The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-10-10
Frank II. Spea11zans
ea,,xs,.'g S',.* = s,,."~ RAlhDAd Stories

name, ana ne finally fixed up a surprise Tor
the Indian man. One night after Delaroo
came in Neighbor, in the bluff way he
liked to use in promoting man, told Del
aroo he could have an engine; a good
one, one of the Z. class: as much finer
machine than the old 264 as Duffy's
chronometer was than a prize package
watch. Delaroo never said aye, yes or
no; he merely listened. Neighbor never
had a promotion received in just that way:
it nearly gave him the apoplexy.
But If Delaroo treated the proposal COOL
ly, not so Maize Sampson; when the news
of the offer reached him, MAZE went into
an unaccountable hutter. He acted at
first exactly as If he wanted to hold his
man back, which was dead against cab
ethics Finally he assented, but his
cheeks went fabby and his eyes hollow,
and he showed more worry than his cred
itors. Nobody understood it, yet there
was evidently something on, and the
Majors anxiety increased until Delaroo,
the Indian fireman and knight companion
of the Ancient Order of Druids and Fluids,
completely took Neighbours breath away
by declining the new engine. That was
a West End wonder. He said If it made
no odds he would stay on the 264. The
| men all wondered; then something new
came up and the thing was forgotten.
Maize SIMPSONS cheeks filed out again,
he regained his usual nerve, and swore
After that it was pretty generally under
stood that Delaroo and MAZE Sampson and
the 264 were fixtures. Neighbor never
gave any one chance to decline an en-
| CINE more than once. The boys all knew,
| If Delaroo didn't, that he would be firing
a long time after throwing that chance by;
| and he was. ...-,
! The combination came to be regarded
as eternal. When the sloppy 264 hove in
| sight, little Delaroo and big Maize Samp-
son were known to be behind the boiler
pounding up and down the mountains, up
| and down, year in and year. out. Big en-
| gines came into the division and bigger.
All the time the division was crowding
on the motive power and putting in the
mammoth types, until when the 2G4 was
stalled alongside a consolidated, or mo-
gul skyscraper, she looked like an ancient
| beer glass set next an imported stein.
| With the 264, when the 500 or the HOO
| class were concerned. it was simply
case Of keep out of our way or get
smashed. Maize Sampson or no Maize
Sampson, money questions or no money
/ questions. Benevolent benefits fraternally
proposed or anteroom signals confidential
/ ly put forth by the bald-headed 264 were
of no sort Of consequence with the mod
ern giants that pulled a thousand tons in
a string UP 2,000-foot grade at better
than twenty miles an hour. It was clear
yet cold. "You old tub. get out of our
: .,
like Moore and Hawksworth and Mullen
and the Crowleys, Tim and Sy7ne, had
about as much consideration for Maze and
his financial theories as their machines
had for his machine. His jim crow
freight outfit didn't cut much of a figure
. in their track schedules.
So the Maize Sampson combination, but
! quite as brassy as tho it had rights of the
! first-class, lodged the big fellows up and
! down the line pretty successfully until the
government began pushing troops into the
! Philippines, and there came days when q
= Rocky Mountain sheep could hardly have
: kept out of the way of the extras that
;, tore, Kissing and booming, over the noun.
= tains for Frisco For a time the traffic
. came hot; so hot we were pressed to han.
] die it. There was good bit of skirmish
< ing on the part OF the passenger depart
;. ment to get thes1business, and then trem
- ulous skirmishing in the operating depart
= ment to deliver the goods. Every broken
4 down coach in the back yards wa
+ scrubbed up for the soldier trains. w,
l. | aimed to kill just as few as possible O
~ the boys en- route to the islands, tho tina
. may have been a mistaken mercy. How
ever, we handled them well; not a man IL
,: khaki got away from us in a wreck, ant
- in the height of the push we put more live
;, stock into South Omaha, car for car, thar
= has ever gone in before or since.
It was November, and great weathe
q for running and when the rails were no
: spr1ngtng under the soldiers westbound
= they were humming under the steers east
: bound. Maize Sampson, with his beer key
5 and his crackers and his 264 and his be
u knighted fireman, Rugged the siding
u pretty close that week. Some of tn,
y trains had part of the rights and other
u had the remainder. The 264 and her trail
: took what was left, which threw Maj
- Sampson most Of the time on the worn
:, out, run down, scrap rails that make cor
dur s~ro do cxfx,1
= came the night that Moulton, the Philip
pine commandant, went thru on his spe
: cial. With his staff and his baggage ant
: his correspondents and that kind he tool
= one whole train. Syme Crowley pulled
= them, with Ben Sherer, conductor, ant
whatever else may be said of that pair
- they deliver trains on time. Maize Samp
= son left Medicine Bend with Twenty min,
at noon on his regular run and tried to ge
q west. But between the soldiers behint
i him and the steers against him, he sool
= lost every visionary right he ever di'
- possess. They laid him out nearly ever.
= mile OF the way to: the end of the run
:, At Sugar Buttes they held him thirt.
r minutes for the Moulton Special to pass
. and, to crown his indignities, kept hin
g there fifteen minutes more waiting for al
- east-bound sheep train. Sampson after
W ward claimed that Barnes Tracy, the dis
: patcher that did it, was gold democrat
4 but this never was proved.
~ It was nearing dark when the crew o
n local freight Twenty mine heard the dul
"a roar Of the Moulton Special speeding thr
q the canon of the Rat. A passenger trail
"a running thru the canon at night come
: thru with the far roll of a thousan
" drums, deepening into rumble of thun
"a der. Then out and over all comes tn
e Threatening purr Of the straining engin
IA breaking into a storm of exhausts, unit
ia like rocket the headlight bursts stream
s ing from the black wall, and Moore on tn
! 81 or Mullen with the 818, or Hawks
. worth in the lilo, tear with fury of al
l. kali and a sweep Of noise over the Butt
l. Iswitch, past caboose and flats and boxe
~ Of darkened glass and dead varnish,
n whirl Of smoking trucks beating madl
IN at the fish-plates, and the fast train Is UP
e. and out and gone!
,el Twenty nine, local, was used to all this
lie Used to the vanishing tail lights, tn
/. measured sinking Of the sullen dust, tn
to silence brooding again over the deser
le with, this night, fifteen minutes NOR
es to wait for the east bound stock train be
I'd fore they dared open the switch. Maj
VS. Sampson killed the time by going bacl
l. to the caboose to talk equities with tn
ID conductor. It was no trick for him to p'i
r. away fifteen minutes discussing the right
he Of man with himself; and with an anse
at of fireman to watch the cab, why not
m The 264 standing on the side was cheWin;
a her cud as sweet as an old cow, Wit
I'd maybe a hundred and forty pounds Q
as steam to the right Of the dial, maybe !
or hundred and fifty-I say maybe, becaus
st no one but Delaroo ever knew-when tn
OF sheep train whistled