The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-05-03
James Barton Adams Tells
Pretty Romance.
Brilliant Western Writer'S
Operator at Wakarusa.
WANTED TO FIGHT.
Station Agent Changed Mind
When He Met Antagonist.
Only Way Out Was to Marry
Her.


When was sent out from Topeka to
take charge as agent and operator at
the Santa Fe railway station at Kaw
City, felt that one great ambition OF
my life had reached realization. While
taking course of instruction at a bust
ness college at the Kansas capital had
formed the determination to enter upon
a. commercial life, and often while mas
tering the details of single and double
entry, bills of lading, invoices, cash
balances, etc, had cast the pen from
my Wearied fingers, leaned back IN my
chair and drawn bright mental pictures
Of how, by close attention to my duties
and the exercise Of tact in making my
self useful to my employers 1 would
speedily rise from bOol1keeper to CASH
Ter, from cashier to manager and even
tually look with pride upon the abbre-
waited Co" on the golden-lettered sign
over the door of a great establishment,
in the knowledge that it referred to
myself as the junior partner.
After my graduation and when about
to depart for a field in the east. where
business laurels We're to be won, l
called to say good-by to Frank La
mont, an old schOolmate, who was then
holding a position as train dispatcher
road
To Frank I confded all my aims, my
hopes and ambitions, and grew half in
dignant when he shook his head and
expressed the fear that it would prove
a parallel case to that of the child cry
ing for the moon.
You viii find you have a big con
tract on your hands, old man." he said.
Bookkeepers are as thick in eastern
cities as sunf1owers are upon the
prairies Of Kansas, and have no doubt
there are hundreds, yes, thousands, of
old fellows with silvered hair today
bending over books who went there as
young men fired with the same ambi-
tons which are now enthrOned in your
brain. Why do you not adopt railroad
ing as a profession? In this life, Should
you prove to be adapted to the bust
ness, you would have a chance to at
tain an honOred position Would it not
be more desirable to be at the head of
OF an ordinary business frm?"
You would no doubt advise me to
begin at the bottom and work my way
up, replied sarcastically. First take
a pick or shovel in a section gang, be
| subjected to the abuse of an illiterate
boss with a north of Ireland brogue, eat
execrable grub cooked by a woman
whose habits of cleanliness would De
open to grave suspicion, and have my
occupancy of a rude bunk nightly con-
tested by troublesome insectal pests
which would regard me as an intruder?
NO, thank you
I would advise nothing of the kind
he retorted. Your commercial course
| included railway bookkeeping, and that
I is leading factor in railway advance
ment- l viii take you into my Office
and teach you biography, and you can
gain a general knowledge of moving
trains over the road by Geographic Or
| ders- When proficient you will be given
/ charge of an unimpOrtant station and
! as you grow in railway knowledge pro
motion will follow, a more important
station Will be entrusted to you at each
! advancement and some day YOU NAV
| be here as 1 am with the superintend-
ency staring you in the face. Even
tually you maxwell, there is no tell
! ing what power you may WELD on some
one Of the great lines"
His words gave me food for very ser
| lous reflection. They diverted my
/ thoughts from the beacon light which
! cleaned on the heights of mercantile
/ fame and directed them to what APP
! peared a much brighter light on anOth-
! er eminence. The idea of wearing out
| my life and becoming round-shOuldered
! bending over ledgers in a counting room
became odiouS to me as new and bright
| er ambitions dethroned the older ones in
my youthful brain, and l began to Won
! der how I could ever have thought of a
| life Of such drudgery. I recalled what
| had read of messenger boys in railway
| offices having risen to superintendencies,
| or railway presidents who were once
l peanut and Truit vendors on trains and
! I fell into the habit of lying awake at
night and mentally making tours of in
spectlon over a great line in my own
private car drawn by my own private
engine, and surrounded by my faithful
| neutenants, the superintendent of di-
visions I pictured myself sitting at
debating short, crisp, dignffied letters to
my confidential stenOgrapher, while
men Of note sat in a reception room near
by, each awaiting his turn to consult me
on matters of vital interest to the pro-
gress of the country which my road
traVersed. As a result of this visionary
dreaming I entered the Office of my
friend, Lamont, and after a few months
tuition found myself sitting at the cheap
desk in the cramVed depot at KaW City
praeticing upon an imposing signature
TO attach to my daily reports to the gen.
efai oInceS ana gazing with pride upon
/ the word Agent which followed the
Oft written name on the sheet before
me. Some day it would be relegated to
the past and be succeeded by that OF
Superintendent" and with prophetic
eye glanced away ahead into the fu-
ture when I would sign the name with
a characteristic flourish over the type
written title General Manager
smiled when 7 thought how men high in
official and business life might some day
seek for that signature when it was at
tached TO an artlSt1cally engraved pass
AS the days passed the novelty Of nv
new life began to wear off. and a feel
! ing of loneliness would at times steal
over me as sat in my Office or strolled
about the depot platform There were
but two buildings in the city" named
in honor of the murlzy Kaw river, which
ran near blythe depot and the section
| house. During the days the latter was
| inhabited by a red-faced Nilesian wO-
man who went barefoot during the week
to save her everyday shoes for Sunday
a small brood of ha1f-clad, dirty children
and a sleepy dog of the ma1gned 'syal-
ler'' color. and at night by half a score
of sun Drowned section 1aborers whose
only real enjoyment Of life seemed to
be drawn through the blackened stems
of once white clay pipes. In this house
I got my meals, and although I was ac-
i. corded seat Of honor at the private
table vivid the boss an the nissus'' and
was served with food presuma bly, better
and in greater variety than that given
the men. I usually tried to think of
something more pleasant while eating
J it.
Amid these lonely. uncongenial sur
roundings the hours began to percep-
I | tihIu Iangthen- the daZs 10 aaarn almost