The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-10-04


son wore holes in his elbows gesticulating,
but in the matter Of distributing his per-
sonal share of the unearned increment
Delaroo expressed no preference whatso-
ever. He paid his dues; he made his passes;
he sat in his place, what more could De
required? If they put him in post of
honor he filled it with silent dignity. III
they set him to guard the outer portal he
guarded well: it was perilous rather for a
visiting frater or even local brother to
try getting past Delaroo if he was rusty
I'm the ritual. Not Maze Sampson himself
could work the outer guard without the
countersign: If ne forgot in the hurry Of
getting to lodge he had to cool his heels
in the outer air till it came back; Delaroo
was pitiless.
In the cab he was as taciturn as he was
| in the lodge under the kerosene lamp at
SIMPSONS; he just listened. But his firing
was above any mans who ever stocked the
| 264. Delaroo made more steam on less coal
than any man in the roundhouse. Neigh
| Dor began 20 hold him up a model for
| the division, and the boys found that the
| way to jolly Neighbor was to say nice
things about Delaroo. The head of the
motive power would brighten out OF sulk
at the mention of Delaroos name, and he
| finally fixed up a surprise for the Indian
man. One night after Delaroo came in,
Neighbor in the bluff way he liked TO use
| in promoting a man, told Delaroo he could
| have an engine; a good one, one OF the
| K. class; as much finer a 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. Neigh
Dor 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
unaccountabe fiutter. 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
| habby and his eyes hollow, and he showed
| more worry than his creditors. Nobody I'M
| derstood it, yet there was evidently some
| thing on, and the Majors anxiety increased
| until Delaroo, the Indian fireman and
| knight companion of the Ancient Order OF
| Druids and Fluids completely took Neigh
| boris breath by declining the new engine.
| That was a west end wonder. He said If
| 1T 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 filled out again,
| he regained his usual nerve, and swore on
| the money question harder than ever.
After that it was pretty generally under
| stood that Delaroo and Maize Sampson
| and the 264 were fixtures. Neighbor never
| gave any one a chance to decline an engine
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 Sampson were
known to be behind the boiler pounding up
| and down the mountains, up and down,
year In and year out. Big engines came
into the division and bigger. All the time
the division was crowding on the mo-
tive power and putting in the mammoth
types. until when the 264 was stalled along
side a consolidated. or mogul skyscraper
she looked like an ancient beer glass set
next an imported stein.
With the 264, when the 500 or the 1,1OC
class were concerned, it was simply case
| of keep out of the way or get smashed
| Maize Sampson no Maize Sampson, money
| question or no money question. Benevolent
benefits fraternally proposed or ante-room
signals confidentially put forth by the bald
| headed 264 were of no sort Of consequence
with the modern giants that pulled a thou
| sand tons In a string UP two-thousand
| foot grade at better than twenty miles an
| hour. 1t was clear yet cold, You ole
tub, get out of our way, will your And
| the fast runners. like Moore and Hawks
worth and Mullen and the Crowleys. Tim
| and Syme, had about as much considera-
ton for Maize 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 though it had rights OF
the first-class, lodged the big fellows III
and down the line pretty successfully until
the government began pushing troops into
the Philippines, and there came days when
| 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 time the traffic
| came hot; so hot we were pressed tc
handle it. There was a good bit of Skin.
| mishing ON the part of the passenger de-
| partment to get the business, and then
| tremendous skirmishing in the operating
| department to deliver the goods. Every
| broken-down coach in the backyards was
| scrubbed up for the soldier trains We
| aimed to kill just as few as possible OF
| the boys en- route to the islands, though
| that may have been a mistaken mercy
However, we handled them well; not q
man in khaki got away from us in a
| wreck, and in the height Of the push We
put more live stock into South Omaha, cal
for car, than has ever gone in before OIL
| since.
1t was November and great weather fol
| running, and when the rails We're not
springing under the soldiers west-bound
! they were humming under the steers east
bound. MAZE Sampson, with his beer kegs
| and his crackers and his 264 and his be-
| knighted fireman, Rugged the sidings pretty
| close that week. Some of the trains had
| part of the rights and others had the re-
mainder The 264 and her train took what
! was left, which threw Maze Sampson most
| of the time on the WORKOUT, rundown
! scrap rails that make corduroy roads of the
| passing tracks. Then came the night that
| Moulton, the Philippine commandant, went
| through his special. With his staff and
his baggage and his correspondents and
| that kind he took whole train. Syme
| Crowley pulled them, with Ben Sherer, con.
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