The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1899-08-18
Mexican Railroad Tales

1--WE MEN sat about a table in the
Railway HANDLERS Rest, at Hous-
ton, Tex, which is half saloon and half
Il club, and stands near the union sta
ton. They were bearded and grizzled,
weatherbeaten and very dark. Whisky
of many kinds was within call and also
champagne, but they all took beer.
That showed they had worked in Mex
ico, for far down in the Latin republic,
where the air is the air of furnace
and beer costs so cents pint bottle,
"a man learns to appreciate it. Many
American whisky drinkers go into
Mexico, but only beer drinkers come
out of it. Three of the men who sat in
the Railway Ramblers' Rest were loco
motive engineers, one was freight
conductor and one had been a brake
man. His left leg is buried, however,
in Nuevo Laredo, and now he potters
about the Union yards and pretends to
be at work. They listened to the clang
OF street car bells outside and saw the
electric lights flare up as the dusk set
tied, and talked of the old days when
first the parallel bands of steel were
Dias country, and to be railway man
down there meant hard work, big
money and big risk. They told tales,
one to another, and there was no ques-
ton of their truth. They were men
who had seen so much in wild land
that they did not have to lie in order to
be impressive.
When the train crews went into
Mananaland the MeXicans did not like
them. They were unused to folks who
did things to-day that could be put off
until tomorrow. They objected to en-
gines which killed the citizen who went
to sleep on the tracks. They encoun-
tered a rough class of strangers with
whom they could claim no kin. Still
fingered in them memories of the inva-
sion from the north-otherwise the
Mexican war. That was in the SOS, and
an American in Mexico accused of Of
Tense of any kind was in hard luck.
Sometimes he was tried and shot, but
generally he was thrown into dirty
cell, where he died and did not learn the
charges against him. The few Yankee
consuls were powerless. Often they
made no effort to interfere, knowing
the futility of it and loving their own
skins. Americans came to regard ar
rest at the hands of Mexican authori-
ties as equivalent to life sentence in a
particularly undesirable penitentiary,
and were willing to go to any length to
avoid it. When Mr.. Bayard left the Of
flee of secretary of state 200 Americans
were confined in Mexican jails with no
specific charges against them. The
Harrison administration released them
finally, but there is no way of telling
how many of our countrymen have died
in confinement down there without
trial and without benefit of clergy.
Occasionally one learns of similar
instance now, but it is seldom. The
people have come to know each other
better. Poems no longer look upon the
locomotive as Satan. When drunk
with mescal they go to sleep along the
side of the track and not upon it. In
much of Mexico an American citizen is
safer than in certain parts of New
York city. If he gets into trouble a
fair trial will be given him. Our emf
grants to Mexico are of a higher class
than Is years ago. We used to send
our worst All of the Injustice was not
on one side. Our dark-skinned neigh
bors had much of which to complain.
There were Mexican gamblers, and we
taught them brace games, of which
they had never dreamed. There were
horse thieves, and we showed them
swindles in horsefesh at which they
stared aghast. There were confidence
men, and we sent them some in whose
hands they were children. All OF this
education cost them money, and they
endeavored to get even by means OF
jails, but things are better now.
"All of the Mexicans aren't so worse"
said an engineer. snow and then we
used to find one that was white if he
was yellow. Once near Victoria we
were loaded heavily with iron, and we
hit the usual drunken Mexican asleep
on the track. Them folks used to
think roadbed better'n wool mat
tress. 1t was down grade and around
curve, and we were going fair clip,
and. though we had air brakes, we just
couldn't hold upin time. We ground him
up, and at Victoria, ten miles further
on, we didn't have any better sense
than to report it. Of course, the train
was sidetracked, and we were put in
Jail. Next day we were hauled up be-
fore the alcalde. He was little, dried
up man, with mahogany skin and
snow white mustache. 1t bristled
fercely, but l noticed that his
eye twinkled good deal, and / sorter
cottoned to him right away. We told
him that we couldn't stop the train in
the time allowed us, and it was the
truth. He said, through on interpre-
ter, of course:
"I've heard all this before. Five of
my people have been killed by trains
in six months, and 1 have let the train
crews go. They said they couldn't
stop. I'm going to see about this.
Your train is on the sidetrack, coupled
and loaded Well fire up and go back
to the place where you killed Vicente.
Well run down at the same speed.
When YOU come near to the curve you