The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1896-02-26
IT WORRIES MIR. SAGE
A SMALL RAILROAD THAT CAUSES HIM
MUCH TROUBLE.

the POuGhkeepsie and Eastern.
Russell Sage is the proprietor of (
railroad 40 miles long that gives hin
more trouble than all his other mileage
and his millions put together. 1t is call
ed the Poughkeepsie and Eastern. and,
as its name implies, one end of it is an
chored in what people who live there
call the Queen City of the Hudson. The
other end is at present located in corn
field in the direction of Boston. Every
time Mr. Sage gets out of sorts with the
Vanderbilts or annoyed at the New York
and New Haven people he stretches out
his Poughkeepsie and Eastern a little
and employs several men with pickaxes
Then his surveyors squirt due east
through theodolites and there is big talk
about the Poughkeepsie and Eastern
paralleling the Boston and Albany.
Threats are also made of an extension
west to Chicago.
Mr.. Sage decided recently to take an
active part in the operating of his pet
road. This determination was due to
information he received privately that
things were not going on all right. The
locomotive engineers were exceeding
their allowance of three-quarters of
pound of coal per train mile, and were
running freight trains over the whole
length OF the road in less than two DAYS,
the schedule time, or taking a week,
just as caprice dictated Then other ir-
Irregularities were discovered. At the
annual inventory, Jan /, three coupling
pins and one channels leather washrag
were missing.
The whole root Of the difficulty is
Iaziness, said President Sage "These
things will always happen to a railroad
whose employees are not industrious.
Discharge all the lazy men we have at
present and get more.
But this was more easily said than
.done, They couldn't locate the lazy
men. A freight crew would set out from
Boston Corners with every appearance
Of wakefulness and energy, but Just as
soon as 1t got around curve where the
master car builder or the division su-
perintendent couldn't see it, the engi-
neer would run it on a siding and the
crew would go to sleep or fall to pick
ing blackberries. Mr.. Sage at one time
even thought of stringing wires along
the track, so that he might learn where
his trains were, but this involved a
large outlay, and he racked his brain
for some simpler plan.
lie at length evolved a scheme by
which the division superintendent, the
master car builder and the track fore
man should hide in a caboose and keep
tabs on a sample train But he found
out that the division superintendent.
the master car builder and the track
foreman, who was one and the same
person, had to attend to the turntable
at Boston Corners and couldu t leave his
work. The trains were getting slower
and slower. The Cannon Ball express,
which was pat on as a menace to the
New Haven company, occupied nine
hours in running over the road Then
President Sage took counsel with him
self and decided that something must
be done
He consulted firm of detectives He
told them that he had ballasted and
Bonded the road in a style that brought
it up to date, and he wanted them to
find ont how the employees spent their
time, and why an up to date roadbed
did not bring up to date speed, They
gave him every assurance that they
would bring the men to time.
Equipped with a camera, detective
who makes a speciality of railroad work
went to Poughkeepsie. He knew that
the presence Of passenger ON POUCH
keepsie and Eastern train would excite
suspicion so he disguised himself as q
tramp by a marvelously small number
of artistic touches, and began to loiter
along the grass grown line of the road.
The result of his labors, it is said is
an immense collection of cabinet photo
graphs. They were taken by the instan-
taneous process, but they might lust as
easily have been done with a time ex-
posure, for they show that employees of
the Poughkeepsie and Eastern rarely
move. Some of the pictures are so real
istic that one who sees them can almost
hear the conductors and brakemen snore.
One especially good view represents
the Lightning Bug" freight train,
which brings maple sirup down from
Vermont regularly every day, standing
at ease on the track while her crew,
camped round log fire, are listening
to the fireman, who is reading dime
novel. There are cobwebs ON the driv-
ing wheel of the locomotive.
An interesting physiological fact
brought out bv the detective is that en-