Iron County register., 1899-08-10

| fiercely. but / noticed that his
eye twinkled a good deal, and 1 sorter
cottoned to him right away. We told
him that we couldn't stop the train in
the time allowed US, and it vas the
truth. He said, through on interpre-
ter, of course:
"I've heard all this before Five cf
| my people have been killed by trains
. in six months, and / 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. We1l 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
must try hard to stop. 1 viii go in the
cab with you
well, we fred up and ran back three
miles beyond the death spot. OF
course, it was not my business to run
too slowly. | wanted to show the al
calde that stopping in the space de-
scribed was an impossibiIity. Old %
was quick engine, and inside of two
miles, it being down grade, we were
doing a two-minute clip. We struck
the curve at 40 miles an hour. The al
calGe had never in his life been on a
train, and he was lear ing out of the cab
window waving his big straw hat and
shouting Viva, Viva,' As we sighted
the spot where Vicente had been pull
verified the air brakes went on with a
clamp of death. l was thrown to the
floor of the cab myself. As for the al
= H. IL,
a rocket. turned six somersaults and
lit on his back in the sand 80 feet
Away The train ground to a stand
still yards beyond the blood-stained
ties. He came imping up. brushing
the sand out of his white hair. | re-
member that his mustache was all
bent down on one side. He looked up
at me and said, simply: 'Valga me
DiOs!' which is about equivalent to
'Dern my buttons We went back to
town; he discharged LIS al and invited
us to dinner with him. We stayed and
pulled out that evening. Everybody
ran pretty much Or mis- own schedule in
them times
The conductor took up the running:
Twelve years ago in San Luis Potosi
they were building city hall that they
said would be the eighth wonder of the
world. There was no skilled labor of
the kind they wanted, so they import
ed 20 stone masons from Pennsylvania
at big wages. These men were needed
to make the ornamental facaGes. carv-
ings and gingerbread work generally.
Everything went along all right until
the 5th OF May, which is the Mexican
Fourth of July. No work was done Oh
that day, and the masons wandered
about the town and drank good deal.
In the afternoon one or them, named
Morgan, found himself in a little cam
tina. To him came big, black, drunk
en- Mexican, who laid his chin on the
Americans shoulder and yelled:
'Viva-a-a-a el cinco de Mayo
Tell with you,' said Morgan. SHOW
ing him off and shifting him nightly
on the nose. ''Rah for the Fourth of
july
The Mexican picked himself up a
dozen feet away and came fo:' his man
with knife a foot long. Morgan, cold
drunk and savage. shot him before he
had taken two steps. That closed the
deal. Morgan went to Jail in the mid
die of clump of soldiers. The other
masons heard of it. rose like a flock cf
quail and lit running. Some caught
passing freight trains. some decamped !
on borrowed mules. some took to the |
mountains and eventually worked their |
way back to the states. Morgan was
tried next day and sentenced to be
snot. Before his execution il occurred |
~, ~ -, .
killed him they would have no one
to finish their wonderful hall. So they |
gave him a suspension of sentence un- |
till he did all the carving. The walls of
this building had been put up before |
the masons came. So every day. in |
summer shine and winter storm. Nor |
gan. suspended on a platform a hun |
dred feet above the street. chipped |
away at gargoyles and grifhHs and |
things like that while file of soldiers |
loafed below. He took his time, you
can bet. Fast work meant soon death |
to him. He put in six months on a fat |
angel three feet long, blowing a horn. |
He had 'em foul and used to make 'em |
treat him pretty white. Sometimes he |
would strike work for awhile and pelt |
the soldiers with stone clippings, and |
they didn't dare to shoot him. After /
three years of this the authorities, who |
saw that their hall would not be fin |
ished before the end of the next CEN |
tury, told him that if he would get |
other workInen to help him they would |
let him off altogether. He wrote to |
his brother. who was a maker of grave
stone marbles in Pittsburgh, and he |
SO worked on the local union that a |
lot of the men agreed TO go down to
San Luis. They had an easy enough |
time after they got there. Indeed, the
governor of Potosi state gave orders
that they were TO be treated tenderly. |
He was afraid that they might run
away and further delay the hall. They
got $50 day in Mexican money and
good barracks. Morgan watched his
chance and skipped one night. The
others stayed on, and l guess the hall
is finished by now"
They still do funny things in that
country" said another of the engi-
Reers Nearly all of the railway build
ing is now south of the capital. over
toward the Pacific coast. In that part
of the world conductors of construction
trains are still putting away $500 a
month hauling freight and passengers
on their own hook. Last winter there
was an Irishman named Doyle, boss
of a camD of tie-cutferS not far from |