The Topeka state journal., 1906-04-14


sent out two and three sections or
them eaci1 way, and they always ran
into cur division on the night trick
Blackburn handled all that main line
business with q mileage OF sos. be-
sides the mountain brauches. say 400
more; and the passenger connections
came Off them, mostly at night, for
and 5.
Now three men wrestIe with Black
burns mileage. but that was before
they found out that dispatehers, al
though something. tougher than steel,
do wear out. Moreover. we were then
a coed way from civilization and extra
men. IF a dispatcher took sick there
was no handy way Of filling IN; it was
just double Up and do the best you
could.
one lad in the Office those days
everybody loved-Fred Norman. He
was off the Burlington, a kid Of fell
low who looked more like choir boy
than a train dispatcher But he was
ali lightning laughing, restless art
less boy, open as a book and quick as
a current There was a better reason
still Though why trey loved Fred
the boy had consumption That's why
he was cut in the mountains, and his
mother in Detroit used to write Bucks
asking about him. and she used 10
send us all things in F'red5s box Ills
flesh was as white and as pink as
nloIntafn snow, and he had brown
eyes. He was a good boy, and called
him handsome. I reckon they all did.
Fred brought cut a tennis set with
him. the first we ever saw IN Medl-
cine Bend and before he had been
playing an hour he had Neighbor, big
as a grizzly, and Callahan with a
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 Lawford drive. I don't say what
he was to me; only that he taught me
all I ever knew or ever will know
about handling trains, and though 1
was carrying messages then and ne
was signing orders, we were really ike
kids together.
Fred for 4 long time had the early
trick He came on at 4 in the morn
ing and caught most Of the through
freights that get away from the river
behind the passenger trains. There
was no use trying to move them in
the night trick Between the stock
trains eastbound and the both way
passenger trains if westbound
freight got caught in the mountains at
night the engine might as we'll be
standing in the house saving fuel:
there wasn't time to get from one sid
ing to another So Fred Norman took
the freigI1ts as they came, and he han
died them like a ringnaster. 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 dor busi-
ness to do with the superintendent or
with Doubleday, Neighbor's assistant
in the mighty motive power
There was only one tendency in
Fred Noru1an,s dispatching that any
body could criticise. He never seemed
after handling trains on the plains to
appreciate what our mountain grades
really meant. and when they pushed
him he sent his trains out pretty close
together. It never bothered him to
handle a. heavy traffic. He would get
the business through the mountains
just as fast as they could put it at
the division, but occasionally there
were some hair curling experiences
among the freights on Norman's trick
irving to keep off each others coat
tails One night in July there was a
great press moving eight or nine
trains of Montana grassers over the
main line on some kind of time
contract. We were giving stockmen
the earth then. Every body was prod
ding the Mountain division, and part
OF the stuff came in late on Blackburn
and part Of it early on Fred, who was
almost coughing his head off about
that time, getting up at $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 a Maxim gun. Tt was hot work.
and before he had sat in an hour
t4AACF2 WIS Stumble me engineer OF
a 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 it.
The great steel bar doubled up like a
daylight. They made stop and
quick as men could do It. Tagged
both ways But the last section was
crowding into the canyon right behind
TJ- 4-- 1F5-
was all there was to 1t. The hind Sec
ton split into the standing train ike
a butcher knife into a sandwich. It
made q mean wreck, and worse it
made lot Of hard feeling at the
When the investigation came It was
pretty near up to Fred Norman right
from the start, and he knew it. But
Blackburn. who shielded him when he
could. just as all the dispatehers did
because be was a boy and a sick one
among men, tried to take part Of the
blame himself. He could afford it,
Blackburn His shoulders were broad,
and he hadn't so much as a fly speek
on his book. Bucks looked pretty
grave when the evidence was all in,
and around the second floor they
guessed that meant something for
Norman. Fred himself couldn't sleep
over it, and to eomplfcate things the
engineer of the stalled train who
hated Doubleday. limited quietly that
the trouble came in the first place
from Doubleday's newfangled idea Of
putting the driver shoes behind in
stead Of in front of the wheels. Then
hte fat was IN the fire. Fred got hold
of it and, boylike. sore over his own
share in the trouble and exasperated
I by som mething Doubleday was reported
to him said about hSm over at the
house, lighted into Doubleday about
/ the engine failure.
/ Doubleday was right in his device
as time has proved. but It was unheard
Of then. and. moreover. the assistant
/ master mechanic. sensitive to criticism
at any time, was fearful man to run
against Sunday morning he and Nor
man met in the trainaasSerss ONCE.
/ They went at each other like sparks
and when Doubleday. who had a hard
/ mouth. began cursing Fred. the poor
lft5ie dispatcher ranking with the
! 1919 l.al