The Corvallis times. (Corvallis, Or.) 1888-1909, 1904-02-10
AN HONEST PORTER.
BE Helped Himself to TIP Of Ten
Dollars for Bedns Accommoda-
ting and Honest.

ters are the recipients of good
many knocks from press and public,
but they are not the worst in the
world" remarked commercial tray-
eler to Washington Star man.
They may have pretty fierce way
of drilling for tips, but when it comes
to the matter of honesty I know one
of them that's there with the goods,
as the saying goes.
Il left San Francisco, or, rather,
Oakland, on the Santa Fe line for
Chicago at s o'clock in the evening
couple of weeks ago last Sunday.
The gang that 1 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 I 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 1 would have chance to fix
those hot coppers out was Mojave,
and so I hustled into my clothes to
be ready to hop off the train during
the stop at Mojave for one Of those
katzenjammer alleviators.
81 asked the Pullman conductor
how long the train would stop at
Mejave, and he replied that the stop
would last ten minutes. I 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
rare thing to find right alongside
of the California desert. It was such
a 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 I leisurely
strolled to the door to take 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. It had pulled out witt, out
notifying me. I hustled into the
ticket office to ask the man in the
window when I'd be able to corral
that it 'ud 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 I 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.
I 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 I
had 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 I to myself, but what
the black porter'H do to those 5000
I in gilt money will be something
swoopingly scandalous.'
81 had no idea on earth that I'd
ever see a dollar of that money. I
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
| or. I knew then I wouldn't be able
to prove any such fact that I had
5000 in gold money in the bag, and
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, place
called Barstow, N. Mex, directing
that the bag be shipped back to Mo-
| jave on the west-bound overland.
'The bag was returned to Mojave
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. I counted the gold
roll, and it amounted to an even $19O.
| 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 I afterward
| found out that I was right in this
supposition.
81 caught the train east on the FOL
lowing morning, and when I got to
Kansas City I got off to take bit
of a rest at a hotel. AS I was get
ting off met the porter Of the train
that had left sMojave 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 fo' dat
othuh ten dolluh goP piece, but Ah
suah couldn't fin it nowheah,' and
then he burst into happy darky
laugh and slapped his thigh joyously
1 told him how welcome he was to
the $40 piece that he had pinched out
tor himself, and I'm not certain that
didn't give him another couple OF
1ollars to show my appreciation OF
lis honesty. 1t might not sound like
honesty to speak of his swiping SIC
from my Gladstone bag, but under
the circumstances, considering the
chance he had to grab it all, and con
sidering, too, the nature of Pullman
porters as they're supposed to be,
think he was a paragon of honesty