The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-04-07


might trayel the West End
from fresh water to salt
n we dip into both-wtth-
out ever locating the Spider
water by map or by name.
But # you should happen anywhere
on The West End to sit among a ang
Of bridge carpenters, or get to conf
dence with a bridge foreman, or find
heart then you might a all you
wanted about the Spider water. maybe
more anyway full plenty as HALEY
used to say
The Sioux named it. and, whatever
may be thought Of their Interpretation
Of S~eriptural views on land grabbing.
no man with ever attempted TO
improve on their names for things,
whether birds or braves or winds or
waters@they know.
Our general managers hadn't always
sense-this may seem odd, but on the
system It would excite no comment
and one Of them c~eunteuanced a
shameful change in the name Of the
Spider water Some p~oiytechnical idiot
at a safe distance dubbed It the Big
Sandy. and the Big Sandy 1t IS to this
day on map and in folder, bat not in
the lingo Of trackmen nor the heart of
the Sioux Don't say Big Sandy to
trackmen and hand cut a cigar. It viii
not 60. Say Spider water without any
cigar, and you will get z word and q
stool. and, If you ask it, fine cut.
Inc 2DlIEA ours Is
the pioneer line-was there when we
first bridged it. It is probably as old
as shutdown and nothing like as pretty.
The banks-it has none to speak Of;
its stones-they are whiskered; its bed
fun or sand burs- Everything about
the villain stream has a dilapidated,
broken down air The very mud Of the
Spider water is rusty.
So our people bridged it. and the
trouble began. A number of matters
hnfharHd MIR nfnnanr mana perm nfE-
Indians. outlaws, cabinet officers, con-
~greEdonal committees and Wall street
magnates-but at one time or 9th
our folks managed all of them. The
only thing they couldn't at any time
satisfactorily manage was the Spider
water. Bridge after bridge they threw
acr0ss It and into it. Year after ear
the Spider water toyed with our civil
engineers and our material department.
one man at Omaha given to asthma
and statistics estimated between spells
that the Spider water had EOS US
more money h all the water courses
together from the Missouri to the Ser
ras.
Then came to the West End a mas
terful mar, a S~cotchman. pawky and
hard. Brodie was his name, an Edin-
burgh man. with no end Of degrees. n
master Of every one. Brodie came to
be superintendent of bridges on the
western division and to boss every va
ter course on the plains and in the
mountains. But the Spider water took
q fall even out OF Brodie It swept out
he got his bag ~unpacked, and there
after Brodie, who was reputed not to
care a stringer for anybody, did not
conceal q distinct respect for the Spi-
der.
Brodie went st it right. He tried not
TO make friends with the Spider. for
nobody could do that. but to get &C
auainted with 1t. For this he went to
its Oldest neighbors, the Sioux. Brodfe
spent weeks and weeks up the Spider
water hunting. summers, and with the
Sioux he talked Spider water and drank
drs water. That was Brodie's shame
the hre water.
But he was pawky. and he Skinned
increasingly the ave- and the medi-
cine men about the uncommOnly queer
water that took the bridges so fast
the i've that month in and month out
couldn't squeeze up water enough to
baptlze a pollywog. and then Of a sud
den and for a few lays would rage like
the Missouri. restore to the desert its
own and living image and leave our be-
wildered rails hung up either side in
the wind.
Brodle talked cloudbursts up coun-
try. for the floods came, times. under
clear skies, and the Sioux suiked in
silence. He suggested an unsupported
inlet from some mountain stream
which maybe. times, sent its storm wa
L&A 1"@A a a8" 80 $500 49, 2EL4l-
and the red men shrugged their faces
AS a last resort and IN desperation he
limited at the devil, and the skeptics
took a quick brace with as much as to
say. now you are talking. and muttered
very bad medicine
Then they gave him the Indian stuff
about the Spider water, took him
away up where n C a party of Paw
nees had camDed in the dust Of the
river bed to surprise the Sioux and
told Brodie how the Spider, more sud
den than buck. heeter than pony, a
come down in the night and surprised
the Pawnees. n so well that the next
morning there wasn't enough material
left for a scalp dance.
They took Brodie out into the ratty
bed himself, and when he said heap
dry and said no Water, hey laughed,
IndfanWfse, and pointed to the sand.
Scooping little wells with their hands.
they showed him the rising and the
filling; the instant water where before
was no water. And dropping into the
wells feathers of the grouse they show
ed Brodie how the current carried
them always across the WeII=every
time and always, Brodie noticed
southeast. Then BTodie made Haley
dig many holes. and the Spider weIed
inte them n he threw in bits of note
books and tobacco wrappers. but al
Ways they Travelled southeast-aIways
the Same"aDd a bigger fool thar Bro
die could see that the water was ali
there. only Underground. But when
dfd II rise2 asked Brodi When the
Chinook poke, said the Sioux. And
Why? persisted Brodfe. Because the
Spider woke, said the Sioux. And
Brodie went out OF the camp OF the
Sioux wondering
And he planned a new bridge which
should stand the Chinook and the Spi-
der and the devil himself. said Brodie,
medicine or no medicine. And full
seven years Il lasted; then the fire wa
ter smoke for the wicked S~cotchmau
and he himself went out into the night.
And after he died, miserable wreck
Of a man, and OF a very great man, the
Spider woke up and took his pawky
bridge and tied Up the main line for
two weeks and set US crazy. for we
-.ara a-raadZ loslng our Zr-n On The