The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-06-14


 edge of one of the chairs. "see that man?" asked a stock broker who some times plays the races. Flight or ten years ago he was a wealthy cotton man in New Orleans. had a pretty wife, two children, and about all a person could want He was quite prominent in the Crescent City before his downfall which was one of the most remarkable cases 1 ever heard of.
 "Beton, as he TOW calls himself Is a victim of an hereditary mania for gamb- ling. Until he was about thirty years old he never touched a card or went near any place where gambling was going on, for he realized intuitively that once the vice got grip on him it would be his ruin.
 ''Belton and several friends were trav- cling around in Europe one year and they persuaded him to go to Monte Carlo We'll 1t proved his ruin. The fever of the place got in his veins and the gambling mania smouldering within him broke loose. In a few weeks he lost a small fortune and was a hopeless victim of the green cloth. His friends, seeing what they had done. finally got him away from Monaco and brought hil back to New Orleans. but the harm had already been done and 1t was too late.
 "On his return to his home Belton iIn- medately plunged into reckless specula- tions of all kinds. Anything that pos sessed an element of chance was worth betting on and 1t was not long before he began to draw near the end of his for tune. Family friends remonstrated with him in vain. His business was totally neglected and his nights were spent at the gambling table At first he played the larger game of the stock market but when his money began to run short he confined himself to plain gambling in its usually accepted form.
 Well sir, m twelve months from the time that he first saw Monte Carlo, Bel ton was financially ruined, a physical wreck, and tramping the streets of New Orleans. His wife left him to return to her parents, taking the children with her. For awhile Belton loafed around town and was frequently in want. At last he disappeared and I was greatly surprised to run across him here on my arrival several years ago. am told that Belton manages to pick up a scant living about town but every day finds him here when the races are called. He has no money to gamble now or to pay his way into the track so he contents himself with coming here and watching others stake their bets on the horses.
 "Belton's case is a curious one For a long time his former friends wondered at his sudden ruin, as he had always been noted for his conservatism and rigorous life. It was afterwards learned that Bel
 
 bier in his day and had been shot to death in a brawlp
 Tale of MoguI.
 A veteran engineer lighted his pipe and prepared to enjoy a brief chat before go- ing out on his nightly run from Brming- ham to New Orleans "A fellow hears lots of queer things among railroad men," said he" but one of the strangest I ever ran across was when I was firing on a freight out of Cincinnati No. 1S6 was one of the company's heaviest engines and was used on the run from Cincinnati to Louisville. This engine was what was known as a killer" and already had murderous record before my time. It was so bad that the men had rather lay off than take out 1B6
 Mat Burton was firing her at the time of which I speak. He was surly fellow, seldom spoke to anyone, and seemed just the man to run on an engine with such an unlucky record as 186 had. About the only engineer In the company's force who did not mind taking out 186 was cheery young fellow named Hobart, who had not worn his spurs very long and was ready fer anything. He had talk en the engine out several times without any accidents, so he came to the conclu- sion that the talk of the men was all stuff. He and his fireman made a strange pair when they climbed into the cab for the nights run and the men made fre- quent remarks about them.
 Before Hobart came 1S6 had cut up ten or twelve people, several of them women and children. This was considered among the trainmen an awful record and they looked on the big locomotive with super stitious fear. It got so after awhile that no one but Hobart would run the mosul, as the fateful engine was called
 Well, after Hobart had been running faT rlz txafn hn hn pxn Qd happened. An old fellow was run down and cut to pieces a short time after the train had pulled out of Cincinnati for the midnight run. Tobart's nerve was shat tered by the accident. He came down to the shop on his return without any smile on his face. In low tone he told us how it happened. As his engine rounded sharp curve the headlight flashed far down the track and not fifty yards in front he saw the figure of grayhaired man standing motionless between the rails In an instan. he was moved down.
 After that night Hobart believed that his engine was really under an evil spell. He continued to drive her every night but his nerve was all gone. Fourteen consec- utive lives crushed out beneath the wheels of the monster was too much for him.
 Hobart had a little home on the out skirts of Louisville near the railroad. When he pulled out of the city on the return trip his wife would come down to the track and watch him pass by. never learned how it happened but one night she, too, fell victim to the mogul and was run down while her husband sat frozen with horror in the cab. The fire man said she was standing on the main line instad of the siding and did not mo- tice her mistake until the engine was almost upon her. She attempted to run but stumbled and fell under the wheels.
 That finished Hobart. He never ran an engine again and the last l heard of him he was working as a machinist In the L. & N. railroad shops, sadly broken man. No. 1S6 was taken off the road as no one would run her and the murderous engine stands in one of the company's shops now with the rust slowly eating