Crittenden record=press. [volume] (Marion, Ky.) 1907-1909, 1907-04-25

to the stockholders! MOI so. III De-
longs To men like Mr. McWilliams.
who own il when they need it At
other times they let the stockholders
carry it-until they want it again.
Wen do what we can. Peter" re-
piled the president, desperately amia'
BILE "Goodby."
am giving you only an inkling of
how il started. not word as to how
countless orders were issued and
countless schedules were Cancelled, not
paragraph about numberless trains
abandoned in toto and numberless 9th
ers pulled and hauled and held and
annulled. The McWilliams Special in Il
twinkle tore great system into great
splinters.
1t set master mechanics by the ears
and made reckless falsifiers Of previ-
ously conservative trainmen. 1t made
undying enemies of rival superintend-
ents and incipient paretics Of jolly
train dlspatchers. 1t shivered us from
end TO end and stem to stern, but it
covered 1.026 miles Of the best steel III
the world in rather better than twenty
hours and blaze of glory.
my word is out" said the president
In his message to all superintendent
thirty minutes later. You will got
your division schedule in few mo-
ments. Send no reasons for inability
to make 1t. Simply deliver the goods
With your time report, which comes by
by. VI. S.. | want the name and rec
ord Of every member of every train
crew and every engine crew that haus
the McWillams car" Then followed
particular injunctions Of secrecy.
Above all, the newspapers must not
get It,
But where newspapers are secrecy
can only he hoped for, never attained.
In spite of the most elaborate precau-
tons to preserve Peter McWilliams'
secret-would YOU believe it?-the even
ing papers had half column. practi
cally the whole thing. OF course they
had to guess at some of II, but for
newspaper story 1t was pretty correct.
Just the same. They had TO a minute
the time of the start from Chicago and
limited broadly that the schedule was
hair raiser. something To make pre-
vious very fast records previous VCry
slow records. And-here in a 5000
was the secret-the train was to con
vey prominent Chicago capitalist t.
the bedside OF his dying son. Philip
McWilliams. IN Denver Further. tina:
hourly bulletins were being wired TO
the distressed father and that every
effort of science would 5e put forth o.
keep the unhappy boy alive until his
father could reach Denver on the svc
cial Lastly. 1t was hoped by all The
evening papers ito fill out the half first
( column scare, that sunrise would sea
the anxious parent well on toward the
gateway of the Rockies.
OF course the morning papers from
the Atlantic 10 the Pacific had the
story repeated scare headed in fact
and the public were laughing at our
peoples logged refusal TO confirm the
report or 10 he interviewed ut all on
the subject. The papers had the story
anyway. What did they care for our
efforts To screen Il private distress
which insisted on so paralyzing Il time
card for 1926 miles?
When our own. the west end of the
schedule. came over the wires there
was Il universal. vociferous. kick.
/ Dispatchers. superintendent of motive
/ power. train master. everybody. pro
tested. We were given about seven
hours TO cover 400 mileS-the fastest
percentage. by the way. on the whole
run.
This may he grief for young Me-
| Williams and for his dad" grumblel
| the chief dispatcher that evening ~
he cribbed the press dispatches going
| over the wires about the special but
| The grief is not theirs alone
| Then he made a protest to Chicago.
What the answer was none but him
self ever knew. II came personal. ana
le took il personally, but the manner
I IN which he went to work clearing
track and making card for the Me
Williams Special showed better speed
than the train itself ever attempted,
and he kicked no more.
| After all the row il seems incredible,
but they never got ready to leave Chi
cago till o'clock. and when the Nc
Williams Special lit into our train Sys-
tenn it was like dropping mountain
ion into Il bunch of steers.
FreightS and extras. local passenger
trains even. We're used to being side
tracked, but when it came to laying
cut the hiers and Il whisper this) the
White Mail and the Manila express the
)il began to siZzle in the journal boxes.
The freight business, the passenger
traffic. the mail schedules Of whole
railway system were actually knock
ed by the McWilliams Special into II
cooked hat.
From the minute it cleared Western
avenue it was the only thing talked
Of. Divisional headquarters and car
link shanties alike were bursting with
excitement.
Or the West End we had all night To
prepare, and at 3 o'clock next morning