The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-09-20

handy of filling in it just double up and do
one lad in the Office those days everybody loved,
FRED Norman lie was off the burlington A kid OF a
fellow who looked ike a choir boy than train
dispatcher But he was all iightnng-a laughing
restless. artless boy. open book and quick a
current There better reason still though. why
he in the mountains. and is mother in De
trot used to write Buck asking about him. and she
brown eyes he was good bow and called him hand
some. reckon they all did. Fred brought out ten
mis- set with him, the ever saw in Medicine
Bend and before he had been playing an hour ne had
Neighbor. big grizzly, and Callahan with a pipe
in one hand and tennis guide in the other chasing
all the yard after balls: and HALEY trying to
figure forty love. while Fred taught Bucks the
ford drive / don't what he to only that
he taught me all ever knew or ever viii know about
handling trains; and. though carrying messages
then and he was signing orders. really like
Fred for a long time had the early tick. He came
on at in the morning and caught most of the
through freghts that got away from the River behind
the passenger trains There was use trying o
move them i'm the night tick. Between the stock
trains elstDound and the both-way passenger trains
if a westbOund freight got caught in the mountains
at night the engine might well be standing in the
house saving fue-there wasn't time to get from one
siding 20 another So Fred Norman took the freights
as they came and he handled them like ringmaster.
When Freds whip cracked. by joe train had to
dance right along grade or no grade Fred gave them
do with the superintendent with Doubleday Neigh
bors assistant in the motive power.
There was only tendency Fred Norman's des-
patching that anybody could criticse; he never seemed
after handling trains on the plains to appreciate what
our mountain grades really meant when they
pushed him he his trains pretty together.
1t never bothered him to handle :, beavv traffc. he
would get the business through the mountains just
as fast they could pull it at the division;
casonally there were some hair-curlin experiences
among the freghts Norman's tick trying to keep off
each others tails one night in July
great press moving eight nine trains o Montana
grassers over the main line kind of a time
contract-we giving stOcknen the earth then.
everybody was prodding the mountain division and
part of the stuff came in late Blackburn and part
of it early Fred who almost coughing his head
on about that time getting up at $3.50 every morning
Fred al o'clock took the steers and them
after train through the Rat river country like bullets
ouL OF d Maxim gun IL was not work and before he
had sat in. hour there a stumble The engi-
neer or big ten-wheeler pulling twenty-five cars Of
the canyon set his air quick sprung one of the
driver shoes and the main rod hit it. The great steel
81 uouDieu up IKE Il man with d cramp. 1t was
showing daylight; they made stop and. quick as men
was crowding into the canyon right behind they were
too close together that all there was to it. The
nd section split into the standing train like butcher
knife into a sandwich 1t made a mean wreck-and,
worse. it made a lot of hard feeling the Wickiup
TO Fred Norman right from the start it.
But Blackburn. who shielded him when he could Just
as all the despatchers did because he a bOy-and
himself He Could AFFORD If F{Iack5urn. his s1oiJs
were broad and he hadn't as hyspeck on his
was all in and around the second door the, etessed
that meant something for Norman. Fred himself
couldn't sleep it, and compliCate things the
engineer Of the stalled train. who hated Doubleday
hited quickly that the trouble in the first place
from DOubledays tangled idea of putting the
driver shoes behind instead of in front of the wheels
Then the fat was in the fire Fred got hold it, and
boy-like-sOre his share in the trouble and
eisperaIed by something Doubleday was reported to
nave said about him over at the house-lighted into
Doubleday about the engine failure.
Doubleday right in his device as time has
proved but was unheard of then and moreover the
assistant master mechanic sensitive to criticism at any
time, fearful to against. Sunday morn
ing he and Norman met in the trainmasters Office.
lhey Went al each other like sparks, and when DOu-
blcday, who had a hard mouth began cursing Fred
the poor little dispatcher ranking with the trouble
any way half sick, all to pieces flew the
big fellow like a sparrow hawk He threw a wicked
left into the before Doubleday could
lift guard. But Walter Doubleday. angry as he was
hands and pushed him. struggling mady, back against
the wall to slap his face a froth Of blood stained
Freds lips and he fell fanting; just that minute
Blackburn stepped into the ROOM.
1t wasn't the kind a time-they weren't the kind
OF men-tO ask or volunteer explanations. Blackburn
Doubleday in a wink, and before Walter could
right himself the night dispatcher had thrown him
headOng across the AS the operators rushed in
Blackburn and the tall master mechanic sprang each
might have ended had not Fred Norman staggered
between them with his hands up-but the blood was
gushing from his mouth.
1t pretty serious business. They caught him
as he fell and the boy lay BJackbkurn's arm limp
a dead wire: nobody thought after they saw that
hemorThage he would ever live to have another
I was scared sick and a man so cut up
as Doubleday. Blackburn cool in second for he
quicker than others and he there was dan
of the little despatchers dying right
tracks Blackburn stood over him. as much at home
facing death he in fight in despatcher's
chair. He appeared to know just how to handle the
boy 10 check the gush and to know just the
and how to feed It. and he had Doubleday tee-
phOning for DR.. Carhart and running a saloon
after chopped ice in jiffy. When anybody was
ever you saw even swtchmen, when they got pinched
kind OF looked 10 Blackburn.
That day the minute he got Fred into Carhart's
hands there was Fred's tick to take of, and
body Of but Blackburn to do il @ and
picked up the threads and held them till noon then
Maxwell relieved him. Doubleday was waiting outside