be seen it seemed to be laid
upon the ground without any prcpara-
tory grading. Up hill, down hill tilt
ing to the right, fitting to the left, it
pursued its devious way, and the shak-
ing and creaking of trains and track
were enough to alarm any one not
in cndeavoring to regain
bis scat. The engines burned wood.
and when running at night rescm bled
volcanoes in active eruption. If the
reader has ever travelled behind one of
these fiery machines he will remember
how the sparks and pieces of wood flew
when the engine got into good work.
ing order. He will also have a very
vivid recollection of the long and ire
1uent stoppagcs when all hands heavcd
cordwood into the tender until it could
hold no more. These We're the charac-
teristics of the line over which Billy
and Jack made daily trips. There were
wood stations on each side of Eocum's,
md the trains in the afternoon were
to get supply of fuel before {
the passing siding.
The conductors pressed their srit
with the fair Sallie for many a day, bat
While each felt that the other had no