The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-02-07
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enough. Yet in railroad life there
is always friction in some quarter; the rail-
road man sleeps like the soldier-with an
alert, but just the same he sleeps, for
with waking comes duty.
Our engineers were good fellows. If they
had faults, they were American faults
rashness, liberality bordering on extrav-
agance, and headstrong, violent way of
reaching conclusions-traits born of ability
and self-confidence, and developed by pros
perity.
One of the best men we had on loco
motive was Andrew Cameron; at the same
time he was one of the hardest to manage,
because he was young and headstrong.
Andy. a big. powerful fellow, ran opposite
Felix Kennedy on the Flyer. The fast runs
require young men. If you will notice, you
will rarely old engineer on a fast
passenger run; even young man can stand
only a few years of that kind of work
High speed on locomotive is a question
of nerve and endurance-to put it bluntly,
a question of flood and blood.
'You don't think much of this strike, do
you, Mr.. Reed?' said Andy to me one
night.
Don't think there's going to be any.
Andy"
He laughed knowingly.
What actual grievance have the boys?"
1 asked.
1.-The troubles on the east end" he re-
Piled evasively.
us that any reason for calling thousand
men out on this end?"
IF one goes out, they all CO."
would you so out?"
"Would L? You bet!"
"a man with home and a wife and baby
like yours ought to have more sense"
Getting up to leave. he laughed conf
IDENTIFY. That's all right. Wen bring you
fellows to terms
Maybe 1 retorted, he closed the
door. But hadn't the slightest idea they
would begin the attempt that night. L was
at home and sound asleep when the caller
tapped on my window | threw up the
SASH it pouring rain and dark as a
pocket.
What is it. Barney? A wreck?" 1 ex-
claimed.
Worse than that Everything's tied up"
What do you mean?'
1.-THE engineers have struck"
Struck What time is it?"
'Half-past three. They went out at 3
o'clock" Throwing on my clothes. 1
foundered behind Barney's lantern to the
depot. The superintendent was already
in his office talking to the master mechanic
Bulletins came in every few minutes from
various points announcing trains tied up.
Before long we began to hear from the east
end. Chicago reported ali engineers out;
Omaha wired no trains moving. When the
sun rose that morning our entire system,
extending through seven States and Terri
tories, was absolutely paralyzed
1t was an astounding situation, but one
that must be met. 1t meant either ignom-
inious surrender to the engineers, or fight
to the death. For our part, we had only to
wait for orders. 1t was just o'clock when
the chief train dispatcher, who was tapping
at the key, said:
Here's something from headquarters"
We crowded close around him. His pen
flew across the clip; the message was ad-
dressed to all division superintendents 1t
was short, but at the end of il he wrote a
name we rarely saw in our office 1t was
that of the railroad magnate we knew as
1.-The old man." the president of the system,
and his words were few:
Move the trains
Move the trains.' repeated the superin-
tendent eyes. but trains can't be moved
by pinchbars nor by main force"
We spent the day arguing with the strik-
ers. They were friendly, but firm. Persua-
sion, entreaties, threats, we exhausted, and
ended just where we began. except that we
had lost our tempers. The sun set without
the turn of wheel. The victory of the first
day was certainly with the strikers
Next day it looked pretty blue around the
depot. Not car was moved: the engineers
and firemen were unit. But the wires
sung hard all that day and ali that night.
Just before midnight Chicago wired that
No. 1-our big passenger train, the Denver
Flyer-had started out on time. with the su-
perintendent OF motive power as engineer
and a wiper for fireman. The message came
from the second vice president. He prom
Used TO deliver that train TO our division on
time the next evening, and he asked: Can
you get it through to Denver?"
We looked at each other. At last all eyes
gravitated towards Neighbor. our master
mechanic.
The train dispatcher was waiting. what
shall say?' he asked.
The division chief OF the motive power