The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-09-11
HELD UP HIS OWN TRAIN.
Tale of the Detroit Conductor and the
Lumbermen.

| Lumbermen.
| A group of railroad men sat together
one day last month on the cool and
airy office balcony of the union depot
They were conductors and engineers for
the most part, though some of them
| had seen service in many branches Of
railroading. As they smoked and
| chatted and listened to the puff, puff of
| the engines and the changing of bells in
the yards below they We're reminded of
mishaps and adventures that had be-
| fallen them or their acquaintance in
the course Of many years on the road.
| AS their cigars grew shorter their sto-
! ries grew longer and stronger until one
| wound up with lurid tale bristling
with shining pistol barrels. tlaring
| torches, cracks of revolvers, fright
ened passengers and masked bandits in
a midnight setting on lonely Nebras
ka prairie.
We'll" said the old-timer. when the
| silence following this recital began to
grow oppressive, you can talk about
! the wild and woolly until your tongue
is tired but Til tell you there was
time right here in Michigan when we
| trainmen had customers to deal with
that would simply have telescoped and
derailed all the reckless highwaymen
west of the Missouri"
when was that?" asked the former
speaker obviously.
when was that?" asked the former
speaker obviously
THAT was along some time after the
war, say In the early '70's, and the place
was up in the woods in the northern
part of the lower peninsula. Those
We're the days when the great lumber
camps We're in the hight of their glory
A single railway track ran up into the
heart of the forest and was used all
winter for hauling logs and freight
Men went up into the woods in the fall
of the year and came out in the spring.
These We're about the only occasions
upon which a passenger train went up
into the wilderness.
"It was all right taking the lumber
men up in the fall That was easy.
They were dead broke, perfectly sober,
and as quiet and orderly as Sunday
school class just before Christmas.
But coming back.
"They We're the most obstreperous
passengers a conductor ever had to coll
lect fares from. The way those wild
eyed woodsmen, coming out in the
spring, would pile into the cars and
scramble through a train would take
the nerve out of most any conductor in
the United States to-day. They were
like a band of school boys just let out
for a lark, only ten times more danger
an I,atr ct,tf fa1 n
greenbacks and a whisky flash They
shouted and fought cursed and sang
out of pure high spirits They We're
good-natured as a rule, and only anx-
ious to get home and spend their mon
ey but any show of restraint upon
their actions or movements would
plunge them instantly into an ugly and
furious temper.
"There was conductor working for
the Detroit, Lansing and Northern in
those days named Mclaughlin. He was
a professional wrestler before he took
to railrOadng, and was considered one
of the best in the country. Me was a
man of fine physique, strong, 1.-THE and
over six feet tall. He it was whom
they always sent up to the camps to
bring the lumbermen home, and as he
never failed to collect at least three
fourths of the fares he was looked upon
as wonder.
"The log-rollers came to know him in
time and had very great respect for
his prOwess. They looked for his COM
ing in the spring, and sometimes ar
ranged friendly bouts between Mac and
whoever happened to be the champion
scrapper of the season.
But there came a spring at last
when Mac did not appear. had left
the Detroit, Lansing and Northern and
gone west | think he now runs on the
Northern Pacific out of Minneapolis.
In his stead the wondering lumbermen
saw medium sized man that in no re-
spect resembled the muscular and gil
ant-framed Mac swing off the train
when it slowed up at the station in the
woods. The new conductor was John
ny Hall, who had been sent out to do
the best he could in Macs place.
THE passengers ODE Immediately
proposed to themselves what they
thought would prove humorous and
agreeable pastime. Every man jack of
them agreed not under any crcum-
stances to pay his fare to the new con-
ductor. So they boarded the train in
high glee at the prospect of a free ride
home.
Meanwhile John Hall had not failed
to notice few signs which, when he