The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-11-29
BY cY wARMAN.
Copyright, 1886, by the S. S. Mcclure
Company

Copyright, 1886. by the S. S. Mcclure
Company
Every man who has railroaded for
a single day on the Rio Grande has
heard of John "Scrappy" Jones,
they called him. If there is such
disease as scraptomania, then John
Jones had it, good and hard He be-
gan at the bottom as helper in the
machine shops, and industriousiy
fought his way up the ladder until ne
became a full-fiedged locomotive en-
gineer. There is scarcely a flag station
on the entire system that has not at
some time or another been his battle
field.
The most interesting feature in the
history of Jones is that he never sought
a fight, or fought for the run OF IT,
as most fighting characters 40; l knew
him Intimately, worked with him many
a day. and it seemed to me that he
had fights thrust upon him in nearly
every instance. When he was hostler
at Salida / was his assistant. One
day when we were dangling our feet
from high bench in the roundhouse
I asked him how it was that he had so
many fights You are better tempered
and happier than / am; have had one
fight since 1 began railroading. How
many have you had?"
Bout a hundred" said Jones, and
his homely face was sad. He told me
then and there that fighting was his
besetting sin. He had worked and
prayed that he might be spared the
necessity of thrashing men. but II
seemed a part of his mission on eartn-
When the noon whistle sounded we
slid off the high bench and went into
the Mushroom to prepare for luncheon-
Before we left the house we were
obliged to use the turnta BILE Hey,
there, back up. We want to use the
turntablei" Jones called, cheerfully
enough, to a passenger engineer who
was oiling his locomotive, which, con-
trary to all rules, was left standing
On the turltable. Now, Jones mad
thrashed nearly every engineer he had
fired for during his apprenticeship and
they all hated him, so this middle
division man only gave him sour
look and went on oiling. say, SAID
Jones. rolling his thumb and twirling
his watch-chain about 1t, are you
going to back up?'
Eyes. when 1 get ready" was the
reply; and Jones made straight Tor
the engine AS he climbed up on one
side the driver mounted from the
other, and, snatching up hand-ham-
mer, raised it above Jones head and
warned MIN 10 Keep olA LIS OlSAAAS-
held my breath as Jones continued TO
climb and the engineer stood ready to
brain him. When the hostler, who APP
peared not to have heard the warning,
had gained the deck, he twisted the
hammer from the grasp of the en-
gineer. threw il back into the coal
tank. backed the engine from the table.
set the air brakes and leaped TO the
ground He had missed a fight here
simply because the engineer weakened,
and yet Jones was wholly in the right.
Once when he was firing a passenger
engine they stopped at Cieora, only
two miles from the end of the run, the
engineer abused Jones, and Jones
thumped him. The driver told the con-
ductor that he would not run the en-
CINE in with that fireman, whereupor
Jones gave the driver another licking,
drove him into the cab and compelled
him to go TO the end of the division.
There was an investigation in the Of
flee of Master Mechanic Kelker, at Pn-
eblo: the engineer began TO abuse the
fireman and he was notified by the
latter that such course was liable
to lead to trouble. Presently the en-
gfneer called Jones a liar, and instant
" ne fell sprawling across the master
mechanics desk This caused the fire.
mans discharge. But the provocation
had been great, and the official gave
Jones rather complimentary lSlter 10
the general master mechanic at Den
yer. Jones went up and told the whole
story, not even attempting to justify
his own actions, and he was
re employed upon another run.
In those days engineers and fire
men worked far apart, and as
Jones had licked about half the
engineers on the middle division, he
was simply despised by the men on the
right hand side. There was a young
Irishman who was a magnificent man,
physically, and possessed of no end of
sand, and to this handsome fellow was
given the task of thrashing Scrappy
Jones. They met one day out at the
steel works and the Irishman had no
trouble in working Jones up to the
proper pitch. Jones told the story of
this fight to me. He, looked like a