Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1906-01-18
rExAN HAs A Lee PASS.
Made Railroad Company Give It to
Him, and Has Used It for
Fifteen Years.

We we're travelling through Texas,
and stopped at a little settlement in
the woods. The only passenger that
boarded the train was an old man, and
when we say old we mean very old.
He seemed a relic Of antediluvian
times, as much out of place on a rail-
way as mastodon would be in a mod
ern menagerie. He did not seem to
be travelling for pleasure. The pass
ing landscape had no interest for him,
relates a correspondent in the Kins-
ley Mercury.
When the conductor came through
he seemed inclined TO ignore the old
man and pass him without collecting
the fare. The old man, however, de-
clined to be ignored. From an inside
pocket he produced a worn and greasy
account book and from that extracted
pass that was nearly worn to raga
The conductor, with an air of impa-
thence, looked at it carelessly, and
passed on. The old man, apparently
satisfied that he had forced the con-
| ductor to note the fact that he had a
pass, sank back into his senile reverie
and rumination. At a station about
30 miles up the road he got Off, NOV
ing slowly and with ciflculty.
The possession Of a pass by one
so little liked to have 1t excited our
curiosity, and we dug the history of ii
out Of one Of the brakemen. When the
road was building through that coun-
try the old man owned a piece of land
through which it was desired to OBJ
tain Q right of way. The old man
fought the company vigorously. and re-
fused to give or sell them a right OF
way through his land, except on condi'
ton that he have a pass. Not an an
nual, but life pass.
The company tried to bluff him, but
the old man didn't blum worth cent
and when the company started to build
across his land the old man came Out
with the old rife he had carried al
San Jacinto and cheerfully informed
the foremost that he would shoot tho
first man that trespassed on his land
The old man was then 20, and, al
his tenure of a life pass promised tC
be short, the company finally agreed
to his terms. The road was completed
and the old man by virtue Of his pas
rode on the first train through, which
was, by the way, the first railroad trail
he had ever seen.
That was Is years ago, and ever,
day, rain or shine, since then the oil
man has ridden on that road, some
times in one direction, sometimes il
the other but never further than woul
, enable him to get home the same da
on the next train coming back. Hi
life pass has been worn almost t
shreds. Every conductor on the roa
knows him and would fain dispens
, with the trouble of taking his number
but the old man is bound that the com
pany shall treat him just as 1t woul
, any other passenger and always insist
on presenting his pass and having
: entered in the conductors book.
The brakeman said that the old ma
had received from three to five do
lars worth Of transportation every da
for Is years, and while he looked feeb'
he would probably live to get the wort
of that pass. The station where h
gets on is a flag station, which make
it all the more aggravatlng, as min
times out of ten he is the only pa
y senger the train has to stop for, an
5 every time train stops it means
e loss Of dollars in stopping and star
s ing.