The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-09-11
WHITENED HAIR.
RY H. 8. ROGERS.

Conductor Shaffer of No. let himself down from the rear end of his train as 1t came to a standstill He cast an inspect ing glance along the line of cars and at first hardly noticed the white-haired man who came creeping out from under the car near which he was standing. It was
 ing a ride and he was dirty and begrim-
 cd; but in spite of the unattractivc ap-
 pearance of the man there was something
 unusual in his appearance that would
 cause anyone to look at him a second
 time. The skin had the pink tint and smoothncss of youth. yet the hair above
 ths face was As white as winter snow.
 The men looked at each other moment and then the stranger turned quickly as 1T about to move away. Said Conductor
 Joe jordon. by thunder"
 Hoped you wouldn't know me, Shan.
 I'd know you in the Kingdom come.
 Joe. But. Lord, how you have changed"'
 Joe appeared bit uneasy and moved
 % What s ysS ' doins ta ase uDder DeeTf that trsin
 Riding the rods"
 From whereT'
 other end of the division
 Where were you going?"
 Didn't know and didn't care. Just got
 out because was getting cramped." You are regular bum. then?' Yep, pretty much"
 afts" l work the train l will come in and After Conductor shaffer had done his work he went forward and sat down by the side of the queer looking tramp Kind of getting up in the world some.
 Kind of elevated from freight run to this.''
 Yep. made up my mind three years ago that the old man on the l. N. and w | the first offer and transferred over here Had not been here six months until l got this passenger run. You seem to be still on the slow freigh1s in your line, Joe hslr?'
 'it.s a pretty long story. shaff. unless you have got time to listen Twenty miles to the next stop" Well, you see, St is like this, Shan It's five years since I dropped out. No' one single person that I knew or that knew me in the old days has ever seer ran across you this morning. There was | no one dependent upon me, and no ons that cared, guess. You know that was running pretty strong with Mary
 Parr then for a time, and although she Whats that?"
 Well. I aint ashamed to say that thought lot of her and If things had gone differently may be I would have had a passenger run by this time. One | evening Mary and I had little spat-
 1t did-and that settled it. Then I heard that she was going with Henry Weber a rnachinist at the shops, and so kind of dropped out Left the road and work. ed all over for time. Then I got to l travelling about bit and soon I was on the bum. You don't know how easily a fellow can drop into that, especially a fellow that knows railroading as I do. have travelled all over these United States without cent. It's hard lines some times. but I don't know but it Is as good
 as any other if fellow don't care what becomes of him.
 About my white head? Did you ever hear that mans hair could turn gray
 in night never took much stock ir that, but here before you is sample oi what can be done by fear. It was in this way. had been wandering down through | the Eastern States some three years ago and one night landed at Lancaster, Pa There was a young fellow hanging around ] the Pennsylvania roads water tank and | we decided to travel together. It was | warm even If it was late winter and wC | began nosing around the cars The young | fellow found a car door unsealed ana | called to me. We climbed in and found
 ourselves in a car loaded with banana