The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-01-01
SHORT WORK OF A SPOTTER
THE NEAT jon, or AN EASTERN Dor
ON A TEXAS RAILROAD.

to Make His Own Way and Loved n Scrap
That Accounted for His Mistake In
Taking the General Manager for n Spy.
The old railroad man drifted into the Rail.
road Mems Club on Christmas Day and the
young fellows wore mighty glad TO see him.
They had arranged an informal stag afsSir TOR
those OF the members who had finished their
runs, The railroad has been trying TO retire
him for Ave years, now that tho Is past 90.
not because he isn't up to his work, but be.
cause the managers feel that rs has enrnou ~
tircrhent and q pension. But the old man
won't quit. He declares that he'd rather die
on the roof Of a car OF q night freight than in
his bed.
After the old man had consumed a glass or
two of punch he became reminiscent, and this
Is the story he told:
Whenever l look over you young fellows I
think OF a boy named Low. who took q turn al
the brake on a railroad down in Texas twenty
Ave years ago. AT that time 1 was on q COM
bination passenger aud freight that used to
start out at 6 O'Clock every night and run the
entire length of the road by @ In the morning.
1t was a pretty wild run. and IL was no unusual
thing for the train to be held up by train rob-
bers. although for the life OF me / never could
understand why they tackled us. for we never.
had anything aboard worth stealing.
This fellow Low that 1 mentioned was a
gay young blade. He had been graduated
from one of the big Eastern universities. and
had then been turned loose by his father. who
was a rich man, with instructions to come home
/ when he was ready to settle down 10 business,
but not before. The old man gave him S50Ot to
start sowing his wild oats with. and the boy
went to Chicago, blew 1t in in a week. and then,
finding himself on his uppers, Joined a gang Of
hoodlums which had been sent out by a de-
tective agency to protect the property Of a
Texas railroad the employees Of which were
on a strike. He served as a detective for
one day and then joined the strikers. be-
cause there was more fun on their side than
on the side OF law and order. He made some
rafting good speeches for them. was made
Chairman OF a committee which waited on the
directors Of the road to dictate terms Of peace.
and hnallycarried the negotiations to n success
full conclusion. The men wanted him to repre-
sent their organization after that. but he was
looking for adventure, so he quit. came to our
road. got a job as brakeman and was put on
my train.
well, I thought I'd seen some wild young
sters. but this fellow beat them all. He didn't
drink much. and didn't smoke at oil, but he
loved a fight better than anything in the world.
and he used to hunt around for opportunities
TO mix 1t up with some one. l recall one night
a couple OF old friends OF ~ours-train robbers
boarded us at about IL o'clock and proceeded
to help themselves to what they could find.
Now. we never thought OF fighting train
robbers. because. as I've said. we never
had anything worth stealing on the train.
But when Low saw these fellows he sailed
into them with his fists and gave them
the worst thrashing they had ever had. They
were taken completely by surprise. and before
they got a chance to use their guns Low had
taken them away from them and thrown them
off the train. When he got through with the
robbers they looked like a couple Of wet rags.
He kicked them out into the night. and that
closed that incident.
sort Of chap, but one. Of those fellows who Is al
ways imagining he's going to lose his Job. I
employee. He used to collect quite a BIT OF
money some nights from passengers. and he
robbing the road. The idea probably grew out
Of the knowledge that he could steal half OF
ia ;sre q eieb HiEn' Il h he Ths han bee s9 r wibbbbiGSs
the road don't suppose he'd ever, done any
w wssf 5anSte Sp By G fhe ffes sef thae Re Sie hSSn ss su he
pected Of. wrongdoing. I've seen lots Of men
well, Low and the conductor struck up
quite "A friendship. and the latter confded his
fears to the former. He suspected every man
finally convinced Low that he was under con-
sta12t surveillance. It made Low. who was, one
through to think Of the injustice being done to
h hnti fr i He used to say that if he ever got
ever took his Job. and he meant every word
well, one bright moonlight night just as We
were pulling out OF a small station Low came
oyer the roofs of the cars to the rear platform
ing. took Off his coat, vest. collar and necftie,
and, handing them to me. said;
now. Come back in a minute and you'll SEQ
There were three empty fiat cars on the
the last freight car ! saw a tall, thin man In the
F!e:P% Ct lBr ny Beau tSwl heard Low saw. so
lake his" and he hit SH' the be'G man hfG an SG awful T cli6;
THE man went down like a log, then jumped
to his feet again and yelled for help. Low hit
on him and gave him an awful pummeiIing I
thought It was ABOUT time to interfere. and
staggered to his feet and turned around SO that
the moonlight came down on his face. When I
Hnskins. the general manager Of the road. He
S Maf a wa ,seHTGRe eIT 20 RassSs enFs u Sn a fns 1hisht tr9 M
would jump up on a freight car as often as he'd
60 into the passenger coach. On this occasion
n ns 1nst fs jamp ed as on We the Sffr hat p ear IL the G%'' re ena
Low had never seen him before.
u"d gave q wall Of DESPAIR as ! recognized
"nAll right. I'm most through with himp
of the train. And we were going twenty mlles
an. hour; ran down on the fat car.
60 What for 2 he demanded.
It" Do you know who that man you've proba-
bly, murdered was
No. and i don't care
We'll, il TWINS Haskins, the general manager
If | expected Low To faint away or anything
of Tint sort | was disappointed. He Just burst
out into laughter. and for five minutes he sat
on that fiat car and screamed. He thought ID
was the funniest thing he'd ever heard OF. but
] couldn't see the humor of the situation. and
finally / got him to look at the serious side OF
the matter. He agreed with me that he'd bet
ter clear out, and at, the next station he loft us.
We'll. Haskins wasn't killed in fact. a week
in the hospital fixed him up al! right. As soon
expected to be placed under arrest,
but to my surprise he told me to go back to my
train and say nothing. Tho only explanation
fallen off Of the train, As for Low. I've never
seen him since"