Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1903-03-05
AN HONE.T PORTER.
He Helped Himself to IA Tip Of Ten
Dollars for Being AccOmm oda-
ting and Honest.

Inc tlp-exactlng Pullman car pOr
ters are the recipients of a goot
many knocks from press and public
but they are not the worst in the
wOrld,' remarked a commercial trav
eler to IA Washington Star man
"Ihey may have a pretty fierce way
of drilling for tips, but when it comes
to the matter of honesty know one
of them that's there with the gooIs
as the saying goes.
81 left San Francisco, or, rather
Oakland, on the Santa Fe line for
Chicago at 8 o'clock in the evening
a couple of weeks ago last Sunday
The gang that l met in Frisco had
been rather too enthusiastic in Civ
ing me a good time of it out there
on the day of my departure, SO that
when | woke up on the train along
toward o'clock the next morning
the sleeper bunk felt pretty warm
and my coppers whole lot warmer.
The nearest, in fact, the first stop
at which / would have a chance to fix
those hot coppers out was Moiave,
+ and so ! hustled into my clothes to
be ready to hop off the train during
the stop at Mojave for one of those
katzeniammer alleviators.
81 asked the Pullman conductor
how long the train would stop at
Mojave, and he replied that the stop
would last ten minutes. | raced into
the station cafe when the train
pulled into Mojave, and instructed
the man in charge of the bar to rio
me up one of those long. long damp
things. He went at the job in pret-
ty scientific manner. and the piece of
wet work that he set before me was
a rare thing to find right alongside
of the California desert 1t Was such
fine and effective creation. in fact,
that / asked him to frame up an
other one, and | got away with this
with equal JOY. Then | leisureIy
strolled to the door to take a look
at my train-and saw the end Of it
curling away in the rarefied distance
on its way toward the land of the
rising sun. 1t had pulled ont without
notifying me. | hustled into the
ticket Office to ask the man in the
window when I'd be able to corral
another easthOund train, and he said |
that it nd be along at o'clock the
next mOrning-the mate to the train |
that had departed without me: there |
was only one of the overland ex-
presses per diem. So there ] saw my
self stuck in Moiave, Cat, the most
miserable little sand dune on the |
globe, for a full twentv-four hours.
But that wasn't the worst Of it.
| had left my Gladstone bag wide |
open on my bunk with my wearing !
apparel thrown around the section
every which way, and in the bag !
bad placed, on the night before, 5000 |
in gold coin, the stuff being too |
heavy to carry around in my pockets |
with any comfort.
"I've got chance of getting the
bag back, said / to myself, but what
The black porter'll do to those 5000
in gilt money will be something
swoopinely scandalous'
II had no idea on earth that I'd !
over see a dollar of that money. !
figured it all out that the porter
would corral the money and thew
-tutf my wearing apparel into the
ng and hand it over 10 the conduc;
+. ! l.new then 7 wouldn't be ALE
o prove any such fact that / ha"
90 N e,ll money in the bar. al
CAV" = - for go~o. toi' Il
rotiou aC st at Moiave ahor. =
@g. and - Immediately te1egranNo
10 'ho .r-t station - he made H,
nv lost train along Tie ii1e piece
allied Har5tow, y. Nrv., directing
hat the bag he shipped back to Mo
ave on the west-5ound overland.