Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-08
SICLONE CLARK.
BY FRANK q. SPEAPMAN.
Copyright, 1900, by Frank a. Spearman.)

X.
Duck was sitting in the traih,i,as
Office with a group OF engineers
one Of the black-listed strikers. and runs
o,o;,o royv down on the Santa Fe. But
ar long intervals Duck gets back 10 revisit
w. scenes Of his early triumphs. the men
who surrounded him were once at oeaoiy
osas Nth Duck and his chums, though no"
tha ancIent enmities seem forgotten anu
Drcl-the once ferocious Duck-slts occa-
siona1Iv among the new men and gosslps
obont early DAVIS on the West End.
mo Won remember Siclone, Reed?' asked
D,ck calling TO me in the private ONCE.
..Remember him?" echoed. Did any
bodv who ever knew Siclone forget him!
"I fred passenger for Siclone twenty
reare ago" resumed Duck. He walked
ina, like that fellow; only he was quicker.
! reckon you fellows don't know what
snap YOU have here now" he continued ao-
dressing the men around him.. Track
fenced. .:!nety-pound rails, steel bridges
stone culve It's, Stag ballast SKY SCI ',oI,
No wonder you get chances TO maui such
nobs as IiIiuokalani and Schiey ana beWey
and cut out ninety miles al nun VA
gents. S,,,o,a tho road
bed was lust off the scrapers, the dumps
were soft pile bridges, paper culVerls
Hftv-six-pound rails, not a fence west OF
Buffalo gap and the plains black WIN
Texas steers. We never closed our GYM,
der cocks: the hiss of the steam frightened
the cattle worse than the whistle ana we
never knew when we were going to find
bunch of critters on the track
''The first winter 1 came out was great
for snow and l was a tenderfoot. The cuts
made good wind breaks, and whenever
tbera was norther they were chuck full of
cattle Every time train plougneo
through the snow 1t made a path on the
track Whenever the steers wanted TO
move they would take the mlddie OF Ihe
track single file, and string out mile after
mile. Talk about fast schedules and ninety
miles an hour. You had to poke along with
your cylinders splitting, and Just Wnlstle
and yell-sort of blow them on into the
snow drifts.
cone day Siclone and I were going west
on 40. and we were late; for that matter We
were always late. Simpson coming agalist
us on 60 had caught a bunch OF cattle IN the
rock-c1lt lust west of the Sappie, and killed
a couple When we got there there must
have been a thousand head or steers NOUS
ing around the dead ones. Sicione-ne used
TO be cowboy, you knoW-Slclohe sdIu INC!
were holding a wake. At any rate, they
were still coming from every direction ana
as far as you could see. 1900
Hold on, Siclone, and III chase lheh
out ! said.
That's the stuff, Duck says he. Get
after them and see what you can do He
looked kind of queer, bnt l never thought
anything. I picked up jack-bar ana start
ed up the track.
''The first fellow 1 tackled looked lazy,
but he started full quick when 1 hit him
Then he turned around to inspect me, and
/ noticed his horns were the broad-gause
variety While 1 whaCked another the hrst
one put his head down and began to snort
and paw the ties; then they all began to
below at once; it looked smoky. dropped
the tack-bar and started for the engine, and
about fifty of them started for me.
II never had an idea steers could run So
you could have played checkers on my
heels all the way back. If Siclone hadn't
come out and jollied them, I'd never nave
got back in the world. I Just jumped the
pilot and went clear over against the boiler
head. Siclone claimed l tried to climb the
smokestack: but he was excited. Anyway,
he stood out there with shovel and Kept
the whole bunch off me. l thought they
would kill him; but l never tried to chase
range steers on foot again.
"In the spring we got the rains: not like
you get now, but cloudbursts. The section
men were good fellows. only sometimes we
would get into a storm miles from section
gang and strike place where we couldn't
see q thing.
"Then Siclone would stop the train, take
q bar and get down ahead and sound the
roadbed. Many and many a Washout he
struck that way which would have wrecked
our train and wound up our ball OF yarn IN
a minute Often and often Siclone would
go into his division without dry thread on
him.
'"Those were different days" unused the
grizzled striker The old boys are scat
tered now all over this broad land. The
strike did It; and you fellows have the snap.
But what 1 wonder, often and often, Is
whether Siclone is really alive or not"
Siclone Clark was one of the two cow
boys who helped Harvey Reynolds and Ed.
Banks save 90 at Griffin the night the coal
train ran down from Ogalalla. They were
both taken into the service; Siclone, after
q while, went to wiping.
When Bucks asked his name, Siclone an
swered. IS. Clark"
Whats your full manner" asked Bucks.
IS Clark"
But what does S. stand for?" persisted
Bucks.
Stands for Cyclone reckon; don't it?''
retorted the cowboy, with some annoyance.
1t was not usual in those days on the
plains to press a man too closely about his
name There might be reasons why 1t
would not be esteemed courteous.
II reckon 1t do replied Bucks, dropping
into Siclones grammar; and without a
culver he registered the new man as ST.
clone Clark; and his checks always read
that way. The name seemed to fit; he
adopted II without any objection; and, after
everybody came to know him, it fitted so
we'll that Bucks was believed to have sec
ond sight when he named the hair-brained
fireman. He could get up storm quicker
than any man on the division, and, If he
felt so disposed, stop one quicker.
In spite of his eccentricities which were
many, and his headstrong way of doing
some things, Siclone Clark was good en-
gineer and deserved a better fate than the
one that befell him. Though-who car
tell?-it may have been just to his liking.
The strike was the worst thing that ever
happened to Siclone. He was one of those
big-hearted, violent fellows who went into
II loaded with enthusiasm. He had moth
ing to gain by it. at least, nothing to speak
Of But the idea that somebody on the
East End needed their help led men like
Siclone in; and they thought II cinch that
the company would have to take them al
back.
The consequence was that, when we stag.
gered along without them, men like Slclone
easily aroused, naturally of violent pas
sions, and with no self-restraint, stopped al
nothing to cripple the service. And they
looked on the men who took their places as
entitled neither to liberty nor life
When our new men began coming from
the Reading to replace the strikers, every
one wondered who would get Slclont
C1arks engine, the 313. Siclone had gen
tly sworn to kill the first man who tool
out the 313-and bar nobody.
Whatever others thought of Siclone's va
porings, they counted for a good deal OF
the West End; nobody wanted troubl
with him.
Even Neighbor, who feared no man, sor
OF let the 313 lay in her stall as long a!
possible, after the trouble began.
Nothing was said about It. Threats can
not be taken cognizance OF officially; w,
were bombarded with threats all the time
they had long since ceased to move US. Ye
Slclones engine stayed in the round house