The Havre herald. [volume] (Havre, Mont.) 1904-1908, 1906-03-09


points with the ash of San Francisc
cigar, and Neighbor would begin t
heave from the middle up like hippo
potamus, and Callahan would laugh hi
Whiskers full Of dew, and Haley woul
yell with delight, and the slaves in tn
next room would double up on the dea,
at the story, Blackburn would sit wit
his laugh all in smile, but never
noise or a word. He enjoyed it all no
a doubt of that, only it was all tenn
pered, / reckon, by something that hat
gone before. At least that's the way /
/ now strikes me, and I watched thos,
big fellows pretty close-the fellows
who We're to turn while was CROWNS
up among them into managers anl
presidents and magnates and some Of
them from every day catch-as-catch-car
men with the common alkali f1eckins
their boots into dead men for whom
marble never rose white enough or high
enough
Blackburn was four years at the
Wickiup on the night trick. It wouldn't
nave seemed natural to see him there
in daylight It needed the yellow gloom
of the old kerosene lamp in the room,
the specked, knotted, warped, smoky
pine ceiling losing itself In black and
cobWebbed corners, the smoldering
murk OF the soft coal fire brooding in
the shabby old salamander and outside
IN the darkness the wind screwing
down the gorge and rafting the shrunk-
re- IN
dispatcher's chair. Blackburn and the
lamp and the stove and the ceiling and
the gloom-in word, Blackburn and
the night trick-they went together.
Before the short line was opened the
No. l and No. trains caught practical
~ all the coast passenger business.
Ihcy We're immensely heavy trains.
Month after month we sent out two
and three sections Of them each way.
and they always ran into our division
on the night trick Blackburn handled
all that main line business with mile
age Of S05, besides the mountain
branches, say 400 more; and the pas
senger connections came off them,
mostly at night, for l and s.
Now three men wrestle with Black
burns mileage, but that was before
they found out that dispatchers, al
though something tougher than steel. do
wear out. Moreover, we were then a
good way from civilization and extra
men. II 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 every
body loved-Fred Norman. He was off
the Burlington, a kid of fellow who
looked more like choir boy than
train dispatcher But he was all light
ning-a laughing, restless, artless boy,
open as book and quick as a current.
There was better reason still, though,
why they loved Fred-the boy had con-
sumption. That's why he was out in
the mountains, and his mother in De-
troit used to write Bucks asking about
him, and she used to send us all things
In Fred's box. His flesh was as white
and as pink as mountain snow, and he
had brown eyes. He was a good boy.
ana called him handsome. I reckon
they all did. Fred brought out tennis
set with him, the first we ever saw in
Medicine 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 Law
ford drive. | 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 was carrying mes
sages then and he was signing orders,
we We're really like kids together.
Fred for long time had the early
trick He came on at In the morning
and caught most Of the through freights
that got away from the river behind
the passenger trains. There was no
use trying to move them in the night
rick Between the stock trains east
bound and the both way passenger
rains, IL westbound freight got
caught In the mountains at night the
sngine might as well be standing In the
louise saving fuel; there wasn't time to
get from one siding to another So Fred
Norman took the freights as they came,
md he handed them like ringmaster.
When Fred whip cracked, by Joe! a
rain had to dance right along, grade or
40 grade. Fred gave them the rights,
md they had the rest to door bust
hess to do with the superintendent or
With Doubleday, Neighbours assistant
a the motive power. ss., .t,tsz
There was only one tendency in Fred
sorman's dispatching that anybody
ould criticise. He never seemed. after
trains on the plains, to appre-
late what our mountain grades really
meant. and when they pushed him he
ent his trains out pretty close togeth-
r. 1t never bothered him to handle a
leavy traffic. He would get the busi-l
less through the mountains Just as
asst as they could put it nj the division.