Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-10-21

ing houses, all through the crowds ot
sullen. diSheartened men skulkins
about the street corners. undecided
whether to give UP and go back to duty
or launch out OH some new enterprist
nj the expense of the road--t!le story
had gone far and wide how that fellow
In the derby hat and plain clothes had
taken command of a company of me
lishy," tin understanding better
and had so coolly handled them and in
SO cold FLOODED Il way had loaded ur
with solid lead and given the gang to
! understand that he'd let daylight
/ through their hides if they stirred a
foot through the company's gates that
the mob that went there bent on de-
! struction, determined to burn ana loot
the offices and warehouses. SUNK away
| completely cowed. That fcllcr's boss
of the Big Horn yards this day, boys.
and we amt in it," was the way the
leader OF the strikers expressed it, and
there was no sane man who cared to
| put it TO the test.
| Ascribe it to whatever cause we NAV
1t was petrified fact that from the in
slant Eric Langdon stepped out at the
head of that company the Big Horn's
property was safe. The few willing
workers left to the management tool,
hold with a vim. An experimental
train. guarded by miltiamen from 9TH
er companies, was started down the
Red Water. a construction train fol-
lowed with soldier boys manning both
brakes and shoyels. Claiming, the
hustling manager, tumbled clerks,
bookkeepers, switchmen and car
smiths into engine cabs, wired for 9th
ers to meet them at GunniSon and ac-
tually had his trains moving at the
very moment when the Seattle sheds
were going up in flame, and the great
general manager of that great corpora
ton, with curses in his heart and his
hands i'll his pockets, stood scowling
on the scene of ruin through which the
belated regulars We're driving the last
yestiges of the mob, and Mr.. Barclay,
the general manager aforementioned,
was both thinking and saying I'M
wholesome things of the regulars COM
mander, at whose hospitable board he
had been winning and dining but a
month or so agone, the too deliberate
Captain Nathan.
What Melville would have said to
that crestfallen officer when at last,
about noon, his train and command ar
rived cannot well be conjectured, but
that the long delay was of serious i'm
port there can be no doubt, for Cap
tain Nathan's explanation in writing
was demanded and forwarded day OF
two later, and both the unique expla-
nation and old Gray Fox's 1.-THE name
of Gray Fox was given by the Indians
to the famous frontier soldier at that
time commanding the department of
the PLATED telling reply was speedily
the talk Of the department of the
Platte. Nathan said that 1t was true
he might have earlier reached the Red
Water valley, but he conceived that his
first duty was to protect the lives of
his devoted men and prevent the posi-
bility of an ambuscade or pitfall. To
this end every dangerous bridge was
examined, certain deep cuts were ex-
plored, etc, before he deemed 1t safe
to proceed. He admitted long delay at
the junction, but declared it necessary
becausecf the alarming reports brought
him by reliable railway officials to
the effect that the tracks were under
mined, the trestles Sawed and every
mile of the Seattle from the junction
to Brentwood q thread of mines and
1t was true, he said. that
the train bearing some militia. compa-
MES had passed him at Gunnison and
gone forward by the Big Horn road,
but the way was cleared for them by
the sheriff and other officials, whereas
Oh the south bank no friends were to
be hoped for
And SO 1t had resulted, to the I'M |
speahable disgust of the few officers
with Nathan's command, that the I'M
tried militia, under fearless and ener-
yetic leadership, had forced their way, !
despite mobs and Instructions, to the
seat of action and rescued the property |
Of the Big Horn road, while the regu- |
lars, .hampered by their timorous head. |
WIN iiNtNi oath lol llouiS Ill lTOuL OIL
purely imaginary obstacles and only |
reached the yards at Brentwood in |
time TO find the buildings mass of I
lame Even that calamity might not /
1ave happened but that at II In the
forenoon Major Melville, learning that
he mob was drifting away from the /
Big Horn and gathering in threatening
'orce about the Seattle yards down on
he south side, had hurried in from the
suburbs, whittier he had gone to sta
ion the recently rusticated battalion,
md while standing on the platform Of
he freighthouse, calm and unmoved !
II the presence Of jeering, bowling
pack of tatterdemalions and writing an
rider summoning certain companies to
j, 4 : 2 = =z=|"=|=gI !
&aM i----4==-stsAIy-L~ RI9A II