Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1899-09-14
Nj L.
eco

the Train. (
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over in the lounging room for the
trainmen ut the terminus of one of the
trunk lines in Jersey City several train
men were exchanging stories of hair
breadth escapes .fastrides and instances
of presence of mind, while waiting to
be summoned to their duties. Finally
it came the turn of small, gray
haired, keen eyed man.
We'll, yes" he said, taking a chew
of his neighbours tobacco. Il had one
excitin trip. 1t was long back in 'SS,
before the comm of these double
cabbed Mother Hubbard enjines on
which. If you want to speak to the fire
man, you have TO stop at a telegraph
station II send him a message or else
slap the air over in the 'mergency
notch II bring him up to you whether
he wants to come or not. Never did
like these pesky double deckers. | was
doing stunts on the Cora good old
mogawl she were, too. Just out the
shop, where she'd been overhauled n
had the airbrakcs put on her.
II left the other end of the division
ON trip right after pay day II my reg
ular fireman had reported i'll. I'd seen
him the night before n he looked
rather weak n tired, N | thought he'd
been taken i'll They used to have u
great trick doin that after they's got
their mon. had n fellow by the name
of Conroy in Ills place, n we hadn't
got along very far fore l came to the
conclusion that he was a mite under
the weather, too, n he couldn't make
the old 6OT steam nohow. The outcome
of it was that we laid down several
times on the "trip II barely caught
the steamer with our export freight.
Old Nuthead, the enjine dispatcher, he
made me walk the carpet, n said if
didn't do better'n that he'd drop me
back on coal again. hadn't been run
min fast freight very long N left him
feelin rather testy, but I didn't say
anything bout Conroy, as / thought
that durin our lay over in this end he'd
kinder pound his ear N sleep off the
booze N be all right goin back.
I'VE caught train 10 for the return
trip with about 13 cars perishable stuff
for Chicago which We're rugged up
with the air, which was a purity good
string of airbrake cars for those days,
n about 10 scabs, without air. | was
thinkin what stop you could make on
short notice with them, N how you
could turn things over in the caboose.
Old Joe Hoffman was our conductor,
N he was an awful man to swear N
cut up high jinks If everything didn't
come his way.
1--WE hadn't moved out very far along
the meaders when l saw as how I'd
have to do some tall figurln to git that
train in on time. Soon's we'd git to a
little grade I'd drop her down notch
or two, n she'd kick up her heels N
lay right down for want of wind. Con
roy, instead of sleepin while he was of
duty, had gone out N put on some fin
ishin touches n made it worse.
You can just guess l was mad clean
through, N | thought to myself as how
| would get Mr.. Conroy about 80 days
in which to rest n p'raps end his little
railroadin career soon's we got home
again. When we got to the first wa
term tank about 40 miles out, we had
used up jest hours n 10 minutes.
The regular runnin time was only !
hour N 40 minutes, so you see we'd
lost 80 minutes on 40 miles almost lev
ell III with light train. The outlook
was that we'd never make the heavier
grades on the western end unless Con
roy took brace While l was oilin
around Hoffman came runnin up cuss-
In like one mad N says:
'Blankety blank blank, you, what
the blanks matter wider? | wanter
git home in time for church Sunday.
Here's a message from Jersey which
says as how If yer don't hurry up
they'll take yer off here at the mex
plug n give us a respectable man
"As this was only about midnight
Tuesday night his speech got my dan
der up, N l told him as how he n Jer-
sey could both go where asbestus cloth
in is a boon N the broilin sun never
sets. But | climbed up on the tank, n
maybe l didn't give that fireman a
settin out
"'You long, lanky blunderbuss,' |
says, for he was a big codger, much
bigger'n meself, If you don't take a
purity sudden brace N keep the wind
up on this mogawl till we get in you
might as we'll sit right down here N
send your regrets to the super, cause
I'll report you soon's we git in, or my
name amt John Stafford
"He give me a kinder reproachful
look n commenced fiXin his fire. AS
turned to put my oil can in the box l
spied a bottle of whisky. l grabbed
that bottle II turned roun to Conroy.
'Ahar l says, so this is the cause of
our gaspin for breath every five min
utes, is it? Well, here she goes, N l
plugged that bottle over on the track
n broke it into 90 pieces, not without
some regrets, as 1t had a pretty goou
smell, N I'm not dead set against the
stuff myself, but Il let her go.
1--WE got stayted again n walked
away up the hIl from the tank as easy
as Willie Bryan makes a nice, long
speech, n l noticed an improvement
In the steam gauge right away, N
commenced' to let 'er out at once to
make up for lost time. 1t was purity
good, even goin then for about 90 mile
then up an incline of about 8 mile n
down the mountainside u mile. When
we struck the top of that l. mile hill
/ kept her wide open for about n hall
mile to give us n good start down the
hill n then shut her off n let 'em
buzz.
''The old COZ was stem winder, with
a boiler runnin right through the cal
to the back, dividin the fireman and
engineers side The airbrake valve
was placed right on top the boiler, to
ward the back end oftthe cab, SOS you
could reach it nice 'nthandy while sit
tin in the seat. I'd no more II shut hel
off when shadder fell over my shoul
der, N turned quick. En- Conroy sprung
on me.
"'You dirty blackguardn he scream
ed. III teach yer toJchuck my booze
overheard. Report /me, is it? Yor
dirty rag! Shure 'nlyou'll never live tC
see the super ag'in.'
a., Ham, ,p ,,,n 10 sn,I- ma ha oh