The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-04-28

gan pushing troops into the Philip
pines and there came days when
Rocky mountain sheep could e hardly
have kept out of the way of the extras
that tore, kissing and booming, over
the mountains for Frisco. For q time
the trafhc came hot.So hot we were
pressed to handle 1t. There was good
Dit or Sklrmishing on the part OF the
passenger department to get the bust
ness and tremendous skirmishing in
the operating department to deliver
the goods Every broken down coach
in the back yards was scrubbed up for
the soldier trains We aimed to kill
Just as few as possible Of the boys en-
route to the islands, though that may
have been mistaken mercy. How
ever, we handled them well. Not a
man IN khaki got away from US in a
wreck, and in the height of the push
we put more live stock into South
Omaha, car for car. than has ever
gone in before or since.
It was November and great weather
for running and when the rails were
not springing under the soldiers west
pound they We're humming under the
steers. eastbound. MAZE Sampson, with
his beer kegs and his crackers and his
z64 and his beknighted fireman.
nugged the sidings pretty close that
week, Some of the trains had part of
the rights and others had the remain
der. The 264 and her train took what
was lert, which threw Maze Sampson
down scrap rails that made corduroy
roads of the passaging tracks. Then
came the night that Moulton, the Phil
lpplne commandant went through on
MS special With his staff and his
baggage and his correspondents and
that kind. he took one whole train.
esIne Crowley pulled them, with Ben
6herer conductor, and, whatever else
may be said OF that pair, they deliver
their trains on time. MAZE Sampson
T1e=7l .
his regular run and tried to get west.
But between the soldiers behind him
and the steers against him he soon lost
every visionary right he ever did pos
sess. They laid him out nearly every
mile of the way to the end of the run
At Sugar Buttes they held him thirty
minutes for the Moulton special to
pass, and, to crown his indignitfes,
Kept him there fifteen minutes more
waiting for an eastbound sheep train.
sampson afterWard claimed that
Barnes Tracy, the dispatcher that did
II, was gold democrat but this never
was proved.
It was nearing dark when the crew
OF the local freight 20 heard the dull
roar of the Moulton special speeding
through the canyon of the Rat. A
passenger train running through the
canyon at night comes through with
the far roll of a thousand drums, deep
enlng INTO rumble of thunder. Then
C0A anu over. al comes the threaten
ing pur of the straining engine, break
ing into a. storm of exhausts until like
q rocket, the headlight bursts stream
ing from the black walls, and Moore
on the 81, or Mullen with the SIS. or
HawkswOrth in the lilo. tear with a
fury of alkali and a sweep OF noise
over the Butte switch, past caboose
and flats and boxes and the 264 like
fading light. Just a sweep Of dark
ened glass and dead yarnish. a wEirl
H. r9f 4t1- IL a
the fishplates, and the fast train is up
and out and Eonsi
Twenty-nfne. local, was used to all.
this. Used to the vanishing tail lights
DUST, the silence breeding again over
the desert with, this night fifteen min
utes more to wait fSr the eastbound
stock train befor they dared omen the
the measured sinking of the sullen
switch MAZE Sampson Killed the time
by going back to the caboose to talk
equities with the conductor. It was no
trick for him to put away fifteen min
utes discussing the rights of man with
himself; and with an angel of a fireman
to watch the cab, why not? The 264
standing on the siding was chewing her
cud as sweet as an old COW, with may
be lao pounds of steam to the right Of
the dial, maybe 1871 say maybe, be
cause no one but Delaroo ever knew
when the sheep train whistled.
Sheep-nothing but sheep. Car after
car after car, rafting down from the
short line behind two spanking big
engines. They wlistled, hoarse as pit
rates for the Butte siding, and, rising
the Hill mile west Of 1t. bore down the
grade throwing Dannah coal from both
stacks like hydraulic gravel.
No one knew or ever will know how
it happened. They cat hauled men on
the carpet week about that switch.
The crew of the Moulton special testi-
fed, the crews of the stock train testi-
fed. Maize Sampson testified, his con
Il r1f H..
the roadnaaster and the section boss
each testified, and their men testified
but however or what it was. whether
the Moulton special fractured the
tongue, or whether the pony of the
lead engine few the guard, or whether
the switch had been opened, or whether
In closing the slip rail had somehow
failed to follow the rod, the double
headed stocker went into that Butte
switch, into that Butte siding, into the
peacea bic old 264 and the 20, local,
like a lyddite shell, crashing, rearing
ripping, scattering two whole trains
into blood and scrap. Destruction
madness, throes, DEATH silence; then
pyre of dirty smoke, a wall of sicken-
ing bleats and a scream of kissing
steam over 1000 sheep caught IN the
sudden shambles.
There was a frightened crawling out
of the shattered cabOOses, a hurrying
up of the stunned crews and a bewil-
dering count of heads. Both engine
crews of the stock train had jumped
as their train split the switch. Tn
train crews we're badly shaken. The
head brakeman of the sheep train lay
torn in the barbed wire fencing the
right OF way, but only one man was
missing, the fireman Of %, Delaroo.
Second So jumped west switch pass
ing track and went into train %, en-
CINE 264. Bad spill Delaroo, fireman
the 1854. missing" wired Sugar Buttes
to Medicine Bend a few minutes later
Tofe F,r 1 al
with both roadmasters and the wreck
ing outfit. 1t was dark as a canyon on
the desert that night. Benedict Nor
gans men tore splintered car timber
from the debris and on the knobs back
of the siding lighted heaping bonhres
that threw a light all night on the
dread pile smoking on the desert. They
dug by the flame of the fires at the