Iron County register., 1899-05-25
oLD-TIME TRUNK JUGGLING.
How Billy SkaEEIy Transferred thG
Baggage for N Time at Prai-
rie Junction.

''It has always seemed to me that
nbout the slickest thing in the way of
trunk Juggling that ever saw said an
! Did railroad man, was something that
baggage man named Billy Skaggly
used to do at a place called Prairie juno
ton on the NJ. n. & L. road. Billy was
running then on the old G., Y. & O.,
which was at that time an independent
! line, but practically branch of the
NJ. n. & T., coming in at Prairie juno
ton, running along back of the sta
ton at an angle and striking the NJ. n.
track hundred feet or more to the
west. This inclosed a sort of V-shaped
| open space, like a V lying down on
| it's side, between their track on one
| side and the station and the M. n. track
on the other, the widest part being back
of the station. This part was planked
| over, from the station to the q. X. track,
making a broad platform there, and
| when trains came in on the g., Y. & Q.
man used to roll baggage truck
across this platform to the baggage car,
and they'd get the baggage out on it,
and then he'd roll it back across the
broad platform to the station. That's
Billy came-the way they do it under
like circumstances everywhere; but
Billy said that was all waste of time,
labor and trouble, and he soon put into
operation here a transfer system of his
own by which he easily put the trunks
over alone.
'The trains on the G. X. used to halt
with the baggage car right back of the
rear door of the station. From the door
uf the station to the door of the car
was maybe so feet. Billy could throw
trunk as far as any other man [ ever
knew, [ don't know but what further;
but he couldn't throw a loaded Saratoga
that distance, and what he used to do
was to bound 'em over. He made fast
in the middle of the platform a thick
rubber cushion about as big as door
mat. Where he learned how to do this,
or how he got the skill he had [ don't
know; he may have had run some
where before where there was u plat
form like that to cover, or it may be
that he invented the system to meet
this situation and then practiced up,
somewhere, with blank till he could
hit the mark, but certain it is that
he could stand in the door of his bag
gage car and throw trunk in such
Il manner that it would land with one
corner on the bouncing pad and bound
up and on plumb through the back door
of the station every time. 1 was run
ming then on the NJ. n. on train that
stopped at Prairie Junction, and we
used to meet Billy's train on the branch.
and often I've looked out down back
of the station, where the branch came
in, to see Billy bouncing the trunks.
After he'd got 'em started he'd keep
two in the air all the time; starting one
on it's arched course through the air
from the car door to the pad before the
trunk ahead had disappeared through
the door of the baggage room. And this
went along just as nice and comfort
able as could be till, as usual, some
thing happened.
BILLY pulled down from the stack
in the car one day, and rolled along
on its end to the car door, a big, massive
trunk, marked Snakes; Handle with
Care Billy had seen the words han
die with care before, and he had also
heard of trunks being marked Snakes
Dynamite and that sort of thing, and
so the marks on this massive trunk
did not impress him strongly. He hus-
tied it along to the doorway, seized
it by the handle, lifted it and launched
it through the air. Very likely this
was the first trunk that Billy ever
missed the mark with, and [ don't
suppose he'd have missed with this
one if the handle hadn't broken just
as he let 60 of it; but it missed the
pad by about an inch and half and
came down on the hard platform with
a bang that busted that corner wide
open. Even as it was, the trunk bound
ed well up into the air. 1t had rub
ber knobs on it's corners to protect it
and the plank it struck on was springy;
but it didn't bound toward the station
door; it was DETECTED at another angle;
and as it rose snakes began dropping |
out of its busted lower corner. A man |
who could easily have got out of the |
way, but for the fact that he was sort |
of fascinated by the sight of the fall |
ing snakes, was knocked down by the |
flying trunk and had his leg broken. !
This accident broke up Billy's transfer |
system at Prairie Junction. The super |
said they were proud OF Billy as bag
gage tosser, but that that one mishap
had cost 'em in one way and another
more than the hire of a man to carry
the baggage across would cost them
for five years, and the first thing knew
the bouncing pad had been taken up
and the man was back with the bag
gage truck, rolled up in front of the
baggage car door in the old familiar
way."-N. Y. Sun.