The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-04-05
THE FEATHERED MASCOT.
IFrom the Denver Post
,ri,,er II, : and take ont > -

DI14lS III . anu take Oul
This sounds like arithmetic but it
wasn't. It was just business, railroad
business. pertaining to the very busy
life of Henry Mccarthy who for twenty
eight years has pulled the lever on en-
gines that have pulled great trains
toward Kansas City sometimes and
toward Denver at others, over the old
Kansas Pacific, or Union Pacific, as it is
now known.
The numbers he mentioned referred to
the numbers OF the trains-5 and ?. His
engine, Mccarthy said. is 1474. and
better one of the kind he added, in the
phraseology of My Uncle Toby" you
wouldn't find in dozen years.
Mccarthy was an engineer before he
came to Colorado in 1873 and he has
been an engineer ever since, barring
three years when he was in the sheep
business in Lincoln county-a disastrous
three years ending in a total loss of 1000
sheep, which gave up the ghost under
the asphyxiating force of a waterspout.
And that's the way / went out of the
sheep business and back to railroading."
But Mr.. Mccarthy is a modest man,
if his hair is short on top, and dOesn' t
talk unless he is drawn out. There are
those who can draw him out, howe er,
and one of those got at him the other
night and touched the right spring.
No, I'm not SuperStitiCuS," he began,
as they all begin, when they are asked
if they have any haunting ideas, but 1
don't mind telling you of curious
thing which happened to me back east
when l used to work a throttle on the
Fort Wayne road
"A little bird lit on the pilot of my
engine one day as we were passing
through Kokomo, Ind. Some crumbs of
bread or something that had been left
on the small platform by somebody at
tracted its attention. It picked and
picked at the crumbs till we had travel
ed twenty miles further to Peru. Ind
There it finished it meal and flew away
I didn't think any more about the cir
cumstance till the next day, when on
my return through Peru again noticed
this small brown bird. 1t fiuttered
about the pilot for a moment and seem
ed to miss something. Realizing at once
that this was the same little bird which
had Travelled with me on the previous
day. I at once unpacked my lunch box
and threw some crumbs out on one Of
the running boards.
THE bird caught on at once. He was
an awfulIy cute little fellow and began
to pick at the dinner | had thrown out
to him. He rode back with me to Ko-
komo and there deserted me. The next
time I came through he was waiting for
me, and I had his breakfast ready for
him, all spread out
Well sir that little fellow rode with
me for two years I took a great interest
IN him, and he got so tame he would
come right up into the cab and eat
lunch with me [ inquired and found
that Mike. as we called him. was one
of the despised English sparrows. but we
didn't despise him; we thought the world
OF hin-Joe Bennessey, my fireman, and
l.
I'VE didn't know what crusade was
on against the sparrows or we would
have looked out better for Mike, but one
day when we came through KckOmo
Mike missed his train It was the first
time he had missed it since we had made
his acquaintance, and we worried about
him throughout the whole run When
we got back to Kokomo on the return
trip we learned that there had been
great slaughter of sparrows. and we
knew little Mike had been one of the vic
Tins
We'll, it Just knocked US out. We had
learned to love the pert little rascal, and
we nourned for him as If he had been
some close friend or relation. And.
strange as it may seem, things began to
go wrong right away A draw-head went
ut almost every day for a week. and
one Of the driving rods snapped of and
nearly ended US both, the second trip
we made without our mascot
Then poor Joe suddenly sickened and
died and I had a green cub in with me
who got me into trouble every day, and
then I had a narrow escape from run
ming into a work train. and-well, quit
and came to Colorado. I thought I'd