The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-03-28

member when the long waiting-rooms
with their tiled floors and dreary row,
OF stationary settces and crowds O
FRYING people, We're not quite as ia
miliar to him and more homelilke thar
his mothers small, bare house, whiot
he knew as little more than a place fol
eating and sleeping.
At an age whom any ordinary baby
might have been frightened into con
vulsions by the shrek of q locomotive
Joe. securely fastened in his cab
would stare for hours through the
great window undisturbed by the in.
cessant rush and roar of arriving and
departing trains.
He had been only six mouths old
when the dreadful accident happened
which at one fell stroke made him
strong, well developed infant to pitt
full creature, which even death refused
to take
The old yardmen tell the story even
yet-how young Michael Bryan, as
straight and manly fellow as ever
left his green, old, native island for the
better chances of the new world this
side OF the sea, came whistling out of
the roundhonse that morning and
stepped hastily from before an incom-
ing locomotive, neither seeing nor
hearing another rushing up the paral-
lei track. His mates cried out to him
too late! Nobody who saw it would
ever forget the look Of agony which
distorted his handsome face in that
one horrible instant when he recog-
nized his doom, or the perpendicular
leap into the air, from which he fell
back beneath the crunohing wheels
In the excitement and CONSERVATION
of the time no messenger had beon
sent in advance to prepare the poor
young wife for her trouble, and she
stood in the doorway with her baby
Growing in her arms, when the stout
bearers paused at her gate with their
maugled burden. She uttered a terri
bic cry and fell fainting-the child's
tender back striking the sharp edge of
the door stone.
'What a pity that it was not killed
outright said everybody but the
mother. She herself always insisted
that only her constant watching over
the little Pickering life kept her from
going mad in the first dreadful months
of her bereavement
When Joe was seven years old his
mother sent him to school He went
patiently day after day, making no
but she awoke suddenly one
night to find him sobbing on the pill
low beside her. Only by dint of long
coaxing was she able to find out the
cause of his grief. Some of the rougher
ooys-more thoughtIess than cruel, let
is hope-had called him Humpy, and
asked if he carried bag of meal on
his back.
Mary famed with the fierce anger Of
''You shan't go another day!" she de-
,lared. 1.-The rufians! l won't have
ny darlin' put upon by the likes of
.hemr'
So Joe's schooling had come to an
end. Yet, meager as was his
stock Of book learning, the develop
nent of his mind far outstripped the
growth Of his stunted and deformed
body. Everybody liked the patient
title fellow Juggling manfully at his
Mothers heavy water buckets and
'unning willingly to every call of the
tation men. AT twelve years old he
lad picked up no small amount of in
especially on railroad top
cs. He knew every locomotive on the
Dad, understood the intricacies of the
ide tracks and switches, and could
ell the precise moment when any par
ocular train might be expected with
he accuracy OF a time table.
Yet the very quickness and ardor of
is nature deepeued his sense Of his in
rmity. The glances cast upon him by
tranger eyes, some pitiful, some GU
ious, others, alas! expressive only of
annoyance and disgust, ranked like SO
,any arrows in his heart; not ono
Missed its mark. How wistfully his
yes followed boys OF his own age
traight, handsome. happy-who sprang
ghtly up and down the steps of the /
caches. or threaded their way along /
ne crowded platforms For one day !
such perfect, untrammeled life he !
'ould have bartered all the possible /
ears before him. Yet he never put /
is yearnings into words, even to his |
lother
Crooked Joe's rum I'm, said one of
is rough acquaintance. He senses
is trouble well enough, but he don't
It on to nobody"
MIR. Crump, the telegraph operator,
'as Joe's constant friend. 1t was he
no, at odd moments, had taught the
oy to read and had initiated him
ito some of the mysteries of the
licking instrument, which to Joe's
Imaginative mind seemed some strange
feature with hidden life of its own
1t was growing toward dark one No
I'm Der afternoon. Joe-never an un-
'elcome visltor-sat curled in q corner
Mr.. Crump's Office waiting for his
other to finish her work He was la !
spelling ont by the faded
ght the words upon page of An illus
ated ne wspaper, quite oblivDus of
lie ticking, like that of very jerky
I'D rheumatic clock, which sounded in
lie room
Mr.. Crump. too. had a paper before
m, but his ears were alive. Suddenly
: sprang to his feet. repeating aloud
e message which that moment flashed
ong the wire
Engine No 10 running wild Clear
acs'"
He rushed to the door. shouting the
ews
Not second to spare! She'll be
own in seven minutes"
The words passed like lightning. In
moment the yard was in wild COM
otiou. Men flaw hither and thirher,