Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1899-10-20
THE TRUNK JUGGLER
BILLY SitECGLY'S BAGGAGE SMASH
ING AT PRAIRIE JUNCTION..

BILLY 5i<koGLYS BAGGAGE SMASH,
ING AT PRAIRIE JUNCTION.
How uTcIcn Handle oa O=c Eis
Trunk CuaAcd an Accident Thnt
Faded His "HouncIng Them over"
Transfer system nt That station.
at has always seemed tC NE that
about the slickCst thing in the way Of
trunk Juggling that | ever saw, said
sRn old railroad man, twas something
that a baggage man named Billy Skag-
gly used to do at a place called Prairie
Junction On the NJ. " and T. road.
Billy was running then on the old e.,
y and @, which was at that time an
independent line, but practically a
branch of the NJ n and T. coming in
at Prairie Junction, running along back
Of the station at an angle and striking
tie NJ. n. track loo feet or more to the
west. This inClosed a sort Of a V shaped
open space, like Y lying down flat, be-
tween their track on che side and the
station and the NJ n track on the 9TH
er, the widest part being back of the
station. This part was plankcd over
from the station to the q y. track,
making a broad platform there, and
when trains came in On the G., y and
Q. a man used to roll a baggage truck
across this platform to the baggage car,
and they'd get the baggage out on it,
and then he'd roll it back across the
broad platform 10 the station.
That's the way they were doing
there before Billy came-the way they
do il under like circumstances every
where But Billy said that was all a
waste Of time, labor and trouble, and
he soon put into operation here trans
fer system of his own by which he easi
ly put the trunks over alone.
The trains on the g. Y used TO
halt with the baggage car right back
Cf the rear door of the station From
the door Of the station to the door Of
Nit Idl W as ma 10 ~ AtCNr lJI4lN NDbIl
throw a trunk as far as any other man
| ever knew don't know but what
farther But he couldn I throw a loaded
Saratoga that distance, and what he
used to do was to bound EN- over He
made fast in the middle of the platform
thick rubber cushion ubOnt as big as
q doOrmat
where he learned how to 90 this or
how he got the skill he had | don t
know He may have had run some
where before where there was a plat
form like thut to cover, or it may be
that he invented the system to meet
this situation and then practiced up
somewhere with blank till he could
hit the marx, but certain it is that he
could stand in the door Of his baggage
car and throw trunk in such man
neG that it would land with one corner
on the bouncing pad and bound up and
on plumb through the back door Of the
station every time
Il was running then on the NJ. n. on
train that stopped at Prairie June
tiCn, and we used to meet Billys train
on the branch, and often I've looked
ont down back Of the station, where
the branch came in, to see Billy bounc-
ing the trunks. After he'd got EN-
started he'd keep two in the o. all the
time, starting one on its arChed course
through the air from the car door to
the pad before the trunk ahead had dis
appeared through the door Of the bag
gage room. And this went along just rs
nice and comfortable as could be till
as usual, something happened.
Billy pulled down from the stack in
the cal one day and rolled along on its
end TO the car door a big, massive
trunk, marked Snakes; Handle With
Care. Billy had seen the words Handle
With Care before, and he had also heard
of trunks being marked Snakes 'Dy-
Mantle and that sort Of thing, and go
the marks ON this massive trunk did
not impress him strongly. He hustled
it along to the doorway, seized it by
the handle, lifted it and launched it
through tie air.
VERY likely this was the first trunk
that Billy ever missed the mark with,
and don't suppose he'd have missed
with this one if the handle hadn t broken
just as he let 90 Of it, but it missed the
pad by about an inch and half and
came down on the hard platform with
bang that busted that corner wide
open. Even as it was, the trunk bound
ed well up into the air. 1t had rubber
knobs on its corners to protect it and
the plank it struck on was springy, but
it didn't bound toward the station door.
1t was DETECTED at another angle, and
ms it rose snakes began dropping out Of
its busted lower corner
"A man, who could easily have got
out of the way but for the fact that
he was sort of fascinated by the sight Of
the falling snakes, was knocked down
by the flying trunk and had his leg
broken. This accident broke up Billy's
transfer system at Prairie Junction.
The super said they were proud of Billy
as baggage tOsser, but that that one
mishap had cost 'em in one way and
another more than the hire of man to
carry the baggage across would cost
them for five years, and the first thing
knew the bouncing pad had been
taken up and the man was back with
the baggage truck, rolled up in front Of
the baggage car door in the old familiar
way. Chicago Inter Ocean
A Faithful Dog.
The Paris Figaro relates touching
souvenir Of the nOet De Mnsset. as men.