The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-12-30

the way III
Jimmie had a grievance, and every tll1e
no thought about it it made him nervous.
Ninety-six years. It seemed a gooo
while to wait; yet in the regular course
of events on the Mountain DIVISION tneio
anneared no earlier prospect OF Jininio
getting q passenger run. IA
.Got your rights, amt YOU: odiu
Doub,eday when Jimmie complained.
~ have and 1 haven't grumbled jim
r,ie. winking hard; there's younger men
than | am on the fast runs
.Tbev got in on the strike; you've peeh
told that a hundred times. Hang on
TO YOUR freight. There's better men lhah
YOU in ireland up to their belt IN lhe
bog, Jimmie
ITS a pity they didn't leave you there
Doubleday
You'd have been a good Wnlle huh'-
ing for a freight run if they had.
Then Jimmie would get mad and snake
his finger and talk fast, "Just the same
I'll ave a fast run here "hcn youie
dead"
MAYBE; but I'll be alive a good Whlle
vet nv son." the master mechanic would
laugh The talk always ended that way,
and Jimmie Bradshaw knew 1t always
would end that way.
The trouble was. no one on the divls-
ion would take Jimmie seriously, ana ne
felt that the ambition of his life Would
never be fulfilled; that he would go plug
cling to gray hairs and the grave on an
old freight rain. 1t was funny to hear
him complaining about it, for everything
even his troubles, came funny to hlm'
and in talking he had an odd way of slut
tering with his eyes, which were req.
In fact. Jimmie was nearly all red; hair,
face. hands-they said his teeth were
sandy.
When the first rumors about the pro
posed Yellow Mail reached the mountains
Jimmie was running a new ten-Wheeler;
breaking her in on a freight '1or some
fellow without a lick o sense to use on
a limited passenger rum, as Jimmie Cd
served bitterly. The rumors about the
mail as the season advanced flew thick
err and faster. Washington never was
very progressive in the matter of i'm
proving the transcontinehtal service, but
once by mistake they put in a Postmaster
General down there who wouldn't take
the old song. When the bureau fellows
that put their brains up in the cur papers
softly told him it couldn't be done he
smiled softly and sent for the managers
Of the crack lines across the continent
without suspecting how it bore incidental
ly on Jimmie Bradshaws grievance
against his master mechanic.
The Postmaster General called the
mana gers Of the big lines, and they had
q dinner at Chamberlain's, and they told
him the same thing. ct has been tried"
they said in the old, tired way.
california has been getting the worst
of it for years on the mail service per-
sisted the Postmaster General moderate
ly. I'VE don't think anything about put
ting New York mail in Chicago in twenty
hours. 1t ought to be simple to cut half
a day across the continent. Where's the
fall DOWN."
The general managers looked at our
representative sympathetically, and
coughed cigar smoke his way to hide
him.
West of the Missouri" a
Pennsylvania swell, who pulled in1iffer-
entity at a ffty-cent cigar.
The West End representative was I'M
happily accustomed to facing the finger
of scorn on such occasions. 1t had be-
come with our managers a tradition.
There was never a conference of trans
continental lines in which we were not
scoffed at as the weak line in the chain
of everything-mail, passenger, specials,
what not.
This time a new man was sitting for
the line at the Chamberlain dinner; a
youngish man with a face that set like
cement when the West End was trod on.
The Postmaster General was inclined,
from the reputation we had, to look on
our man as one looks at a dog without
a pedigree, or at a dray horse in a
bunch o. standard breds. But something
IN tho ont re tho SN q = C,,rI roor ro we
hirl rause. The POST aster General sup
pressed a rising sarcasm with a sip of
Chartreuse aud waited; nor did he mis-
take, the West hllG"r was about to
speak.
why west of the Missouri ?" he asked,
with a lift of the face not altogether
candid. The Pennsylvania man shrug-
ged his broNs.
If it is put through, how 'auch of it
do you propose to take yourself?" in
quired our man, looking evenly at the Al
1cghany official.
"Sixty-fve miles, including stops, from
the New York post office to Canal street
replied the Pennsylvania man, and his
words flowed with irritating ease.
What do YOU take?' continued the
man with the jaw, turning to the Bur-
1ington representative, who was strug-
bliuS, peidleG, W1tH an drtlchOkG.
About seventy from Canal to Tenth
and Mason. Say, seventy" repeated the
q manager, with the loneliness of a
man who has miles to throw away.
Then suppose we say sixty-five from
Tenth and Mason to Ogden suggested
the West Endcr. There was a well-bred
stare the table round. Sixty-five mics
an hour? Through the Rockies?
The Post tina ta~ Copor,1 ct,,oI- ~
table quick and heavily: he didn't want
to let it get away. Why hang it. Mr..
Bucks he exclaimed with emphasis. "if
you will say sixty, the business is done.
we don't ask You to do the Rockies in
the time these fellows take to cut the
Alleghanies. Do sixty, and | will put
mail in Frisco a day earlier every week
in the year"
Nothing on the West End to keep you
from doing it," said General Manager
Bucks. He had been put up then only
about six months. But"
Every one looked at the young mana