River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1892-07-28

story: I'm my early experience with
the telegraph business, | was located
out at a place called Medicine Hat,
small group of shanties on the North
err Pacific railroad, as operator, ticket
agent and express agent. Medicine
Hat could be classed among the towns
as being thirty miles from nowhere.
What little business was done was on
account of mining village some thirty
miles back in the mountains. The entire
population of Medicine Hat could have
been easily crowded into the little viii
lage station.
Zone night, after day of the most
sultry weather that had experienced
for months, I was detained at my Office
on account of delayed trains. A con-
tinuous roll of thunder, accompanied by
sharp flashes of lightning in the dis
tance, warned me of an approaching
storm. / fretted and stormed. as !
wanted to get to my boarding shanty,
about a quarter of a mile up the coun-
try road, before the storm broke. /
was leaning back in my chair musing
over the events that had bought me
west, when suddenly voice broke upon
my ears:
"'Hold up your hands, quickr
"Glancing up saw huge revolver
pointed through the little window in
the wall through which l sold tickets,
and behind 1t a weird mask with terri
Bile shiuing eyes. In endeavoring to
comply with the command, especially
the latter injunction, my chair swung
around, my head struck on the edge of
the table and unconscious / rolled to
the floor.
When regained my wits found my
self lying on the floor of the outer
waiting-room bound hand and foot,
with a tall. ungainlylooking fellow
standing guard over me with Win
chester. The storm had broken over
us, and the wind, rain, lightning and
thunder were something terrific.
"All at once my trained ear caught
the sound of the telegraph sounder,
and turning my head / perceived man
at my desk working away at my key.
He wore a mask, but this did not dis
guise the fact that he was young
man. AS the characters were licked
off and came to my ears knew he was
feeling his way as to the location of
the delayed trains.
~ also noticed that he frequently
arose and made use of the ground wire
from the switchboard, which cut off the
main Office in which was located the
train runner of the division. At fire.
quent intervals sharp cracks of light
ming would reecho through the room as
they struck the arrester on the switch.
But the man worked on totally obliv-
ious of his surroundings
suddenly / caught the drift of what
he was sending out over the wire, and
was horrifieN. to learn that he was try
ing to manipulate the train orders so
as to cause wreck. Trains No. AZ and
IS passed each other about five miles up
the road from my station and he was
sending out orders with cool, steady
hand to train ~ to take siding about
ten miles east of Medicine Hat and to
train IS to pass AZ at the regular place.
These orders would have thrown
the two trains, which were heavily
laden with passengers and express
matter. together very near my station.
II could easily hear the sounder, and
from his orders knew the would-be
wrecker was an expert telegrapher and
thoroughly familiar with train rum
ming. Every now and then the wreeker
would raise his hand from the key as a
more severe stroke of lightning would
come in over the wire. but he was too
intent upon his deadly work to desist
The tramp of heavy boots on the
platform outside told me that the con-
templated wreck was an organized
scheme for robbing the express COM
pany and passengers. Muttered curses
frequently came from the man at the
key as his plans for wrecking the train
would meet with obstacles in the shape
of pertinent questions from operators
up the line, who wouldn't follow the
new order of things without fully I'M
Outstanding their import.
My mind was in a horrible whirl
and | frequently strained at my bind
ings to get my hands loose. but saw
age curse from my guard warned me
to be careful or my life would not be
worth much. On account of the trains
being behind time knew they would
be pushed to their utmost speed by the |