The Red Cloud chief., 1896-08-14

St:NO/ from his forehead
M and Joined the rest
OF the fellows at
lunch, according to the New York Trib-
une. II remember that our chief am
bition In those days was to get as
much sleep as we could nights without
being found out, so that we could get
along without wasting so much OF the
day In bed. Pound We used to call
sleep In those days, because VI stopped
pounding brass to pound our ears on
an express-package pillow with a wait
ing-room bench for a bunk. Funny
thing is trade slang. In those days
there were very few %semaphore signals
and we had to get out on the track
with red and white lanterns and swing
up trains, and our chiefest bane was
a holding order, for there must be no
sleep with that on our hands.
For instance. II westbound trains
had the right of way the dispatcher
might send me an order to hold No. 2S
for orders and then run trains east
bound against 1t all the way up the line.
Quite a responsibility to put on a IT.
year-old boy. Well, II we happened to
be terribly sleepy 1t was a hard fight.
! have been so sleepy that | daren't
sit In my chair for fear I would fall
asleep, and I have stood up and walked
around many a time for an hour or SO
along In the small hours of the morn
ing until the order was revoked or the
train got in. One way we had was to
put a high stool out in the center Of
the floor and sit on that. II we went
to sleep we would tumble Off. l nearly
broke my neck ono that way. l have
often had my call on the wire wake me
up. There's something peculiar about
that. | have been sound asleep in a
room adjoining the telegraph office, had
a train go by and an alarm clock go
of without waking me up, with two or
three instruments clicking away like
mad all of the time. and then start up
suddenly wide awake when some n
called my Office on the wire. 1t always
seemed to wake me up In the same way.
| would dream that my station was be-
ing called and that some one was hold
ing me down to prevent my answering
1t. would struggle and strain to es-
cape. and then suddenly wake up to
find the instruments calling, just as I
dreamed they were. Once when | was
very sound asleep ! actually got up in
my sleep and walked across a waiting
room into the Office and had my hands
on the skey to answer a call before |
woke up.
This wasn't infallible, however, un-
fortunately. and we used to try all sorts
Of schemes to awaken ourselves, usu-
ally beginning with an alarm clock.
The trouble with an alarm clock is
that n man gets accustomed to it and
fails to rouse. We learned that the way
to use one was to give the alarm only
one turn the first two or three times
we tried 1t, then two turns for awhile
and so on until it was fully wound up
each time, and when 1t began to lose
its effect, as II would like the continued
use OF opiates. we discontinued II for
awhile and tried something else. I
have often set my clock twenty minutes
ahead. lay down and slept peacefully
for that brief period.
1.-THE greatest trouble we had was In
reporting the passing of trains. Some
OF the night expresses would rush BY
so quick that we wouldn't get thor
oughly awake, and then, by and by.
after the train had been reported from
two or three stations above, we would
perhaps wake up and find the dispatch
err calling. Then he would ask, perhaps,
for No. Al, and We would answer: Not
yet There would be a bad few mill
utes In store for us, for very severe
things can be said over a wire. and
they sound a thousand times worse
than face-to-face abuse.
For awhile l had a dog who would
begin to growl when a train was a mile
away and would wake me up, but after
awhile he got afiicted In the regular
way and would growl only for a tramp.
At last ] devised a novel scheme. I ran
a light string across the track about
five feet from the ground, tied n end
to the fence and ran the other through
the keyhOle. To this end | attached a
coal-hod filled with pokers. tin cans
etc, so that when the train passed the
string Ssould break and down would
come the hod with a terrible clatter
and I would be reused. Well, | had
1t all nicely fixed for the Chicago ex-
press the first night, when about one
o'clock a tramp trudged along up the
track and the string caught him lust
under the nose. Say, he was the mad
dest man | eve heard. II | hadn't bad
my dog with me I don't believe he
would ever have Gained down.
THAT scheme was pretty satisfactory
for quite a while. but ! got so that I'd
sleep through that, too, sometimes. II
would get caught occasionally and
wouldn't work, and 1t was a mean rig.
ging to arrange, anyway, so l decided
that the safest plan was to tie the end
of the string to my arm. The first time
l tried that was out of cotton string
so l rummaged around In the office ans
found a. ball of this fine, hard Irvine
which the express people use, and
stretched that, like n big fool, tiei one
end of II around my wrist and lait