The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1897-05-21
CHAPTER I.
TUE PARTY ON SPECIAL NO. 218.

TUE PARTY ON SPECIAL NO. 218.
| Any one who hopes to find in what il
here written work of literature had
better lay it aside unread. At Yale ]
| should have got the sack in rhetoric and
English composition, let alone other
| studies, had it not been for the fact
| that Played half back ON the team and
so the professors marked me away up
| above where l ought to have ranked.
That was - years ago, but my life since
| received my parchment has hardly
been of a kind to improve me in either
style or grammar. 1t is true that enc
woman tells me | write well and my
directors never find fault with my COM
| positions, but / know that she likes my
letters because, whatever else they may
| say to her, they always say in some
form, 81 love you" while my board
approves my annual reports because thus
| far / have been able to end each with
81 recommend the declaration Of divi-
dend of - per cent from the earnings
Of the current year. should therefore
prefer to reserve my writings for such
friendly critics if it did not seem neces-
sary to make public plain statement
concerning an affair over which there
appears to be much confusion. have
heard in the last five years not less than
20 renderings of what is commonly
called "the great X. and A. train rob-
berry," some so twisted and distorted
that but for the intermediate versions 1
should never have recognized them as
attempts to narrate the series.of events
in which 1 played somewhat promi-
nent part.
have read or been told that unas-
sisted, the pseudo hero captured q dozen
desperadoes; that he was one of the road
agents himself; that he was saved from
lynching only by the timely arrival of
cavalry; that the action of the United
States government in rescuing him from
the civil authorities was most high
handed interference with state rights;
that he received his reward from CRATE
full railroad by being promoted that a
lovely woman as recompense for his vii
lainy-but, bother; it's my business to
tell what really occurred and not what
the world chooses to invent. And if any
man thinks he would have done other
wise in my position can only say that
he is better or worse man than Dick
Gordon.
Primarily, it was football which
shaped my end. Owing to my skill in
the game, took a postgraduate at the
Sheffield Scientific school, that the team
might have my services for an extra two
years. That led to my knowing little
about mechanical engineering, and when
I left the "quad" for good went into
the Alton railroad shops. Itwasn't long
before / was foreman of section; next
I became division superintendent, and
after had stuck to that for q time I
was appointed superintendent Of the
Kansas and Arizona railroad, line ex-
tending from Trinidad in Kansas to The
Needles in Arizona, tapping the Mis-.
souri, Western system at the first place
and the Great Southern at the other.
With both lines we had important traffic
agreements, as well as the closest rela-
tions, which sometimes were q little
difficult, as the two roads were anything
but friendly. And we had directors of
each on the K. and A.. board, in which
they fought like cats. Indeed it could
only be question Of time when one
would GUST the other and then absorb
my road. My headquarters were at AL
buquerque, in New Mexico, and it was
there, in October, 1890, that received
the communication which was the be-
ginning of all that followed.
This initial factor was a letter from
the president of the Missouri Western,
telling me that their first vice president,
Mr. Cullen (who was also director Of
my road), was coming out to attend the
annual election of the X. and A., which
under our charter had to be held in Ash
Forks, A. T. A second paragraph told
me that Mr.. Cullen's family accompa-
MED him, and that they all wished to
visit the Grand canyon of the Colorado
ON their way. Finally the president
wrote that the party travelled in.his own
private car and asked me to make my
self generally useful to them. Having
become quite hardened to just such de-
mands, at the proper date l ordered my
car on to No 2, and