Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1906-03-31
IEaSl

NGSAIkS9E you can't run that yard
USIS5lII with a Sunday school
superintendent He
won't make you amy trouble unless he
gets 20 drinking If that happens, don't
have any words with him" Bucks IN
derscored three times. simply crawl
into q cyclone cellar and wire me
Sending you eighteen loads OF steel 20
night and six cars OF ties. Blair re-
ports section 10 ready for track layers
and Mear's outfit moving into the Pal
fsade canyon Push the stun 10 the
front"
It was getting dark. and Callahan sat
in that part OF the Benkleton depot he
called the Office. pulling az a muddy
root that went unaccOuntably hot ln
sudden flashes. lie took the pipe from
his mouth leaving his foot on the tn
bic, and looked at the bowl resentfuIy.
wondering again IL there could be pow
der Ina that Internal tobacco OF Rube-
dos. The mouthplcce he eyed as
desperate man might ponder a final
shift
The pipe had originally come from
Gods country, with a beautiful am
Der mouthpicce and "a beautiful bowl
and had been bought nj a dry goods
store once when thinking-or. II you
please. when not thinkinc-Callahan
had held lighted match TO the beau
tful amber mouthpiece instead OF 10
the tobacco. and Ia the fire that ensued
they had hard work 10 save the depot.
Callahan never wrote his sister about
IL He thought only about buying
pipes at dry goods stores and about
being. when they exploded. n thousand
miles from the man who sold them
There was plenty i'm that 20 think
about What Dee now brought his teeth
reluctantly together on was part OF
the rubber tube OF q dlsmRutled alto
mizer, In happier Christmas DAYS
a toilet fixture. But Callahan had
abandoned the use OF bay rum after
shaving. His razor had gone 70 the
scrap, and on Sunday morning he mere
ly ran pair OF scissors over the high
Johnston Callahan was railroading-
and on the front.
After losing the mouthpiece 10 would
have been completely in the air but for
little Chris oxen. Chris was Callahan's
section gang. His namc was once
Ochsncr but that wasn't In Benkleton.
Callahan was hurried when he made up
the payroll and put % oxen. as being
better United States. ! say United
States because Callahan said United
States I'm preference 90 English.
Chris bad been in America only three
years, but De had been I'm Russia 500
and I'm that time had learned many
ways Of getting something out OF moth
ing. When the red haired dispatcher.
after the explosion. east away with bit |
terness the remains OF the pipe. Chris
picked 10 up and by judiclous action
on the atomizer figured out a new
mouthpiecc no worse than the original
for. while the second. like the FIRST was !
OF rubber, IL was not OF the explosive |
variety.
Chris presented the remodeled root
20 Callahan as a surprise. Callahan. I'm
q burst OF gratitude. promoted him on
the spot. lie made little Chris fore
man. IL didn't bring any advance In
pay. but there was the honor. To he
foreman was an honor. and. as little
Chris was the only man on the yard
force, he became 10y promotion foreman
OF himself
So Callahan sat thinking OF the IN
genuity 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
on the lead 90 take the construction ma
terial for Callahan 20 distribute fast as
ne grade was pushed westward The
trouble az the Benkleton yard came
from without, not from within.
The road was being pushed into the
cattle country. and il was all easy tin
they struck Benkleton Benkleton was
Just hard knot on the Yellow Grass
trail. squally. sandy cattle town.
There were some bad men In Benkle-
ton. They didn't bother often. But
there were some men in Benkleton who
thought they were bad. and these were
a source OF constant bedeviiment TO the
railroad men.
Southwest OF the yard. where the riv-
Sr breaks sheer into the bottoms. there
hived and still hives colony OF rail
road laborers. Russians They have
squatted there burrowed into the face
OF the bench like sand swallows and
scraped caves out for themselves. and
the name or the place Is Little Russia.
This was in the troublous DAYS when
the cowboys. homesick for evil. would
ride around Little Russia with rope
and gun and scare the pioneers cross
eyed The cattle fellows spent the en-.
ure winter months. all sand and sun
shine. putting up schemes 10 worry
Callahan and the Little Russians. The
headquarters for this restless gang
were at Pat Barlies place. across from
the postOffice. IL was there that the
cowboys loved to congregate To Cal
lahan Pat Barlie's place was a wasps'
nest but 70 Chris IL was a den OF
wolves and of dreader sort than
Russian wolves. for Barlie's pack new
or slept