The Greeley tribune., 1907-02-21

TO tle StOSkupIueIs' ->ot So- - ~
longs to men like Mr.. McWilliams
who own 1t when they need it Al
other times they let the stockholders
carry it-until they want it again
"We'u do what we can, Peter re
Piled the president, desperately anna
BILE "Goodby."
am giving you only an inkling oil
how il started. not word as to now
countless orders were issued ano
countless schedules were Cancelled, noi
a paragraph about numberless trains
abandoned in toto and numberless 9th
ers pulled and hauled and held ano
annulled. The McWilliams Special in 8
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 dispatchers. 1t Shivered US from
end to end and stem to stern, but II
covered 1925 miles of the best steel II
the world in rather better than twenty
hours and a blaze of glory.
"AIy word is out" said the president
in his message to all superintendent
thirty minutes later. You will get
your division schedule in a few mo
ments. Send no reasons for inability
to make 1t. Simply deliver the goods.
With your time report, which comes by
Dy. NJ. s., l want the name and rec.
ord of every member of every train
crew and every engine crew that hauls
the McWiliams car" Then followed
particular injunctions of secrecy
Above all, the newspapers must not
get it.
But where newspapers are secrecy
can only be hoped for, never attained
In spite of the most elaborate precau.
tions to preserve Peter McWilliams
secret-would you believe it?-the even
ing papers had half a column, practi
cally the whole thing. OF course they
had to guess ut some of it, but for q
newspaper story it was pretty correct,
Just the same. They had to minute
the time of the start from Chicago and
hinted broadly that the schedule was
a hair raiser something to make pre-
vious very fast records previous very
slow records. And-here in a scoop
| was the secretEthe train was to con-
vey a prominent Chicago capitalist to
the bedside of his dying son, Philip
McWilliams, in Denver Further, that
hourly bulletins were being wired te
the distressed father and that ever,
effort of science would be put forth t,
keep the unhappy boy alive until hi
father could reach Denver on the spe
cial. Lastly, it was hoped by all th'
evening papers Ito fill out the half frs
column scarce that sunrise would Sc
the anxious parent well on toward tn
gateway Of the Rockies.
! OF course the morning papers from
the Atlantic to the Pacific had tn
2 story repeated-scare headed, in fact
and the public were laughing at ou
2 peoples dogged refusal to confirm th
r report or to be interviewed at all o
D the subject. The papers had the stor
= anyway. What did they care for ou
, efforts to screen private distres
$ which insisted on SO paralyzing tim
card for 1,O26 miles?
e When our own, the west end of th
schedule, came over the wires ther
: was universal, a vociferous, kicl
It Dispatchers, superintendent Of motiv
power. train master, everybody. prt
tested. We were given about seve
percentage, by the way. on the whol
run.
"This may be grief for young NJ,
Williams and for his dad," grumble
the chief dispatcher that evening q
he cribbed the press dispatches goin
over the wires about the special, "br
the grief is not theirs alone"
Then he made a protest to Chicag
What the answer was none but hin
self ever knew. 1t came personal, an
he took it personally. but the manne
in which he went to work clearin
track and making a card for the NJ
Williams Special showed better spec
than the train itself ever attempted
and he kicked no more.
After all the row it seems incredibly
but they never got ready to leave Oh
cago till 4 o'clock, and when the NJ
Williams Special lit into our train sy
TEN 1t was like dropping mountai
lion into bunch of steers.
Freights and extras, local passeng.
trains even, were used to being sid
tracked, but when it came to layin
out the fiers and q whisper this til
White Mail and the Manila express I'll
oil began to sizzle in the journal boxe
The freight business, the passenge
J. traffic, the mail schedules of whol
;, railway system were actually knocl
ed by the McWiHiams Special into
cooked hat.
From the minute it cleared Wester
= avenue it was the only thing talke
. Of. Divisional headquarters and ca
tink shanties alike were bursting wit
excitement.
). On the West End we had all night I
- nraparo and n o'n1ocE pavf tr