Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-02-20
oUTwITrING THE REST OF THEM.
How a Sharp Railroad Man Got the
Better Of n Lot of Competitors.

How q Sharp Railroad Man Got the
Better Of Lot of Competitors.
He was a large and rotund railroad man.
whom the fellows called SAM" and whom
they seemed to like to listen to as he sat
back smoking a cigar and telling stories
efter the work far into the night was
done.
zone of the victories of my Hfe," he said.
after narratins several incidents which
were not SO altogether victorious, took
place when 1 was with the l.. and N, with
my headquarters at Cncinnati.It so fell out
once upon a time that one hundred and
twenty-five people wanted to make an ex-
cursion into the west via Cincinnati and
st. Louis, from Berea, in Madison county,
Ky. AS I remember, 1t meant about TWEEN
ty-five dollars head to the railroad get
ting the party, and the competition among
the boys was lively enough, l tell you.
Negotiations had been going on vigorously
for some time, and on certain day the
excursionis;s were to be at the Berea sta
ton, and all the railroad men were to meet
them there.
I'VE came down from Cincinnati on
special train, and 1 was studying UP every
possible plan how 1 was going TO get that
business Tor my road, but no way appeared
until We were within dozen miles OF
Berea. There it Game to me and slipped
around and had little talk with TIE en-
gineer VINO was quite willing to help me
out by letting his engine drop cog or do
some other peculiar and unexpected thing,
as locomotives have a way of doing. This
she did about six miles cut and near
siding, where the engineer pulled in and
proceeded to repair the damage, the men.
who We're in a hurry to get to Berea, put
ting in their time cussing the engine, the
road and me.
LAS for myself, when had fixed it with
the engineer. L dropped off the train as it
Ion
beard ddnd more than discover that had
disappeared until the accident happened
that delayed them two hours or more on
that siding. In the meantime l wired my
agent al Berea-you see this all took place
ON my own line of road, SO it was good
deal easier-to make rate to the excur
sicnists $3.50 lower than any figure yet
given them, and let them have half an
hcur to decide in, or the whole rate would
go up to the regular price. OF course the
excursionists didn't know that 1 had the
agents co-ra!led a siding. They didn't
Know anything except that 1t was the low
est offer they had received. and after
chewing awhile on it, my man wired me
that my offer was accepted
nat would be the result when they
found out about the other agents and what
KIND OF crazy offers those fellows might
make to beat me out of the business UNI
less L had some Kind of a clincher, I didn't
know, so l sent word to my agent to col
lect $40 on each ticket, o, the rate would
go up to regular. This was easy enough
for they knew they had a good thing and
the money came in with a rush. Then my
man teiegraphed that he had collected
over s1,2O0 and had it locked up in the
safe. and he would like to know what to do
next. l wired back the short word 'Es-
cape, and half an hour later my eng1-
neer, having repaired the break to his ma
chinery, pulled into the station at Berea
with his profane load of railroad men,
What happened then utterly passes de-
serlption, and l fancy if l had been there
l would have been lynched, but they got
over II after a time, and they went back
to Cincinnati with no other feeling against
me except an unalterable determination to
get even at the first opportunity. OF
course l had to pay for supper for the
those didn't count"