The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1905-10-18

Well as Ab1I1ty-HOW ne hAsAeu
His Life 10 Save Two Train Loads
of Passengers-DanGe work at
Night In Icy Water.
Perhaps at no point is there more
real interest being taken in the pres
ent fight between President Joseph
Ramsey Of the Wabash and George
Gould than in Pittsburg, says special
dispatch from that city to the New
York World. Aside from Pittsburg be-
ing practically the storm center Of
trouble between the millionaire owner
and his hustling employee, Pittsburg
was the childhood home of Ramsey. 1t
was there he had his first troubles;
there he made his first successes.
In the spring of 1868 there walked
into the office of Chief Engineer Baker
Of the Panhandle road in Pittsburg a
callow looking youth who might just
have escaped from country school
room. Baker was busy and at the time
curt, but he gave the visitor minute.
Ramsey is my name-Joe Ramsey.
1 live over here in Birmingham.
want a job" he said.
Birmingham is now South Pittsburg.
What can you doY said Baker
shortly.
81 can draw things I've been three
months to mechanical school, but didn't
learn much, and l want to get right
anto the real work"
do you like to draw" asked Baker,
while several we'll dressed clerks turn
ed away to grin.
Like it? You bet do" said young
Ramsey, with a feeling that won the
heart Of Baker.
Report to me tomorrow morning"
And so it was thirty-seven years ago
that Joseph Ramsey first entered a
railroad office. The Panhandle was
then worrying about new bridge to
be built over the Muskngum river at
GAINESVILLE. O., and the new boy who
liked to draw" was put to work on the
plans. 1t was before the days Of blue
prints, and most of the work was in
figures, and Ramsey turned out
really creditable bit Of work. So good
was it that when the road was ready to
commence to erect the bridge Baker
called the young man in and said:
Ramsey, can you build that bridge
for meY
"Yes. sir"
Take charge tomorrow morning"
The bridge was built by young Ram
10 n1n q M
as when completed more than a third
OF century ago. 1t was Ramsey's
first big work, and he is very proud
OF it.
1t was but a short time after this
that General Negley, having a world
of money behind him, sent to Baker
for first class engineer to build a
small railroad in the mountains OF
central Pennsylvania. Ramsey was
sent, and Negley simply went into
spasms when he saw the youthful en-
gineer. He sent hot message to
Baker saying he had asked for an eX-
perienced engineer not for Il boy.
You've got the best engineer l
know. He'll build that road and do 1t
right. You let him alone was the siZ-
zling message sent back to Negley,
who reluctantly turned the work over
TO Ramsey. So well was the work
done that the Engineering and Mining
Journal of New York sent experts to
examine the twelve miles of road after
completion, and the result was three
page article on it filled with praise for
the young engineer.
Father Henrici of the famous Econ
Omite society got his eye on Ramsey
about this time and set him to work
mapping out a line of road for that
society. which had decided TO invest
some of its millions in tapping a rich
coal field. This was abandoned after
the plans were drawn, but in the
meantime James II. Hopkins, now
millionaire, Of Washington, then head
of the Pittsburg Southern r&aroad, of
fered Ramsey a good position as super
1ntendent of the line For more than
two years Ramsey handled this road,
a little narrow gauge affair running
from Pittsburg south to Washington,
Pa, thirty-eight miles.
There were but two engines ON this
little line, neither of them weighing
over twenty tons. The line was sue
SessiOn of short curves and high wood
en- trestles. About the second week
after Ramsey took charge both the
little locomotives jumped the track at
different points on the line. Ramsey,
who at the time was at Washington,
Pa, walked into the yards Of the
Waynesburg and Washington road,
with which the Pittsburg Southern had
connections, and, finding one of that
roads two locomotives with steam up,
he climbed on board and took it out
on to his own line, leaving word for
the W. and w. people that he had
borrowed" one of their engines. The
nervy young superintendent returned
the borrowed locomotive the next day