The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1904-12-31


Trainmen are jolly lot of fel-
lows among themselves, and they are
accustomed to tighten their labors
with the aid of laughter evoked by
comedy or farce. Their daily life is
surrounded on every hand by dam
gers, and it takes a buoyant, steady
heart to endure the strain. When
grim tragedy steps forward they bear
bold front and appear almost too
unconcerned. Seen beneath the sur
face, however, all brains are indelibly
impressed with the many painful
scenes they witness. A proof of this
is the frequency with which they tell
and retell the bloody tales of the past,
land the extreme interest evinced by
each circle of hearers in the stories
of sudden accident and sudden death.
What makes these stories particu-
llarly interesting to the trainnen is
etae fact that they know the stage SO
well. They are personally acquainted
with all the scenes, drops, traps, and
so forth, and they never can tell but
that at some supreme moment they
themselves may be the central actors
in tragic finale on which the cur
tain slowly falls.
Herr is New Years story yard
master once told me. He is an old
railroad man and has been between
all the stones of the mill without be-
ing ground to powder
When my brother was brakeman
on the local freight his conductor,
George Bailey, was one of the most
careful men on the road, although he
had been a rather harum-scarum fel-
low until he fell in love with Maggie
Dexter. Maggie was one of the best
women that ever lived, and she used
her influence over George to make
him good, sound, reliable man. He
stopped drinking, be became clean in
his talk, he obeyed his orders and the
Book of Rules to the letter - in fact
the foolish youngsters thought him
too good to be a successful railroad
man. His superiors judged different
ly, luckily for him, and he was pro-
moted rapidly until he was made con-
ductor Of the local freight.
Maggie watched his rise with Joy,
and did not attempt to conceal it. But
when he talked of love and of a
happy married life she would stave
hm off.
"I like you, George" she would
say. II like you, and / don't mind
telling you so. But L don't like you
enough to marry you. am afraid
of you. / am not sure that you won't
fall back into your old ways if you
have me fast. Keep up your fight.
Be good and prove yourself man
with or without Maggie Dexter"
George kept up his fight and laid
by his dollars. His whole life was
bound up with the girl, and he re-
solved to win her. He was not afraid
of any shartslidina On his nart Wlat
he did fear was that she would marry
Dave Harlan, handsome passenger
engineer with great reputation as
a lady-killer. Harlan drew check
each month twice as large as Bailey,
and he had never been overpowered
by bad habits. Maggie respected him
for his virtues, was much pleased
with his easy, confident manners, and
could not bring herself to turn up
her pretty nose at the large bank ac-
count. She felt sure that as Mrs.
Harlan she would lead smooth life
with no need of worriment when her
husband was out of sight. But she
knew Mrs. Bailey would always feel
Just bit nervous if her liege lord had
money in his pocket and got caught
in swirl of "good fellows"
George and David, at first friends,
soon drifted apart. George believed
Dave told tales about his former Wild
ness. and some mean friend told Dave
that George had said he was hypo-
critical fraud. Hence bad blood rose
I'D between them, and the two men
did not speak when they met. Mag
pie was not one of those women who
are pleased to see their adorers at
enmity, and she did what she could
to patch up peace. Her efforts
were unavailing, much to her distress
so she was compelled to treat both
of them a little coldly to show that
she was displeased with their con-
duct. This added fuel to the fire, and
trouble came of it.
One snowy day, it was New Years
too, George had the bad luck to leave
a switch open at Hampton Station,
and Dave, who was following him on
passenger train, ran through it. 1t
was what we call trailing switch, T"
and as not liable to cause any dam
age when set the wrong way. On this
particular occasion no one would have
been the wiser if Dave had not been
moved by his evil spirit to report it.
He, however, saw a way to get
George into serious trouble, and, al
though naturally a manly fellow, he
could not resist the temptation to
wire to the superintendent from his
next stopping place that he had run
through switch at Hampton which
had been left open by Conductor Bal
ley"
Strictly speaking, he was right in
reporting this negligence, but it is
not generally done, you know, among
good fellowship men, when no dam
age follows and nothing was endan-
gered. Hence he felt rather badly
over it the rest of that run, and when
he started on his return trip he would
have given good deal to have called
back his message. He could not gel
it out of his head that he had done
a mean thing, although he argued to