The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-09-20
THE DESPATCHER'S STORY
THE LAST ORDER

IN ORDER to meet objection on the score Of the inn
possible and to anticipate inquiry as to whether
1.-THE Despatcher's story is true it may be well
10 frankly outset that this tale in its in
applicable psychological features is "A transcript from,
the queer things i'm the railroad life IS based on am
extraordinary happening that fell within the expert
ence Of the president OF large western railway sy
tenn Whether the story, suggestive from any point of
view OF mystery. can be regarded demonstration
In passing bovtt 5 ~ q eisputaoie question.
''FN INSTANCES on which the tale is based so
sarded by the dispatcher himself and by those familiar
with the circumstance.
An hundred times if once the thing had been. on
appeals for betterment before the directors
IL was the one piece Of track mountain di-
vision that trainmen shook their heads overhe Peace
river stretch. To any a line through that
canyon would take the breath OF an engineer Give
MN all the money he could ask and would stagger
nothing worse in the Andes and Brodie. before he
orlted into the Rockies had seen first and last pretty
much all of the Gillian work
But had the job do with one-haIf the
money they needed The lines to the grades to
ilSue, the euiEerts to put in the nils 10 make the
blasting to do the tunnel TO bore, the bridge build
they did the best they could But viii candid: if
section and elevation Of Rosamond's bower and a
mp to stand for prize at civil engineers cake walk
me DECISION would go. ana quick to the Peace river
would back it against any eighty earth for whip
ping curves tough grades, villanous approaches and
The directors always have promised o improve it;
and they are promising yet. Thanks to what Haley
taught them there's a good bridge there now-pneu-
matte cassons sunk to the bed It's the pity they
haven't eliminated the main curves that APP
preach it, through veley which brief as a can
yon and the Mauvaises Terres rolled into one single
Yet we do lots of business along that stretch Our
engineers thread the cuts and are glad to get safely
,nIough them Our Toadmasters keep up the eleva-
tons. hoping some night the blooming right of way
VIII tumble into perditicn. Our tchers studying
cnched and hope there never viii be any trouble
that stretch. Trouble is portion and trouble
must get but not there Let it come; but let it come
Snywhere except on the Peace.
IL was in the golden days of the batted old Wicki-
night chair Tbs days y,b The Ola DIIm sal IN tig
there: before death and fame and circumstance had
stolen our first commanders and left only
lows forgotten by better fate, tell great
Haley had the bridges then and wetmore the To-
erintendencv and callahan SO he cIaiT,ed the
work and Blackburn had the night tick.
When Blackburn came from the plains ne brought
record clean as the book of life. Four years
station key then eight years AT Omaha dispatching
with never blunder break the eight years
But II was at Omaha that Blackburn lost the wife
Mlose race ne carried IN MS watch never BEARD the
story, only some rumor of how young she and how
pretty, and how ne buried her and the wee baby
Ee,Ier- Ii was an blackbkurn brought to the West
End mountains, his record and the little face the
watch They said he had no l<th or kin earth. be-
sides the wife and the baby the bluffs of the
missouri; and so he came on the night tick
remember the crowd; who could forget them? They
We're Jolly good fellows; sometimes there very
good stories to for7 5o fe 10 c9 sing ana
things went wrong. as they viii there were clear
heads and pretty wits and stout hearts 10 put things
right.
Blackburn, as much as I can remember. always en-
joyed il: but in different way. He had such times
manner like nobody elses-a silent beanlng manner
When Bucks would roll great white Pan Handle
his fresh linen shirt front his cool
clean. white arms one of them always barred the
ehOW-Sanding his points with the ash of San Fran
cisco cigar-and Neighbor would begin O heave from
the middle up like hippopetamus and Callahan would
laugh his whiskers fun Of dew and HALEY would veil
with delight and the slaves in the next room would
double upon the dead the story, Blackburn would
sit With his laugh all I'm a smile. but never noise
only it all tempered reckon, by something that
had gone before. At least that's the way IL
strikes and I watched those big fellows pretty
clOse-the fellows who were to turn. While was grow
ing UP among them, into managers presidents
magnates; and some Of them from every day catch
. as-catch-can with the alkal hecking
their boots into dead for whom marble rose
white enough or nigh enough.
Blackburn was four years at the WicliUp the
there in day light. 1t needed the yellow gloom of the
old kerosene lamp I'm the the specked. knoted
warped smoky pine ceiling losing itself in black and
oobWehbed corners tho Tnoldering murk or the soft
coal fire brooding I'm the shabby old salamander. and
outside in the darkness. the wind screwng down the
gorge and rafting the shrunken easements. 10 raise
blackburn I'm the despatcher's chair Blackburn and
the lamp and stove and the ceiling and the gloom
in word, Blackburn and the night uck-they went
together.
Before the Short Line was opened the No. / and No
> trains caught practically all the coast passenger
after month we sent out two and three sections OF
them each way and they always into division
the night tick. Blackburn handled all that main
line business with a mileage of eight hundred and
five besides the mountain branches say four hundred
more: and the passenger connections came off them
mostly at night for and 3.
Now three wrestle with Backburns mileage:
hut that before hey found out that despatchers
although something tougher than steel do wear out
and extra If a dispatcher took sick there