The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1906-07-19
GETTING HIS PAsS'S WORTH.
Old Texan Who Ride sEvery Day on
Railroad to Spite the Company.

Old Texan Who Ride sEvery Day on
Railroad to Spite the Company.
We were travelling through Texas
and stopped at little settlement in
the woods. The only passenger that
boarded the train at the stopping place
was an old man, and when we say old
we mean very old. He seemed a relic
Of anteGeluvian times, as much out
of place on a railway as mastadon
would be in a modern menagerie. He
did not seem to be travelling for
pleasure. The passing landscape had
no interest for him. When the con-
ductcr came through he seemed in
c'lined to ignore the old man and pass
him without collecting the fare. The
old man, however, declined to be lg-
nored. From an inside pocket he
produced a worn and greasy account
book, and from that extracted a pass
that was nearly worn to rags. The
conductor, with an air Of impatience,
looked at it carelessly and passed on.
The old man, apparently satisfied that
he had forced the conductor to note
the fact that he had pass, sank back
into his senile reyerie and rumina-
ton. At a station about 80 miles up
the road he got off. moving slowly and
with difficulty.
The possession of a pass by one so
little likely to have it excited our curl
osity, and we dug the history of 1t
out of one of the brakemen. When
the road was building through that
country the old man owned a piece
of land through which it was desired
to obtain a right of way. The old
man fought the company vigorously,
and refused to give or sell them right
of way through his land, except on
condition that he have pass-not
an annual, but life pass. The COM
pany tried to bluff him, but the old
man didn't bluff worth a cent, and
when the company started to build
across his land the old man came out
with the old rife he had carried at
San Jacinto and cheerfully Informed
the foreman that he would shoot the
first man that trespassed on his land.
The old man was then seventy, and,
as his tenure of life promised to be
short, the company finally agreed to
his terms. The road was completed,
and the old man, by virtue of his
pass, rode on the first train through,
which was, by the way, the first rail-
road train he had ever seen.
That was Is years ago, and every
day, rain or shine, since then the old
man has ridden on that road, some
times in one direction, sometimes in
the other, but never further than
would enable him to get home the
same day on the next train coming
back His life pass has been worn
almost to shreds. Every conductor
on the road knows him and would
fain dispense with the trouble of TAX
ing his number. but the old man is
bound that the company shall treat
his just as it would any other passen-
ger, and always insists on presenting
his pass and having it entered in the
conductors book The brakeman said
that the old man had received from
SO to s5 worth of transportation every
day for Is years, and, while he looked
feeble, he would probably live to get
the worth of that pass. The station
where he gets on is a flag station,
which makes it all the more aggravat-
ing, as nine times out of ten he is
the only passenger the train has to
stop for, and every time train stops
it means a loss of dollars in stopping
and starting. (Tex.) Mer-
curry.