The Topeka state journal., 1906-03-31

Euperiuteudent- He won't make you
any trouble unless he gets to drinking
IL that happens, don't have any words
with him" Bucks underscOred three
times. simply crawl into q cyclone
cellar and wire me Sending you elgh-
teen loads OF steel tonight and six cars
of ties. Blair reports sections 10 ready
FOR track layers and Mear's OUTFIT NOV
ing into the Palisade canyon. Push the
STUFF to the front"
1t was getting dark. and Callahan sat
iu that part of the Benkleton depot he
called the Office. pulling at muddy
root that went unaccOuntably hot in
sudden flashes. He took the pipe from
his mouth, leaving his foot on the ta-
bic. and looked at the bowl resentfully,
wondering again II there could be pow
der In that internal tobacco OF Rube-
dos. The mouthpiece he eyed as a
desperate man might ponder dnal
shift.
The pipe had originally come from
Gods country. with a beautiful am
Der m0uthpiece and a beautiful bowl,
but it was a present from his sister
and had been bought at a dry goods
store. Once when thinking-Or. IL you
please, when not king--Call llahan
had held a lighted match to the beau
ti1ul amber mouthpfece instead OF to
the tobacco. and in the IRE that ensued
they had hard work to save the depot.
Callahan never wrote his sister about
it. He thought only about buying
pipes at dry goods stores and about
being when they exploded thousand
miles from the man who sold them.
There was plenty in that to think
about What he now brought his teeth
reluctantly Together on was part Of
the rubber tube Of a 03smantled ato-
1nfzer. la happier post Christmas days
q toilet fixture. But Callahan had
abandoned the use Of bay rum after
shaving His razor had gone to the
scrap, and on Sunday morning he
merely ran pair Of scissors over the
Hr--nm anrnrrr "a
ine-and on the front
After losing the mouthpiece he
would have been completely in the air
but for little Chris Oxen. Chris was
Callahan's section gang. His name
was once Ochsner, but that wasn't In
Beukleton. Callahan was hurried
when he made up the payroll and put
lt Oxen, as being better United States
said United States in preference to
English.
Chris had been in America only three
years. but he had been in Russia 500
and in that time had learned many
ways OF getting something out of moth
ing. When the red haired dispatcher,
after the explosion. cast away with Bit
terness the remains Of the pipe, Chris
picked it up and by judicious action
on the atomizer figured out a new
mouthpiece no worse than the original,
for while the second. like the first, was
of rubber, it was not OF the explosive
variety
Chris presented the remodeled root
to Callahan as surprise Callahan, in
q burst of gratitude promoted him on
the spot He made little Chris fore
man. It didn't bring any advance in
pay, but there was the honor To be
foreman was an honor, and. as little
Chris was the only man on the yard
force. he became by promotion fore
man OF himself.
So Callahan sat thinking of the in
renuity Of Chris, rejecting on the sting
of construction tobacco and studying
over Bucks letter.
The yard was his worry-not that II
was much OF a. yard; just dozen runs
OF the lead to take the construction
material for Callahan to distribute fas'
as the grade was pushed westward. The
trouble at the BenkletOn yard came
from without, not from within
The road was being pushed into the
cattle country and 1t was all easy til
they struck BenkletOn. BenkletOn was
just a hard knot on the yellow Grass
trail. a squally. sandy cattle town
There were some bad men in Benkle-
ton. They didn't bother often. Blu
there were some men in Benkleton who
thought they we're bad and these were
a source Of constant bedevilment to the
railroad men.
Southwest of the yard. where the riv-
err breaks sheer into the bottoms, there
hived and still hives a colony Of rail
road 1aborers, Russians. They have
sQuatted there. burrOWed into the facs
OF the bench like sand swallows and
scraped caves out for themselves. and
the name Of the place is Little Russia
This was in the troublesome day
when the cowboys. hOmesick for evil
would ride around Little Russia Will
rope and gun and scare the pioneer
cross eyed The cattle fellows spen
the entire winter months, all sand and
sunshine. putting up schemes to w0rr1
callahan and the Little Russians. Th'
headquarters for this restless gang
were at Pat Barne.s place, across from
the postofdce. IT was there that tht
cowboys loved to congregate- To Cal
laHan Pat Barlie's place was a Wasps
nest but to Chris 1t was q den O
wolves and Of dreader sort thar
Russian wolves, for Barlie's pack nev
er slept
The east and west section men coul,
run away from them on hand cars. I
was the yardmen who caught it, and
grew so bad they couldn't keep
switchman. About 10 o'clock at night
after NO. % had pulled IN and the
were distributing train load Of bridg
timber q sWitchmans lantern Woul
90 up In signal. when-pisti-a bulle
Egould knock the lamp clean out Of hi
hand and the nerve clean out Of hi
head. Handling a light in the Benkle
ton yard was like smoking celluloi
pipe-you never could tell when
would so or
Cowboys shot away the lamps taste
than acquisitions could be drawn TO
new ones. They shot the signals OF
the switches and the lights from tn
tops of moving trains. Whenever
brakeman showed a flicker two COW
boys stood waiting 20 snum It.. If the
missed the lamp, they winged tn
brakeman. It compelled Bucks afte
awhile to run trains through Benkle
ton without showing ever a light. This
though tough. could be managed. bu
TO shunt fats in the yard at night wit
no light OF to get a switchman willin
TO play young Tell to Peg Leg Rey
uolds' William for any length Of tim
was impossible. At last Bucks. o
whom the worry reflected at headquaI
ters sWore he would fight them wit
fire, and he sent Shockley. Callaha
Etill sat speculating on what he woul