Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-01-18
THOMAS BENTON.
CARRIES LIFE PASS.

He Has Ridden On It Every Day fol I Fifteen Years, ,rar 4- 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 relic of antediluvian times. as much out of place on railway as a masto- don would be in modern menagerie. He did not seem to be travelling for pleasure. The passing landscape had l no interest for him.
 When the conductor came through he seemed inclined to ignore the old man and pass him without collecting the fare. The old man. however. de- clined to be ignored. From an inside pocket he produced Il worn and greasy account book and from that extracted a pass that was nearly worn to rags. The conductor with an air of impa- tience looked at it carclessly and passed on. The old man, apparently satisfied that he had forced tho coR. ductor to note the fact that he had . pass. sank back into his senile reverie and rumination. At a station about thirty miles up the road he got off. moving slowly and with difficulty.
 The possession of pass by one so little likely to have It excited our curi- osity, and VIC dug the history of it out of one of the brakemen. When the road was building through that cour- try the old man owned piece of land through which it was desired to ob- tain right of way. The old man fought the company vigorously and re. fused to give or sell them a right of way through his land except on condi- ton that he have pass. Not an an nual but life pass.
 The company tried to bluff him. but the oM man didn't bluff worth cent. and when the company started to build across his land the old man came out with an old rife hc 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 70 and as his tenure of life pass 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 railroad train lie had ever seen.
 That was fifteen years ago. and every day. rain or shine. since then the old man has ridden oil that road sometimes tn one direction. sometimes in tho 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 taking his number. hut the old man is hound that tho com pany shall treat him just as it wouH any other passenger and always in sists on presenting his pass and having it entered in the conductors book.
 The brakeman said that the old man had received from & to S5 worth Of transportation every day for fifteen years. and while he looked feeble he would probably live 10 get the worth of that pass The station where he gets on is a fssz station. which makes 4 all the m1ore aggravatin1. as nine tsrseS out of tel. he t the only paSSrFl- ger the train hss to stop for. and every tine q train stops II means a loss of dollars In stopping snd stsrIiBg- Kinsley NeTcHry-