Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1902-12-04

| morning 10 apologize in behalf of his
engineer, and his apology, from end to
end, including stops and slowdowns,
as the saying is, was not entirely de
| void of entertaining features.
'The truth of the matter is said he,
addressing the principal kicker, Il trav-
cling salesman from Milwaukee. that
there's only one man on earth who UNI
derstands the teakettle that we use in
place of real locomotive on this line
and his names Bill Carver. Bill knows
her from the track up. lie gives her Il
pat here and jab there, and she set
ties down to her PAGES like. an old fam
fly horse. But let u new man take
her, and she either gets on 10 her hind
legs and goes crazy or else she sulks
and won't go at all worth mentioning.
She's sulking this morning"
II should think SOL" growled the Mil
waukee man, looking at his watch.
Were forty minutes late now, and I'll
miss my train OH the other road.
Where is Carver, anyway? What do
they let him go away for without tax
ing his hanged old steam pot with
him?"
Hes at Geneva Lake by this time"
replied the conductor. lie came down
with us last night. He's on his wed
ding trip. BY GEORGE You wouldn't
have known him, logged out as he was
in the regulation black, with his hands
in kid gloves and his feet in patent
feathers. He could hardly drag his
gaze away from his bride long enough
TO recognize the teakettle; thnt's fact.
He was simply soaked full of love or
whatever it is, and he was purring like
Il kitten. Id never have believed it of
him, for of all the mean things | ever
heard any one say about women as
sex and about marriage as an inStitu-
ton he'd said the meanest. He never
had any patience with idiots who re-
pose confidence in petticoats. He said
women were all false as hades and
foolish as barnyard fowls. He was
married to his ridiculous old engine, he
was. and lie never wanted anything
better in this world. OF course we mar
ried fellows knew when he spouted
that sort of stuff that he'd been dis
appointed in some love affair and that
he didn't really mean all he thought
he meant. but none of us was ever able
to pump him out. SO we just laughed
ut him and told him that sooner or
later he'd meet something in petticOats
that would jerk him over the line and
into the roundhouse as 4 mogul jerks
Il sick switch engine. 1t made him
snort TO tell him that, but it's precisely
what happened. If | ever saw 4 man
who'd lost the last vestige of his pow
CT of resistance, it was him last night.
He was coal in the scoop of the fire.
man. nothing else"
How did it happen:" asked the Mil
waukee man, glancing again at his
watch and settling reSignedly into his
seat
"Well. as near as l can make out
from what | was told at Whippleville
yesterday by n chap who lives next
door to Bills brides folks up at Corey
Center it was mostly Bills fault that
lie didn't get spliced long ago instead
of going away in Il huff and turning
himself into Il make believe woman
hater. The girl liked him all right, but
she was like most girls-she didn't like
to seem too easy. Bill might have I'M
derstood her If he hadn't been so lack
ing in ordinary-what do you call it,
as lie did an engine. He expected def
mite. results. When he pulled the throt
tie. he expected her to go, and when
he put on the air he expected her to
stop. and when she didn't do these
things he got mad. Furthermore. he
gave the girl to understand plain enough
that he was dead gone on her. and that
was another mistake He's fair square
and aboveboard. Bill is. and he has
mighty little patience with any one
who tries TO take advantage of him.
He's no fish TO be played on string, he
says.
'Now, there never was a healthy girl,
/ suppose, who wouldn't play with a
chap after she was sure she had him
hooked. It's the nature of 'em. And
this girl did things just to make Bill
mad She firted with other fellows,
and she had little spells of false agony,
when she made him think he'd done
something she didn't like and wouldn't
tell him what it was, and she twitted
him on his looks, which aren't specially
handsome, and altogether she carried
on in way to drive an honest man to
deSpera ton, although most men in Bills
place would have brought her up with
n round turn. And at last. one night
four years ago, Bill reached the limit
and for about an hour he read the riot
act to her. He was like life or death
special on II new tracS-simply shut his
eyes and made her run. Then when
he'd got through he slammed his hat
over his eyes and bolted. never looking
at the girl. I'll bet Sc she was holding
out her hands to him and trying to get
her talk pipe to work. A woman can
tell usually when she's gone too far,
and almost always she'll come down
from her perch peaceably enough IL
she's given the right sort of chance.
He didn't go back to Corey Center
after that until about two weeks ago.
He wouldn't have gone then only that