The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-08-14
IS A TELLER OF TALES
Mike Crane and the Man in the
Smokestack.
WHY SHE WOULDN'T DRAW
When He Was Firing for Old Joe on the
Three-Spot - The Front End
Filled Up With Con-
- centrateS.


Great Falls, Aug. 13.-Every COM
munity has it's teller of great yarns, of
fish or of bears or Of other wonders by
land or sea; this city is too far from
the trout streams or the home of game
to afford much material for this kind
of romancing and so the field is natu-
rally narrowed down. However, there
is one of the railway boys, fighter for
the queens shilling in the old country
end a man who ardently longed to
shoulder musket in the defense of
this country against the insidious at
tacks of Aguinaldo and his hordes of
dagoes and Siwashes, who is teller of
tales wondrous and incredible. For
tunately for the literature of the coun-
try he was restrained from going to
war by the insistence of his superlors
in the railway service. He is popular
all along the line among the boys and
there is demand for his stories which
in itself would be a livelihood for
train butcher were the tales but print
ed. The following sample of his work
is given by one of the boys:
"A few evenings ago several railroad
ers were seated around a table in the
back room of one of the most popular
resorts in the city. After the gallon
measure had gone around several times
the boys got to telling stories of their
experiences on the rail. A number OF
tales had been told before one of the
crowd asked Mike Crane If he could not
entertain them with story. Taklng
a good, long pull at the measure ana
filling his dudeen afresh, he delivered
himself of this yarn:
"'Bys, I'll tell yez a little something
that happened to me about year ago.
l was firing for old Joe on the Three
spat-this was after l quit firing for old
Derrigan. Well, the Three-spat did not
fire very good, so I made up my nina
that ! would have to do something to
hold my job, even If I had to take out
another so shares in the Gold Hill MIN
ing company. l thought of scheme l
had once tried when I was firing on the
Connemara. Cork & Dingle railway, in
the old country. Yc know, in them days
in the ould dart we burnt turf in the
engines over there. ! remembered TINS
and | went over to the shop and cut
me off a piece of round iron. l put TINS
in the base of the stack, the same as |
did on the old Enniskillen on the G., {.
& D. railway.
well, bys, she did fine for a few
days, and old Joe was on good terms
with himself and told me that he
thought the mine was all right one
day we started out of the Falls for Ana
conda and / gave her two or three good
shafts of Sand Coulee before we started,
but it was no use-the pointer went the
wrong way all the time. At HARDY,
while we were waiting for a train and
old Joe was back trying to sell some
stock to Mcpherson, / got down ana
examined the ashpan to see what was
the matter with her. / had to keep the
blower on her all of the time to keep the
smoke from coming out the hreboX
door. I went at the shaker bar, for |
ryTNi,, To 1aly lnr -fE m /
put all the CRATE in the ashpan. F'isher
was back running, so l was not afraid
of him any more). Well, we started out
and she was worse than ever. | did not
want to go back with old DerrlSan
again, so | told old Joe l thought
would take another $50 worth of stock.
We We're losing time right along and old
Joe was getting cranky, as he was
afraid the dispatcher would be getting
after him for not making time. 1t was
long pull, but we finally got to Hell
ena, and my heart was broke. While
old Joe was oiling her / got out the
torch to look down the stack to see II
the netting was stopped up.
"'Bys, l nearly fell off the headlight.
There was a man standing in the
smokestack, by all that's holy! His feet
were resting on that round iron L had
put in the base and his head came up to
the top of the stack. l asked him,
when I got my breath, where in blazes
he was going, and he said Anaconda
He had friend running train on the
B., A. & 2. by the name of Gates and
he wanted to see him. He was sick and
tired of being put off the blind baggage
and the brake beams by the brakes, so
he thought he would get down the stack
and out of their sight. I said nothing
to no one We had lost two hours be-
tween the Falls and Helena and old
Joe was telling the hostler and his
helper in Helena what devil of time
we had had in getting there because OF
the steam. While he was talking to
thin l got up on the stack again and
helped the stranger out and gave him
the glass of water he asked for.
AFTER a breathless pause some one in
the crowd wanted to know what rea-
son old Joe gave for the difficulty. Mike
replied: I asked him what he thought
the matter was and he said he thought
the front end was filled up with con-
centrates.'
Some one else asked what that was,
and Mike said he was not sure, but he
thought 1t meant that the front end
had too much lateral motion. Before
adjournment was taken the crowd
voted unanimously that the palm went
to Mike"