Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1907-02-26
%. BY 80.
FRANK Il. 3EARMAN

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ - -
In his message to all superintendents
thirty minutes later. you will get
your division schedule In few mo-
ments. Send no reasons for inability
to make It. Simply deliver the goods.
With your time report, which comes by
Dy. NJ. g.. want the name and rec.
ord of every member Of every train
crew and every engine crew that hauls
the McWilliams car" Then followed
particular injunctions Of secrecy.
Above aIl. the newspapers must not
get 1t.
But where newspapers are secrecy
can only he 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 column, practi-
cally the whole thing. OF course they
had to guess at some Of II, but for a
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
h'ir raiser. something to make pre-
vious very fast records previous very
slow records. And-here In q scoop
was the secret-the train was to con-
vey q prominent Chicago capitalist to
the bedside Of his dying son. Philip
McWilllams. In Denver. Further. that
hourly bulletins were being wired to
the distressed father and that every
effort Of science would be put forth to
keep the unhappy boy alive until his
father could reach Denver on the spe-
cial. Lastly. 1t was hoped by oil the
evening papers Ito fill out the half first
column scare) that sunrise would see
the anxious parent we'll on toward the
gateway Of the Rockies.
or course the morning papers from
the Atlantic to the Pacific had the
story repeated-scare headed. In fact
and the public were laughing at our
peoples dogged refusal to confirm the
report or to be interviewed Mt all on
the subject. The papers had the story
anyway. What did they care for our
efforts to screen a private distress
which insisted on so paralyzing time
card for 1,O26 miles?
When our own. the west end Of the
schedule. came over the wires there
was a universal, vocifer0us, 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 be grief for young Nc
Williams and for his dad" grumbled
the chief dispatcher that evening rs
he cribbed the press dispatches going
over the wires about the special, but
the grief Is not theirs alone"
Then he made protest to Chicago.
What the answer was none but HIM
self ever knew. II came personal, aud
he took it personally, but the manner
In which he went to work clearing
track and making card for the Nc
Williams Special showed better speed
than the train itself ever attempted.
and he kicked no more.
After all the row 1t seems Incredible,
but they never got ready to leave Chi
cago till 4 o'clock, and when the Nc
williams Special lit into our train sys-
tenn 1t was like dropping a mountain
lion into a bunch Of steers.
Frelghts and extras. local passenger
trains even, were used to being side
tracked, but when II came to laying
out the fllers and q whisper this) the
White Mail and the Manila express the
oil began to slzzle in the journal boxes.
The freight business, the passenger
traffic, the mail schedules OF whole
railway system were actually knock
ed by the McWllllams Special into a
cooked hat.
From the minute 1t cleared Western
avenue 1t was the only thing talked
of. Divisional headquarters and car
tink shanties alike were bursting with
excitement.
On the West End we had all night to
prepare, and at o'clock next morning
every man In the operating department
was on edge. At precisely 1853 a. IN.
the McWillIams Special stuck Its nose
into our division. and FOley-pulled OF
No. ] with the 468-was heading her
dizzy for McCleud. Already the Nc
williams had made up thirty-one min
utes OF the one hour delay in Chicago.
and Lincoln threw her into our hands
with q sort Of "There now. you fel'
lows! Are you any good at all on the
West EndY Aud we thought we were.
Sitting In the dispatcher's office, we
tagged her down the line like swal.
low-Harvard, Oxford. GAINESVILLE. Ash.
ton-and thousand people ut the Nc
Cloud station waited for O o'clock and
for Foley's muddy cup to Oop through
the BlackwOod bluffs, watched him
stain the valley naples with stream
of white and black, scream at the juno
ton switches, tear and crash through
the yards and slide Kissing and pant
ing up under our nose, swing out OF
his cab aud look at nobody at all but
his watch.
We made 1t $50 a. M, Central time;
the miles, 1856: the minutes, 121. The
schedule was beaten and that with the
1876 miles the fastest on the whole
l,O26. Everybody In town yelled ex-
cept Foley. He asked for chew OF
tobacco and. not getting one handiiy.
bit into bis own piece.
While Foley melted bis weed George
Sinclair stepped out Of the superin-
| tendent's ofiice-he was done In
black silk shirt, with blue four-ln'
hand streaming over his frOnt-stepped
out to shake hands with Foley as one
hostler got the 468 out Of the way and
another backed down with a new sky
scraper. the 500.
But nobody paid much attention to
all this. The mob had swarmed around
the ratty, old, blind eyed baggage car
which. with an ordinary way car. con.