New-York tribune., 1903-07-26
TOBY. THE NINE CAT.
He Boards Flying Trains IN the
Inh,H BIackneSS

The smartest cat in all the city of Scranton.
Penn, the miners say, lives at the Cayuga
mine. Delaware, Lackawanna and Western
property al Providence a suburb of Scranton
Toby is medium sized Maltese about three
years old. and that he has not had his neck
broken before this is a perpetual wonder to the
eight hundred miners and colliery operatives at
the Cayuga mine. The Cayuga is one of the
deepest shafts in the Lackawanna coal fields,
the lower working, where Toby makes his
home being more than 600 feet deep It is a
model mine in its equipment, and Toby appar-
emily, is trying to live up to its reputation as
an up-to-date mining plant. Electric lights and
electric hauling motors installed in the
mines three or four years ago. when Toby was
a baby cat, and he got used to the somewhat
terrifying appearance of the bug shaped motors
with cleaning headlights, darting through the
winding chambers 600 feet from the sunlight
dragging after them trips of ten or a dozen
small coal cars, holding two tons of freshly
mined coal Toby rides the motors from one
end Of the mines to the other The northern
end of the lower working is under Pricebure
three miles from the bottom of the shaft in
providence, and Toby makes the trip on one of
the motors every day. and sometimes twice a
day.
Toby has his favOrite motormen. His affec-
ton toward them apparently is somewhat grad
uated according they save him choice bits
of meat from their dinner pals Toby will
blink unconcernedly as some of his more dis
tant acquaintances among the motormen
whisk by, but when a real good and tried friend
comes bowling through the blackness Toby
will brace himself, exactly time the speed of
the motor and then-"Plump." he will Jump
from alongside the track to spot just behind
the headlight. The motormen used to hold
their breath when Toby tried this leap fearing
that he might miss. But he never misses.
Whether the train is going fast or slow, Toby
alights close to the legs of the motorman. and
then holds on tight" While the little train
with deafening roar, plunges forward on it's
way. He's sight with his eyes wide open and
his tail waving, standing the front of the
motor. The miners from one end of the mine
10 the other know Toby, and it would go hard
with the man or boy who hurt or teased him
Toby pays his way by keeping the lower work
ing of the mine free from rats few mules
still used in the mines and wherever tbara
are mules and fodder there are rats. In some
of the upper workings of the Cayuga there are
rats a-plenty, but never a rat in the lower
working, where Toby lives He has been ont
of the mines once or twice, but he prefers the
dark, with the rumbling motors and the soft
words and petting from his hosts of grirny
friends
The fire boss in the Hampton mine. near bv
has dog, named Covey, that goes the rounds
OF the mines every morning with the boss"
CoVey is a smart animal, too His master has
taught him TO put out fires wherever they are
discovered II miner in lighting a pipe drops
scrap of burning paper Covey flies at 1t and
paws out the fire With all his intelligence
however, he is no match for Toby. of the
Cayuga mine