The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-10-17
Frank II. Spea1z1yan's
e,,'s'''' 7,'* y s',r~~ Rallt0nd Stories

i
all there were still by five times more
trains than ever before rolled thru
Medicine Bend in twenty-four hours.
1t was like a festival day in the
mountains. Even the Indians and the
squaw men turned out to see the fun.
There was a crowd at the depot by 5
o'clock. when the first train rolled. up
the lower gorge with ST. Johns COM
mandery, No. g. from Buffalo; and the
Pullmans were gay with bunting. The
Medicine Bend crowd gave them an
Indian yell, and in two minutes the
knights with their scalps in their
hands as q token Of surrender, We're
tumbling out. Of their sleepers into the
crisp dawn. They were just like
the local curiosity who had; both
feet ian both hands frozen off the
night he got drunk with Matt Cassidy
at Goose River Junctfon-struck up
on his mouth-organ t..Put Me Off at
Buffalo they dropped 81; odd, and
three baggage checks into his hat
WhileS the crews - were :: changing en-
giness # appeared to affect them I'M
comnons$tos seeSa fellow without any
hands or feet play athe mouth organ
and before shutdown Shorty made the
killing Of his life. With what he raked
in that day he kept the city marshal
guessing for three months-which was
also pretty good for man without
any hands or feet.
All day it was that way: train after
train and ovation after ovation. The
day was cool as Observation-Disclosures
and bright as baby's face all thru
the mountains; and the .Templars went
up into the high passes with all the
swing and noise we could raise. Har-
old Davis took it all morning. steady
from a. m. at the dispatcher's key.
He was used up long before noon; but
he stayed, and just at IL o'clock, while
a big Templar train from Baltimore
was loading its commandery in front
Of the Wickiup after an early dinner,
and big Tenlplar band played a ting
ling two-step, Martin Duffy stuck his
dry, parchment face into the platform
crowd, elbowed his way unnoticed
thru it, climbed the Wickiup stairs,
walked into the dispatcher's ROOM
leaned over Harold Davis shoulder
and took transfer.
Young Giddings had been sitting
there in a perspiration half an hour
then; he copied for Martin Duffy that
day. At noon they figured to get the
last Templar over the Eagle Pass with
the set of the sum- When Duffy took
cleaner, only he was tired; Giddings
could see that the regular man had
been sick a week and Martin had been
filling in. Besides that, all Saturday,
the day before he had been spiking the
Hne-hguring what could be annulled
and what couldn't; what could be run
extra and what could be put into regu-
lars. Callahan had just got married
and was going out to the coast on his
wedding tour in Bucks car. He had
refused to look at an order after
Saturday night. Sunday morning, and
from Sunday morning on, 1t was all
against Duffy. When the chief took
the middle trick there were fourteen
Templar specials still to come with the
last one just pulling out of McCord
on the plains. They were ordered to
bound trains thirty minutes apart ell
the way thru: : 49, -.
"A minute after Martin Duffy sat in
the conductor of the train below regis
tered out. There was a yell pretty
soon and away went the Baltimore
crowd, and they were corkers, too,
those Baltimore fellows, and travelled
like lords. -:
At o'clock in the evening the trains
in the West division were moving just
like clocks on the hour and the half
thirty minutes, thirty minutes, thirty
minutes as far as young Cid
d1ngs could see, Duffy, after five boom
AAA6 hOuA ., Was 4IeS11er IMAM Wlens ne
TOOK the chair. The little dispatcher 8
capacity for. work was something
enormous, it wasn't till after. supper
time, with the worst Of the figuring be-
hind him., and in the letting down of
the anxiety, that Martin began to look
older and his dry Indian hair began to
crawl over his forehead. By that
time his eyes had lost their snap, and
when ne motioned Giddings to the key,
and got up to walk up and down the
nall In the breeze, he looked like a
Wllted potatoLvine.- His last batch
OF orders was only a little one com
pared with those that had gone before.
But with the changes to the different
crews they read about like this:
Telegraphic Train Order No. IS. Noun.
tain division.
Superintendent's office, Aug. 8, 1892.
For Medicine Bend to c. and 70. O,
Engines 664, 1888, 80, s2e and s26
Engines 664, 1913, SO and 1926 will run a.
TOUR specials, Medicine Bend to Bea1
lance. Engine 1926 will double-head Spe
clal 326 to summit of Eagle Pass.
First No. 80, Engine l79, will run tv,
hours and fifteen minutes late Bear Dane,
Medicine Bend. ~
Second No. 80, Engine 2e4, will run thre,
mouse and fifteen minutes late Bear Dane,
to Medicine Bend.
Third No; 80, Engine 21o will run fou
ILL y A4A1AuleSs late Bear Dane,
to Medicine Bend. 81 M. q
| Lss:.ss.,>ss .s5 .es5s.t # D.
When young Giddings sat in, the
sun was dropping between the Tetons
In the yard the car-cIeaners were
pollshlng the plates on Bucks priva r.
car and the dark cook was pullins
chlckens out of the refrigerator. DUFFY
mad thirteen conclaves MOVING
smoothly onss the middle trick. The
MAJ one was. due, and. the hostler:
were Streaming down with the double
header to pull it. over 1.-The Pass. This
the last OF the commandery trains
was 10 br1ng DE MOLAY COMMAND
EKY NUMBER FOUR of Pittsburs
and the orders were to couple Bucks
| car on to it for the run west d.
Molay-and everybody had notice
was Bucks old commandery, back ir
Pennsylyania, and he was going II
the, end Of the division that night witt
the cronies.s Of his. youth. Little
| fellows they were in railroading wher
he rode the goat with them, but nov
mostly, like him, big fellows. Hal
a dozen old salts had been poundins
ahead~ at him all day over the wire
Iney Were to Join him and Mr.. anc
Mrs. Callahan for supper in the pri
waite car,. and the yellow cider lay or
the th1n-shaven ice and the mountair
grouse cufled on the grill irons wher
De Molay -Four. Pittsburg, pulled into
Medicine Bend.
We had seen good many swell
trains that day, the SWEETEST that eve
pounded our fshplates, Pullmans solo
and the finest kind Of people. Boston
washington. New York, Philadelphia
with at least half the town on thu
platforms when De Mnlav Four ,.o11oc