The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-05-05

up to the trains and their movements,
up to the lives, then chief, with the
honor of the division all clutched IN
Martin Dunys three quick left fingers
on the pen at the same instant scratch
ing orders across the clip. Talk about
ambidexterityi Martin didn't know
what it would be like to use one hand
at a time. If Martin Duffy said right,
trains went right; If he said wrong,
trains went wrong But Martin never
said the wrong; he said only the right
Giddings knows; he copied for him
long enough. Giddings ana plenty
more of them can tell all about Martin
Duffy.
Bob didn't rise in the service quite
so fast as Martin. He was rather for
having a good time. He did more of
the social act, and that pleased his
mother, who on account of her bon
net-and-shawl complexion didn't
achieve much that way Martin. too,
was proud of his brother, and as soon
as Bob could handle a wire-which
was very soon, for he learned things in
no tine-Martin got Callahan to put
him up at Grant as operator Bob got
the place because he was Martin
brother; nothing else. He held 1t about
two months; then he resigned and went
to San francisco. He was a restless
fellow. It was Bob up and Bob down.
For a year he wandered around out
there telegraphing; then he bobbed up
again in Medicine Bend out of a Job.
He wanted to go to work, and-weN,
Callahan-Martin's brother, you know
sent him uD to Montair as
night operator. Three months he
worked steadily as clock;
then one night the dispatchers
at the Bend couldn't get Montair for
two hours. It laid out No. 6 and spe-
cial with the general manager and
made no end of row.
Martin said right off he ought to go,
but there was the little mother up
home, silent, / expect, but pleading
like. 1t was left largely to Martin. for
I the young fellow was already chief
and that was the trouble. He hated to
bear down too hard, so he cOmprom-
ised by asking his superintendent not
to fire Bob, but to set him back. They
sent him up as night man to Rat River
the meanest place on the whole sys-
tenn. That was the summer Of the
Templars' cOnclave at San Francisco.
We worked the whole spring getting
! things up along the line from Omaha
to the Sierras for that conclave. En-
gines were overhauled, rolling stock
touched up, roadbed put in shape,
/ everything shaken from end to end.
Not only were the passenger records
to be smashed, but beyond that lot
of our big general officers were way
up Masons and meant that our line
should get not merely the cream of the
! business. but the cream of the adver-
/ Using out of the thing. The general
I tenor of the Instructions was to nickle
] plate everything from the catalpas to
the target rods. For three months be-
! fore the conclave date we were busy
! getting ready for it, and when the big
day drew near on which We were to
undertake the moving and feeding of
( 5000 people one way on one track
/ through the mountains the cartinlxs
smoked crosscut and the Russian sec
! ton men began to oil their hair.
Callahan was superintendent under
/ Bucks, then general manager and
Martin Duffy chief dispatcher, Neigh
| Dor superintendent of motive power
! and Doubleday division master me-
! ehanic and with everything butoned
up on the West End we went that Sun
/ day morning on the firing line to take
! the first of the Templar specials
Medicine Bend had the alkan pretty
well washed out of it's eyes. and never
4 before in its history had 1t appeared
really gay. The old Wickiup was deco
rated till 1t looked like buck rugged
! for a ghost dance. Right AFTER day
! break the trains began rolling on Har-
old Davis trick. Duffy had annulled
all local freights and all through odds
and evens, all stock tramps east and
all westbound empties - everything
that could be had been suspended for
that Sunday and with it all there
were five times more trains than ever
! before rolled through Medicine Bend
| in twenty-four hours.
was ike a IeSIlFdt Ody III the
/ mountains Even the Indians and the
sduaw men turned out to see the fun
There was a crowd at the depot at
O'Clock. when the first train rolled UP
/ the lower gorge with St. Johns COM
/ nandery. No. 3, from Buffalo, and the
Pullmans were gay with bunting. The
( Medicine Bend crowd gave them an
! Indian yell, and in two minutes the
knights, with their scalps in their
| hands as token of surren-
81, of F,afl
sleepers into the crisp dawn. They
we're Just like school boys, and wher
4 shorty Isovelace-the local curiosity
who had both feet and both hands
frozen off the night he got drunk with
/ Matt Cassidy at Goose River Junction
struck UP on his mouthorgan, s'Pui
Ne or at Buffalo," they dropped sever
/ dollars odd and three baggage cheeks
into his hat while the crews were
changing engines.
All day It was that way-train after
train and ovation after ovation The
day was cool as a Watermelon-Aug us
and bright as a babys face al
through the mountains, and the Temp
lars went up into the high passes WITT
all the swing and noise we could raise
Harold Davis took it all morning
steady from 4 a. M at the dispatcher
key. He was used UP long before
noon. but he stayed and Just at /.
o'clock while a big Templar train from
Baltimore was loading its command
erv in front of the Wickiu1 after al
early dinner and a big Templar ban'
played tingling twostep. Martin Duff.
stuck his dry, parchment face int
the platform crowd. elbowed his wa,
unnoticed through it, climbed TIL
Wickiup stairs. walked into the dis
Datcher's room and throwing off hi
hat and coat, leaned over Harol'
Davis shoulder and took a transfer.
Young Giddings had been sittini
there in a perspiration half an hou
! then. He copied for Martin Duffy tina
J day. At noon they figured to get tn
t last TemDlar over the Eagle pass wit
the set of the sun. When Duffy too
the KEY he never looked his fore
/ cleaner only he was tired. Gliding
[ could see that The regular man ha
? been sick a week. and Martin ha
: been filing in. Besides that. all Sat
,,rdax- the dav before he had beei