The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-06-25

OOllGlo WAOIh NOliIu ICCl III Nuuf
bound to call upon. This would
consume too much of my time. 1t
is enough for me, at present, to
know they are all succeeding we'll
in life, and | take with me the
happy thought that their whole time
is not given solely to earthly gain. ;"
"Will you be kind enough to glye
me your address," asked pa.
"Pardon me, SIR" he replied.
81 would rather not have these old
friends feel that | would return to
my native heath and neglect to call
upon them. You may think me
queer. Well, we all are more or
less queer. This much of my his
tory l shall impart to you. l reside
in fourishlng city in the state
mentioned before. | have repre-
sented my county in the legislature
for eight years; served as mayor of
my city two terms of two years each.
| am at present president of one of
our banks, otherwise, | am leading
retired life
The accommodation came along
at this juncture. The gentleman
bid pa and me good bye, l asked
pa where the joke came IN when
the gentleman invited pa to call on
him if he ever came to his city.
do not want to annoy you with
the trials of the Pennsylvania dutch
woman, but out of pity l cannot
help speaking about her. The
poor woman has been confined to
her bed for three weeks with nerv-
GUS prostration. The doctor says
that she would get well sooner if it
were not for some whlstling tiend
who runs freight engine on the B.
& 0. The Pennsylvania dutch
woman's boy has run Of the engin-
eer who makes his whistle produce
these unearthly sounds. The poor
woman lies in mortal terror of the
approach of this train. Her little
boy sits by her side trying to keep
her quiet by assuring her that the
engineer means her no harm. Pa
says it is q burning shame for the
company to allow this hideous
noise, and he said that when he
lived out IN Kansas there was an
engineer who felt that he owned the
road on which he ran besides half q
mile each side Of the right Of way.
They called his engine "Growler. "
He had a sweetheart who was deaf
and dumb. She lived IN a small
village near the railroad and when
the engineer came within six miles
Of the home of his sweetheart he
would commence making the same
hideous sound as does the whistling
fiend who runs on the B. & O., and
he made his afflicted idol hear him
too. Pa held his watch on the B.
& 0. engineer and he consumed
thirty-fvc seconds IN one continual
blast of varying sound for a single
crossing, and he said that the
engineer in Kansas was taken into
the office of the master mechanic
and given instructions how to blow
his whistle according to rule. After
he took his engine again the people
living along the line Of the road
were so delighted with the radical
change in his whistling that they
dubbed together and made him q
present Of a gold watch, chain and
charm in the shape of a mlnla-
ture whistle. After this a COM
plete revolution took place in
the man. He seemed to think that
he no longer derived any pleasure
in annoying people with his whist
ling. He ceased his growing and
the living and the dead slept in
peace. Pa said if he died he wanted
to be at rest and for us to see that
his body was not buried anywhere
near this division of the B. & O..
railroad, and he says that he thinks
there are two whlstling fiends on
the road. Why, the passenger en-
gines which run one-thlrd faster
than the freight trains do, make far
less noise with their whistles than
some of the latter's engines. In
fact the passenger engines whist
ling is sweet music in comparison
with the hideous screeching blast
Of the whiStling ficnds.
WILLIE.