St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-01-23
GOULD CHANGED HIS MIND.
He Didn't Care to Ride Fast on a
Texan Railroad.

u
Texan Railroad.
San Francisco Chronicle.
Jay Gould once made a trip to Mexico
to inspect the International & Great
Northern railway. 1t was in the au-
tumn of 1885, and, as usual, the million
aire was III hurry. Meeting the gen
tleman who had the sale of the road in
hand. he said:
Ppm busy man, and L want to be
back in New York next week. Rush
me through"
A special train was made up, and put
in charge Of Jack Lauer, one of the
pioneers in Mexican engineering.
"Rush him." was the order, and Mr..
Lauer did some hard thinking. He
knew that the roadbed was in a terrible
condition. and that to run over twenty
miles was TO run desperate chances.
Lauer had lots Of nerve, but he felt the
responsibility imposed upon him by the
officials in placing Could in his hands.
He concluded finally to use his own
Judgment, take no chances, and stick
closely to the schedule time.
Between Marshall and Galveston the
schedule called for 1926 miles TO be made
between dark ana daylight. Jay Gould
seemed particularly wide awake. He
sat reading a newspaper by dim light,
and every once in while glanced out
of the window impatiently. 1t was
evident that the great man was becOm-
ing angry. Finally the storm burst.
Turning to one of the officials accom-
panying him. he remarked testify:
IF this were a funeral train it
couldn't possibly travel i'll a more dec
orous manner. Steam up and let us 20
along.
The gentleman spoken to was aware
that the night ride had been specially
arranged in order that the condition of
the road bed could be concealed from
Gould, but thus forced he had nothing
to do but order an increase of speed.
The order was given, but the train
moved along at the same speed.
''Send the engineer to me-" said
Gould. "Ill talk to him."
AT the next stopping place Lauer was
summoned and given to understand
that he was not capable of driving
car horse, much less running an ell
CINE.
Get along! Push her! Let's see
what the machine can do?' urged
Gould.
Lauer demrred. and the railroad mag
nate concluded he was afraid. "He's
CT war d. he finally said. Put another
man in charge"
Lauer overheard the remark and
flushed up. "All right" he said, ''we'll
open her up"
In few moments the little special
was speeding through the night at the
rate of forty-five miles an hour. 1t was
a ride to be remembered. The cars
from to
every joint, and now and then lifting as
if about to leave the track. Everybody
clung to some support, those who knew
the condition of the roadbed expecting
to be hurled into eternity every minute.
Lauer sat at the throttle, watching
the rails as they cleaned like silver
threads. He was as pale as those in
the train behind, but, as he remarked
in telling the story the other day: "Pd
have gone up with pleasure before L
would have given that little cuss the
chance to say was squealer."
Once he looked back at the swaying
train and said: HE won't stand it
long"
The engineer was right. At par
ticularly bad place the bell cord was
jerked and the train brought to a stand
still. Jay Gould was picked from under
a seat, where he had been thrown, and
angrly faced the engineer, who had
come back to the car.
what, in the name of all that is good
and holy, do you meau?" he demanded.
do you want to kill us all?'
"You said You wanted me to pull her
open,'' replied Lauer, quietly.
Gould glared at the man for moment
and his manner changed.
"My man." he said, ''you go back
there and use your own Judgment the
rest of the trip. | know how to manip-
ulate railroad, but l guess you know
more than l do about running an en-
CINE" Then he was assisted to his
berth