The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-08-26
LIGoNIER'S VENGEANCE.
A Feud in Which the Town Invari-
ably Got the Worst of 1t. ag
brooklyn Eag gle. J

tDTOOAlyn Eagle
Inc Twentieth Century Limited was
siding oyer the Indiana plains on its
way eastward from Chicago. In the
observation car the Siberian traveller
was telling how different it was-sev-
enteen miles an hour over the steppes
ana nifty miles an hour over the
prairie Out on the platform the en-
thusiastic traveller who wanted the
scenery was getting it along with plen-
~ of dust and cinders.
He, he!" chuckled the porter: dat
gemman on the platform, he'll be as
black as / am pretty quick if he don't
come in"
And then the train sensibly ouiek-
ened its pace. the reverberation showed
that a station was being passed and
when cloud of dust, that completely
hid the back platform and its occi1-
pant, had cleared away the passengers
saw good sized town fading away in
the distance
That's Ligonier.'' said the brake
man; Ligonier, Ind
Nobody seemed to care whether the
town was LigOnier or not, and the por-
ter broke in with:
Dat gemman begininn' to turn al
ready; his nose is getting black now
Time was" said the brakeman
when Lake Shore man didn't dare
get off the train in Ligonier, even TO
see his best girl
They don't feel quite so bad now
he added.
What did they have against the
Lake Shore men?'' inquired the man
from Brooklyn.
Fighting the company. Kept il I'D
for almost ten years, too. 1t began
about fifteen years ago, and some of
EN- haven't got over it yet"
1T all began over a couple of grade
crossings" and the brakeman settled
himself in an easy chair to tell the
story Brakeman on the limited have
an easy time. No stops means a
straight run and plenty Of time to
talk.
The town had four grade crossings.
and wanted two more so they laid out
the street across the cOmpany's tracks.
and then asked the company to put
them in
The company didn't want any more
crossings in the town and held off.
Then the town began 10 talk about go
ing 10 the courts. and one day a gang
OF men appeared in Ligonier and built
humping big water tank beside the
track. right where one of the streets
was marked to run. Then the town
got up on its ear. and one night the
mayor and the chief of police headed
another gang of men that chopped the
water tank down.
Then the company did what the
town had threatened to do and went to
law over the matter of the crossings
They didn't say anything about the
chopped down tank. At least, not lust
then. They mentioned it later. though.
Well, the courts decided that if the
town wanted the grade crossings ii
would have IN condemn the Land ond
that meant that they'd have to pay
the railroad before the streets could
be opened. Then the railroad did a lit
tie talking about the water tank Told
how the destruction of II had tiisar-
ranged all their plans for the division
and all that and said that so long as
the courts had held that they didn',
have to give up their land for a cross
ing unless they wanted to they guessed
they'd have to sue the town for dam
ages and all that sort of thing That
made the town kind of sick and they
suggested a compromise. When they
got through compromising they found
that instead of getting any new cross
ingS they'd lost two of the four they
already had and two is all they've got
today It's town of 5000 people. too
They didn't have TO pay for the tank
I though.
When Ligonier had had chance &c
think that over a while they decided
to get even While they were thinkins
about il the company got out a new
time table The first day it went into
effect a Ligonier man went down to the
station in the morning to take the ex-
I press 10 Elkhart- Pretty soon the ex.
press came along. but the engineer
| didn't seem TO see Ligonier. Anyway
he didn't stop there. Just went right