Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1895-03-29
THE HIGH Bill"

SarE Tor the Mitchell Furniture Com
pany to cut down the working hours
Of all its employees. A little more than
a year before two hundred tired men
passed the time keeper every evening
at o'clock, homeward bound. Now
but ninety hands were employed, in
Guiding the office force and boys, and
work was over every afternoon at t
o'clock.
The majority Of the men whiled
away the interval between quitting
time and their supper hours in the
stores and saloons, which surrounded
the public square. Manchester had its
public square. as every well ordered
county seat should have. and the adj
vertising leanet. issued by the Matches
ter Improvement Society, contained a
most alluring picture of il. There We're
also in this leaflet some fine half
tone" engravings of the court house.
the new high school, Malchester's four
stone churches the stores Of the lead
ing merchants (whO paved $25 TO de-
fray the actual cost of preparing the
engraved plates) the new depot and
the old round house of the Jackson
Vile. Manchester & Springfield rail
way. The leafet also called attention.
in bold, red display type, to the fact
that Manchester was q division point
on the Jacksonville, Manchester C
Springfield railway, and that for over
aQu3rter OF century over one hundred
and fifty to two hundred employees Of
the road had made the town their
headquarters.
One afternoon, as President Mitch
ellis stenOgrapheg. Frank Ashley, was
tidving uD the papers on his employ
er's desk. he came across the leaflets
OF the Manchester Improvement So
ciety. and the display note about the
Jacksonville. Manchester & Springfield
railway reminded him that it was high
time to go over to the round house and
hear a story which his old friend
commodore" FOOte. the engineer or
locomotive No. %. had promised TO tell
him the next time he came around.
Now. even if the building in which
the locomotives are housed are uni
versally called round houses, each one
[ suppose. has its shady side. ] re-
member the one at Manchester was so
blessed, and here, at 6 o'clock, well out
of the burning rays of a declining sum-
mer sun. on a portable and lmprOvised
, bench. made by placing a broken
freight car door on two discarded
draw heads" sat FOOte and young
Ashley. jim Walsh. the fireman, was
oilins. polishing. watering and gener-
ally preparing No. 90 for her approach
ing run. Presently the fireman had
tipped the long shouted oil can enough
to suit even the critical commodoreand
as if half in sympathy with mechan-
ism of his engine. the commodore S
mower of speech became fabricated and
he began:
IT'S a true story. / know larry
Powers, the engineer Of ola No. a.
before the war. when his VIE
was station agent at Manchester, ana
trains were run wholly by time table.
There were no such things as tele-
graphic train orders in those days.
powers made his headquarters at
Manchester. and his wife, being the
station agent. the company let the
family live in the upper story Of the
depot without paying rent Powers
and his wife and their little girl Elsie
lived over the depot for fifteen years.
right hand running with the eXcep-
ton of about two months, when Elsie
was sick with typhoid fever, and they
hired a cottage up in the town where
she wouldn't be disturbed by the noise
OF engines and trains. 1t was shortly
after Elsie had pulled through ana
they had all moved back into the de-
Dot again that the thing happened
am going to tell YOU OF.
Elsie was twelve years old then.
The doctor said it would hasten her
complete recovery if she was ont OF
doors as much as possible, so almost
every afternoon her mother sent her
Deriving.
About a mile and a half down the
track toward Millegeviile, in clump
of woods. was a fine BURBERRY patch,
and here YOU could find Elsie almost
every afternoon. She could fill her
nail Quickly there. and then she liked
the woods anyway.
"One afternoon she had been slow,
or the berries were not as plentiful rs
usual. for it was after six o'clock when
She started for home. As she was
about to- leave the woods and strike
the railway tracks she was suddenly
confronted by three masked men.
Now Elsie was weak and nervous from
her long sickness, End when she real
lied that she was among robbers she
tainted. The next thing she knew she
was coming 10, and instead of being
murdered or robbed. was being tender
lv held in the arms Of one of the ban
dts. while the other two were busy
sprinkliug water in her face and fan
ming her with q piece of crumpled
newspaper. She was 50 relieved 10
find that she had not been beheaded
or cut into quarters. as the robbers
were in Ali Bahia. that her lips began
10 tremble some sort. OF thanks. Bnt
the minute she showed that she was
conscious the robbers lost no time in
telling her why they had taken such
pains to bring her round. She was
10 STAY with them until eight o'clock,
when the Mail and Express was due.
and signal and stop the train at the
NiUeCeville siding, desolate side
track half mile down the track from
where they We're.
\ few minutes before eight O'Clock Q