New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-09-27
THE BRAKE-BEAM RIDER.
by FRANK D. WILLARD.

We were doing little switching ut small
station not ten miles from the gray stone .ilaO
marks the boundary line between Utah and Nevada
That day would have been good one on wac d ~
lay up" for there was sano-error Ia. iau ~ ~
ticIsr hS Sigision viii tell YOU what it means to
switch cars in sand terror but as you may noC
Ueet such man-they generally Ole youns any way
i will remark right here that 1t means atOugh Time
and O good deal OF swearing. There Is sense y.
continually having TO a brace yourself up agalIso
something. and that something Is su SrpS tbs
wind that pelts you with small hot shoJ from Tue
desert. III you in caravan on INC oah 1 Ia;
you an turn your back to the sand storm anu ieU
It howl as i will OF you ro can TO ID do when you have
10 run along the side of rallroad.rach ui,u
make Signals to AN engineer VINO cannot see n d
than forty feet ahead of him IN tile storm ana uoer
not care brass button whether or not ne crusnes
the life out of you when you run between Vne Vo
to make eGapfng an1 1it tcsn While you stand on
top OF boxcar, in the teeth OF the terror, WIN
your eyes and mouth full Of sand ana your
whskerS as dry and pricSly as lot OF cactus
spines Yes, that is what IL means, ana IL means .
O good deal more if you happen 10 nave DIg,
believing bull of conductor TO curse you you IL or SGa
make miss in coupling or cut out car that oughU
10 be left in the train. 1900
was glad. YOU may be sure, when we were
through handling those empties at that Satans
hole of q station on the desert, and there was
clear stretch of thirty miles 70 the next place whete
there was any more switch work to ne d one AS
the train started | jumped on nat Dennu
box-car, the better 10 avoid the wlnd, whlcn ny
this time seemed to have half the desert IN us
teeth lncre were lNlng vi tilC
iron smoke stack and furnace that were gong 10
Virginia CITY, | saw boot sticking out OIL the
end of the big pipe, and knew at once thai oGGI
had in it the foot of tramp who was beating Ills
9Come out Of that" I shouted. in h nlT,hr
tone than really meant 70 use S tDp n
less they are too soggy with rum TO deserve KIM
ness at my hands. ,,-. ,o
out. So laid hold upon the protrudtng boot. ana
icrled IL hard that ii came of the loot ana mo "a
wback upon the iron. This elbow knock made me
pitiless for the time, and pulled and pushed une
poor fellow until had him of the tram. whlGh was
slowly moving away from the station. lie was
nlournfnl look Somehow l fancied, as thrust
him off-none too gently-that he resembled me
N might be that he was several years younger
but he had my nose and eyes and his ouln was
about the same while his hair was fully as lisnt.
" III II hadn't been for that elbow knock sald
T. as / threw the fellows boot after him into the
desert, Il would have let him stay on; ~ ~
wouldn't have cost me 9sbo m in storm
like this is hardly the thing for white man,
especially with very black night coming on: MI
The day loses itself very quickly in sand
storm and before the train mad run many miles
further it was quite dark lid hoa
We were Mt Bishops Station and the wlnd nad
died down q bit. | had just remarked TO the
head brakeman how cool 1t was getting when ne
sid .,, ,uir, IN or ton o, that cattle
car Go an fire him off while 1 look out for the
switch"
did as | was ordered. -
Of the smoke-stack back at Deseretl" exclaimed,
IS my lantern lighted up the brown features OF
The tramp. Where the = did you come from 7,
Oh. / got on again. said my train-jumper, his
face rs rnournful as ever
Well. you'll 20 of this time for good said,
firmly: and off he went into the darkness Dy the
side of the freight shed. -
As the train pulled out I stood on the platform,
lantern in hand ready to unP upon b the be@s So oe
heavy strainlng of the engine, gathering Oh
loose brakes. slow grinding Of the wheels on the
rails, and all The other noises that heavy freight
train makes in getting under way. There was n
bullying furniture car in the middle OF the IRAN,
and as it went by saw, cr9uchlng down upon Ine
Now, any man who will ride on brake-beam forces
a certain sort of admiration from me In spite, o.
myself, no matter how he may irritate me IN Other
ways The daredevil manner in which the brake
beam rider stretches out on his narrow perch ne
tween tho wheels and goes gliding along, with his
body not two feet from the ground, his hands
gripping whatever ne can get hold of-and that is
next 10 nothing-always commands my respect.
The light of my lantern flashed upon the mans
face but he did not cover. He only smiled and
Rough sort of Pullman BERTH isn't itP" ~
I said nothing and sprang upon the caboose lie
could have his ride on the brake beam if he wanted
it, and heaven help him.
Letter for YOU S t Saau o oi te stat"n
The missive was from my mother, who wrote
from the dear old Vermont home that Joe-my
own brother Joe-was on his way West and would
reach Humboldt by the eighteenth. Although
had weeks before received letter stating this in
tenion Joes part. the news of his starting came
IN me as a sort of surprise.
Humboldt-the eighteenth Why. this is II, the
eighteenth" said to myself The letter had
heu DELAYED. Well. at any rate, we will get TO
Humboldt tonight and Brother Joe will doubt
come in on the nine-ffteen express half an hour
behind us A., 49,, A..
knew that Joe could find me there
had to go forward in the dark and an, take up
p SsnO1 n a we sns rushed through it, seemed to
to the bone, but the sand-stOrm-thank the fates
had subsidized. had put Oh heavy coat, and
lantern in hand, | had made my way carefully
over the swiftly moving cars. We were on a
long down grade. and the train always went at top
speed on that part Of the run 1ea t6ou oh ' of
brother Joe and wondered how he would look after
al the years we had lived apart They had told me
in their letters from home that ne had grown up to
I've the living picture of myself in the days before
had wandered away from the old root-tree
Now had always fanced that few people ,i mad
Yes he was one of the few. Where was he bound
Wes there brother TO meet him at the end of his
wandering up and down the face of the earth in
the aimless fashion of these railroad trampS? 1t
might be ,hat there was pleasure 20 To- De deH vel
But in the case of my friend on the brake-beom--
what Joy he experiencing then? Very little,
Won may be sure. The cold air was piercing his
tldnly clothed form, stretched out there on the
hard beam. His benumbed hands Were grasping
the cold iron rod. while the dust, caught up by the
whirling train, was choking his throat and filing
lis eyes and nostrils His teeth were playing rat
tat-tat with each other and his limbs were chilled
10 iog-like stiffness. Without witnessing any of
his torture knew that he was suffering a most
as well as though were in his place. and hardened
, hrake-twisier though was, my heart went out to
the poor devil. Possibly he might have felt just
q stray hit OF comfort. after ALL had he known Of
my sympathy, but ! do not suppose he had the
slightest notion In the world that there was any
body ON the train who cared a copper whether his
bed were hard or soft. or that his flesh were warm
or cold
IS n he had gone suddenly daft that engineer
of ours brought the train up with Jerk by throw
ing on the automatic and at the time
nearly throwing me off the car into the ditch. |
crashed the brake-handle TO save myself fall and
in that instant an awful yell rang out above tie
riimblng of the train-snch yell one instinc-
lively knows to mean death. That bood-thirsty
l.nt of him snllnds tn