Birmingham age-herald., 1895-08-09
MORE ABOUT RAILROAD"
The Wonderful Negro PopularIy Supposed to < Be Superhuman-He Transforms Him self Into Any Object He Wants
Montgomery Advertiser.


 Again referring to the peculiar state of affairs down about Brewton-a state of affairs which probably never had parallel in the history of the state-sev- eral stories occur to mind about William and his deeds of darkness.
 The wonderful darkey is like the Phe- nix-he cannot be downed and rises from the ashes with all imaginable sang froid. Why he has been seen by people whose most vivid imagination is a great deal better than their eyesight seven or eight different times in the space of one day iE spots ranging all the way from Gravella down to Bluff Springs, Fla, Bay Minette and dozens of other places.
 Some of the most preposterous stories are told by the negroes in that neighbor- hood, and though 1t seems incredible, some white people who should know better, not only repeat these impossible bogy tales with great gusto, but actually believe them. This class of people are firmly convinced that Railroad Bill has the superhuman power of easily trans forming himself into any object, animate or inanimate, that he wants to. Just to give an idea of these fairy tales, here is one of them,
 Mrs. Ahren, the good lady who runs the Ahren house at Brewton, relates the following:
 Changed Into Cow.
 i 1SSleTudy WHen my WdSnerWOnldn brought in the clothes 1 greeted her with the question that is now second nature to everyone about here: Well, Aunt Ra- chael, have you, too, seen Railroad Bill?' Yes, l is, Mis- Ahren, honey: dats jest what I is done. Wednesday night Rail- road he come to my house an say, 'Ra- chel, Ise powerful hongry, an l wants you ter git me. bait uf sompin' ter eat Cose I went in de house den fur to git him some VittleS, an wen l come back fer ter gib em' ter him flo God, Mis- Ahren, stid uf de big black nigger dat l lef' at de do a big white COW wid long branchin' horns wuz dere. I warnt gene five minits an press yo' sole, honey, de nigger turned hissef into dat ole COW jes as quick as I turned my back. or course it was no use trying to convince the ignorant old darkey, or reason with her. for she seemed to believe this wild creature of her own imagination as firm ly as I know I am standing here and l simply pretended to take it all in," said Mrs. Ahren.
 This Time 1t Is a Dog.
 One of the most disgusted men in that part of the country is a MT. Padgen, live stock dealer and one Of the most popular men in Brewton. He has been on the chase almost since it's commence metIt, and gives some most ludicrous word pictures of the adventures he has had One he tells is this: "The negroes had been telling so many of those mar velous tales about Railroads changing his form at will that 1t was getting mo- notonous The other night I was on a stand up near the canning factory, having with me an illiterate, supersti- tous kind of fellow The night was a beautiful moonlight one, as bright as day and we were about fifty yards from the railroad track. Everything was as still and deserted as grave yard, when 1 1to 11l tu1,it itn 1ner trnf fO6 down the track towards the depot. In about thirty minutes here came the same old dog trotting back up the track, and as soon as l saw 1t an idea struck me. Calling the "Pinkerton" who was with me, I said: As sure as we are standing here that dog was Railroad Bill he has been down to the telegra ph office, got the programme for tomorrow and all the other news he could pick up and is going back into those woods change into man again and move on. The woods I pointed to were about 200 yards from where we were standing within easy rife range-and when I said that you should have seen my compan- ion. He jumped as if he was shot, turned white as sheet, and, with chattering teeth, said: I think I had better go down to the depot and tell the operator about it. Off he went on a dead run down the track, and that was the last seen of him that night"
 Can This Be Truep
 Coming up on the train from Brewton an Advertiser representative met Mir William Stallworth of Evergreen, a brother of the solicitor there, and most intelligent young man. He is one of the few picked men who, under Detective Barnes, is quietly hunting Bill"
 Railroad Bill is down in this neck of the woods somewhere, but I have my doubts about his being very near to Brewton. However, you will hear more of this later"
 Then MT. Stallworth touched upon a new and interesting theory of the case. Said he:
 Here is one thing that will bear watching. Among the numerous detect ives hunting Railroad is a man by the name of Hendrix. He claims to be from Texas and has negro with him who he says helps him with all of his detective cases. Time after time have asked him to let me talk with this negro, but he always puts me off with some trivial ex- cuse. The negro has never been seen by a single person in or around Brewton. Hendrix gave me as references the names of several chiefs of police in some Texas towns, but when I wired them they invariably answered by saying that they had never seen or heard of Hendrix or the negro.
 Friday night I asked for the negro again and Hendrix said he would send him to- my room. In about an hour he -Hendrix-came up and said the negro had not come up yet. Now, if this is not fishy what is it? My idea is that the ne- gro whom Hendrix speaks of is one of the redoubtable triplet Railroad Bills himself, and that he and Hendrix are working somebody down to fine point"
 How is that?" MT. Stallworth was asked.
 Well, believe, and so do many of us, that Hendrix has been keeping this darkey ahead of him, and that it is he who has been appearing in corn fields and at farm houses and cabins, soaring the darkies and white people and dra- matically informing them, I am Rail- road Bill.'"
 i'.Whats his object?"
 ' i"Why, to keep up the excitement, and draw pay from the Louisville and Nash vile for himself and darkey. He would probably like to have the job hold over all summer. I haven't any conf- dence in Hendrix. You know he came to Mobile as a tramp and has been charged with forging a letter of recommendation from a sheriff in Texas. That's proba- tll, +t,a " ba oat in with tho railroa6