Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1906-06-05
By
FRANK H.
SPEARMAN
Copyright. 1900, bv s. s.
Mcclure Co.

big fellows pretty close-the Fellows
who were to turn while ! was growing
up among them into managers and
presidents and magnates and some of
them from every day catch-as-catch-can
men with the common alkali fecking
their boots into dead men for whom
marble never rose white enough or high
enough.
Blackburn was four years at the
Wickiup on the night trick. 1t wouldn't
have seemed natural to see him there
in daylight. 1t needed the yellow gloom
of the old kerosene lamp in the room,
the specked. knotted, warped. smoky
pine ceiling losing itself In black and
cobwebbed corners, the smoldering
murk of the soft coal fire brooding In
! the shabby old salamander and outside
In the darkness the wind screwing
down the gorge and rattling the shrunk-
.en easements to raise Blackburn In the
dlspatcher's chair. Blackburn and the
lamp and the stove and the ceiling and
the gioom-in a word, Blackburn and
the night trick-they went together
Before the short line was opened the
No. I and No. 8 trains caught practical
~ all the coast passenger business.
They were immensely heavy trains.
Month after month we sent out two
and three sections Of them each way,
and they always ran into our division
on the night trick. Blackburn handled
all that main line business with mile
age Of SO5, besides the mountain
branches. say 400 more; and the pas.
senger connections came off them,
mostly at night, for 1 and 5.
Now three men wrestle with Black
burns mileage, but that was before
they found out that dispatchers, al
though something tougher than steel, do
wear out. Moreover. we were then
good way from civilization and extra
men. If dispatcher took sick there
was no handy way Of filling In; 1t was
Just double up and do the best you
could.
One lad In the Office those days every
body loved-Fred Norman. He was OFF
the Burlington, kid Of fellow who
looked more like choir boy than
train dispatcher. But he was all light
ning--a laughing. restless, artless boy.
open as book and quick as Il current
There was better reason still. though.
why they loved Fred-the boy had coll
sumption. That's why he was ont In
the mountains, and his mother in De-
troit used to write Bucks asking about
him, and she used to send us all things
In Fred's box. His flesh was as white
and as pink AS mountain snow and he
had brown eyes. He was good boy
and called him handsome. ! reckon
they all did. Fred brought out a tennis
set with him. the first we ever saw In
Medicine Bend, and before he had been
playing an hour he had Nelghbor. big as
q grizzly, and Callahan. with pipe
In one hand and a tennis guide in the
other, chasing all over the yard after
balls. and HALEY trying to figure forty
love, while Fred taught Bucks the Law
ford drive. don't say what he was to
me; only that he taught me all ever
knew or ever will know about handling
trains. and, though was carrying mes
sages then and he was signing orders,
we were really like kids together.
Fred for long time had the early
trick. He came ON at in the morning
and caught most of the through freights
that got away from the river behind
the passenger trains. There was no
use trying to move them in the night
trick. Between the stock trains east
bound and the both way passenger
trains, II westbound freight got
caught in the mountains ut night the
engine might us we'll be standing in the
house saving fuel; there wasn't time to
get from one siding to another. So Fred
Norman took the freights as they came,
and he handled them like ringmaster.
When Fred's whip cracked, by Joe!
train had to dance right along, grade or
no grade. Fred gave them the rights,
and they had the rest to door busi-
ness to do with the superintendent or
with Doubleday. Nelghbor's assistant
In the motive power.
There was only one tendency in Fred
Norman's dispatching that anybody
could criticise He never seemed, after
handling trains on the plains. to appre-
ciate what our mountain grades really
meant, and when they pushed him he
sent his trains out pretty close togeth-
er. It never bothered him to handle II
heavy traffic. He would get the busi-
mess through the mountains just as
fast as they could put 1t at the division.
but occasionally there were some hair
curling experiences among the frclghti
on Norman's trick trying to keep of
each others coattails. One night IN
July there was great press moving
eight or nine trains Of Montana grass
srs over the main line on some kind OF
la time contract. We were giving stock
men the earth then. Everybody was
Iprodding the Mountain division, and
bart of the stuff came In late on Black
burn and part Of 1t early on Fred. who
was almost coughing his head OF about
that time, getting up at $3.50 every
morning.
Fred at 4 o'clock took the steers and
sent them train after train through
the Rat river country like bullets out
of q Maxim gun. It was hot work,
and before he had sat IN an hour there
was q stumble. The engineer Of big
ten wheeler pulling twenty-five cars OF
steers had been pushing hard and at
the entrance of the canyon set his air
so quick he sprung one Of the driver
shoes, and the main rod hit II. Inc
great steel bar doubled up like man
with q cramp. 1t was showing day
light. They made stop and, quick as
men could do 1t, tagged both ways
But the last section was crowdlns
into the canyon right behind. They
we're too close together; that was all
there was to It. The hind section split
into the standing train like a butcher
knife into sandwich. It made q
mean wreck. and, worse. 1t made q
lot of hard feeling at the Wickiup.
When the investigation came 1t was
pretty near up to Fred Norman righi
from the start, and be knew It. But
Blackburn, who shielded him when be
| could, just as all the dspatchers did
because he was q boy, and sick one
among men, tried to take part Of the
blame himself. He gould afford It
Blackburn. His shoulders were broad
and he hadn't % much as ay specl
on his book. Bucks 4 looked prett