Mexico Missouri message., 1903-08-06
AN HONEST PORTER.
Dollars for nelng Accommoda-
ting and Honest.

"rho tip-exacting Pullman car por.
.ers are the recipients OF a good
many knocks from press and public,
but they are not the worst in the
world" remarked q commercial trav-
eler to a Washington Star man.
"They 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 goods.
as the saying goes.
II left San Francisco, or, rather,
Oakland, on the Santa Fe line for
Chicago at 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 good time of It out there
on the day of my departure, so that
when / woke up on the train along
toward 2 o'clock the next morning
the sleeper bunk felt pretty warm
and my coppers whole lot warmer.
! The nearest, i'm fact. the first stop
| at which would have chance to fix
those hot coppers out was Mojave,
and so | hustled into my clothes to
|
the stop at Mojave for one of those
| katzeniammer alleviators.
81 asked the Pullman conductor
how long the train would stop at
Moiave, 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 rig
me up one of those long, long damp
| things. He went at the job in pref
| 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 I asked him to frame up an
other one. and I got away with this
with equal joy. Then 1 leisurely
| strolled to the door to take a look
| at my train-and saw the end of it
curling away in the rarefed distance
on its way toward the land of the
rising sun. It had pulled out without
notifying me. l hustled into the
ticket Office to ask the man in the
window when I'd be able to corral
another eastbound train, and he said
that it 'ud be along at s 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 l saw my
self stuck in Mojave, Cal. the most
miserable little sand dune on the
| globe, for full twenty-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
had placed, on the night before, 5000
in gold coin, the stuff being too
heavy TO carry around in my pockets
with any comfort.
GIVE got chance of getting the
bag back said to myself, but what
the black porter'n do to those 5000
in gilt money will be something
swoopingly scandalous.'
Il had no idea on earth that I'd
ever see a dollar of that money. 1
| figured it all out that the porter
would corral the money and then
stuff my wearing apparel into the
| bag and hand it over to the conduct
OF. knew then I wouldn't be able
to prove any such fact that 1 had
| 5000 in gold money in the bag, and
1 gave it up for gone. I told the
station agent at Mojave about the
bag, and he Immediately telegraphed
| to the next station to be made by
my lost train along the line. a place
called Barstow, N. Mex, directing
that the bag be shipped back to Mo-
| jave on the west-buund overland.
"The bag was returned to Moiave
on the west-bound late that night.
and I eagerly opened it up to see
what ] had left in the bag. Every
thing was there, including the stack
| of gold money. counted the gold
roll, and it amounted to an even $3.50.
| The porter, felt certain, had appro-
priated just one of the $40 gold pieces
to compensate him for his trouble
in packing the bag, and ] afterward
found out that ! was right in this
supposition.
"I caught the train east on the fol-
lowing morning, and when 1 got to
Kansas City got off to take bit
of rest at hotel AS ] was get
ting off met the porter OF the train
that had left Moiave without me. He
was walking about the station. wait
ing to go aboard his car for another
western trip. He saw and recognized
me as soon as I recognized him. and
he grinned broadly when he saw me.
"'Boss, said he. coming over to me,
'Ah suah did look eve'ywheah To- dat
othuh ten dolluh gol' piece, but All
suah couldn't fin it nowheah,' and
then he burst into happy darby
laugh and slapped his thigh ioyously.
told him how welcome he was to
the $40 piece that he had pinched out
for himself, and I'm not certain that
didn't give him another couple Of
dollars to show my appreciation of
his honesty. It might not sound Ike
honesty to speak of HIS swiping $40