The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1901-01-18

regular army, ana SeTN6u III Tic
campaigns of the west and through the war
with Spain, the stories give varied ex-
perience that is interesting. The following
story tells an experience of the author at
the second office with which he was in
trusted:
My FIRST attempt at holding an Of
lvl flee had proved such fiat and
dismal failure that l thought l
should never have the heart to apply
for another. l worked faithfully in
the school for about month, and then
the fever to try again took hold of me.
l knew it would be of no use to apply
to my former superintendent, Mr..
Brink, so l wrote to Mr.. r. B. Bunnell,
superintendent of telegraph of the z.
@. & X. railroad at Kansas City, Mo-,
saying that 1 was an expert operator
and desired position on his road. Mr..
Bunnell must have been laboring under
a hypnotic spell, for by return mail he
wrote, inclosing me pass to Alfredo,
Kan, and directing me to assume
charge of the night Office at that point
at the magnificent salary of $3.50 per
month. This was slight decrease from
my former salary, but 1 didn't care. l
wanted a chance to redeem myself and
l felt confident 1 could be more sue
cessful in my second attempt. So I
packed my few belongings, babe good
by to the school forever, and away l
went.
When l left "MN' I said nothing to
anyone about my destination, and 1
did not know a thing about Alfredo,
except that it was near the border line
between Kansas and Colorado. The
brakeman on the train in talking to me
told me it was a very pleasant place;
but when he said so 1 fancied could
detect a sarcastic ring in his voice, and
r. / was in no doubt about it when l ar
rived and saw what desolate, dreary
place Alfredo was. The only things
in sight were a water tank, pump
house and the telegraph office; and l
wish you could have seen that Office.
1t was simply the bed of box car,
taken off the tracks and set down with
one end towards the track. A small
platform, two windows, door and the
pOol PSlSuSu VII q POAS
completed the outfit.
I arrived at 6:3O in the morning, and
there wasn't living soul in sight. An
hour later a big broad-shouldered Irish
man, who proved to be the pumper,
came ambling along on railroad We
locipede. He looked at me for a min
ute, and after had made myself known
he grinned and said: "Well, hopes as
how We will loike the place. Burke, the
man who was here afore We, got scared
off by thramps, and 1 reckon he's not
stopped runnin' yit." Fine introduce
ton. wasn't it?
l found there was no day operator,
and the only house around was the Sec
ton house, two miles up the track. The
operator and pumper boarded there
with the section boss; but the railroad
company was magnanimous enough to
furnish a velocipede for their use in
going to and from the station. How 1
felt the first night, stuck away out
there in that box car, two miles from
the nearest house and IL miles from the
nearest town, l must leave to the imag-
ination. My heart sank and / had many
misgivings; in fact, 1 was scared to
death, but set my teeth hard and de-
termined to do my best, with the hope
that l might be promoted to better
Office. I did win that promotion, but 1
wouldn't go through my experiences
again for the whole road.
One night after I had been working
there about month went to my office
as usual at seven o'clock. II was a
black night, threatening big storm.
The pumper had not gone home as yet,
and he remarked that it was ''goin' to
be woild night" but he hoped "the
whistlin' av the wind would be after
kaping me company" and with that
he jumped on the velocipede and off he
went.
| didn't much relish the idea of the
storm, for 1 knew the reputation of
Kansas as cyclone state, and my box
car office was not well adapted to stand
hurricane. However, l went inside,
and after lighting my lamps sat down
and wrote letters and read, when 1 was
not taking train orders. This.office was
kept up solely because it was a con-
venient place to deliver orders to
freight trains at night when they
stopped for water.
About 1890 in the morning my door
opened suddenly and man stepped
quickly in. 1 was startled, because this
was almost the only man except the
pumper and the train crews that had
been there since came. Once in awhile
stray tramp had gone through, but
this man was not tramp. He wore
long overcoat, buttoned to his chin
with the collar turned up. A SLOUGH
hat pulled we'll down over his eyes so
far concealed his face that his fea-
lures were scarcely visible. He came
over to my desk and gruffly asked
what time is there passenger train
east to-night?'
/ answered that one went through at
half-past one, the Overland flyer, but
1t did not stop at Alfredo. Quick as a
flash he pulled revolver, and, poking
it in ny face. said: young man, you