Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1899-05-22

The seat Of war has been transferred
from the Philippines to GAINESVILLE and
mighty struggle is on between two
rival corporations, the Milwaukee and
the Northwestern railroads. It all
came about on account Of railroad
crossing which the Northwestern peo-
pie were endeavoring to put in I'M
known to the Milwaukee folks. Down
on River street are located the cotton
mills, lumber yards and various indus
tries that contribute to the revenue of
the Milwaukee freight department and
this company has track that runs up
one side Of the street for some distance
and then crosses over to warehouses on
the other side. For long time the
Northwestern people have stood off
and looked with longing eyes on this
industrial center and studied how they
could get their cars down to the doors
of these factories without having to
pay switching fees to their formidable
rival. They finally decided to lay a
track Of their own on River street
and as it would be necessary to cross
the Milwaukee track in doing so, it was
thought best to dispense with the for
mality of asking for the privilege and
go right to work. 'The better the day,
the better the Decd" runs the old ad
age, so they started in after midnight
Sunday morning and then, of course,
they wouldn't be troubled with an in
81 irynT CT HO1S-
meath the viaduct and at right angles
with it and at this point the main lines
of the companies cross. By some pc
culiar coincidence, a Northwestern fiat
car loaded with rails had jumped the
track right on the crossing and dumped
it's load of rails into the street below,
just where they were needed, and at
the same time effectually blocked the
main line of the Milwaukee so that
nothing could get by either way. The
battle so far was in favor Of the North
western forces. They knew that the
next regular train on the Milwaukee
was not due until 2:30 a. m. and this
was a freight. Everything seemed
coming their way and they worked
with a will. The track was laid from
both ends of River street and they were
getting ready to tear up the Milwaukee
track at the important point when an
engine appeared on the scene, coming
from Milton. It seems that the freight
had been abandoned at that place and
the crew had been allowed to run in as
special, which brought them into
GAINESVILLE about l a. m. or III hours
earlier than they were expected by the
invading force. This engine was
manned by Otto Schieker of GAINESVILLE
and Conductor John B. Callahan of
GAINESVILLE was in charge Of the train.
They took in the situation at once and
in order to get down to River street
had to run back to the gravel pit cou-
pie of miles and come down the grade.
Just before reaching the desired track
the engineer saw pile of ties and lum-
Der on the track ahead Of him which
the invaders had thrown up as a block
ade. He took a lively run at it, cleared
the field for action, and succeeded in
getting some cars where the crossing
was intended to be before the enemy
could intercept him. Re-inforcements
were called from Madison and Engi
neer O'Keefe and Conductor J. H. Cal
lahan of this city went down on the
double quick and saved the day, or
night rather The enemy tried several
devices to 1islodge the Milwaukee
folks, one of them being a string Of
cars loaded with gravel and other ma
terial, which they would haul up the
grade and turn loose, using them for a
battering ram, but all their efforts
failed and Monday the Milwaukee folks
were masters of the situation with
four locomotives over the coveted spot.