The Havre herald. [volume] (Havre, Mont.) 1904-1908, 1907-04-12

OtueI LILIES lley let the STOCKHOLDERS
carry it-until they want it again.
"We'll do what we can, Peter,,' re.
piled the president, desperately anna
BILE. "Goodby."
am giving you only an inkling Of
how it started, not a word as to how
countless orders We're issued and
countless schedules were Cancelled, not
a paragraph about numberless trains
abandoned in toto and numberless 9th
ers pulled and hauled and held and
annulled. The McWilliams Special in a
twinkle tore a great system into great
splinters.
1t set master mechanics by the ears
and made reckless falsifiers of previ-
ously conservative trainmen. It 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 it
covered 1926 miles Of the best steel in
| 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
|
your division schedule in a few mo-
ments. Send no reasons for inability
to make it. Simply deliver the goods.
With your time report, which comes by
Dy NJ. S., want tie 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 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-
tons to preserve Peter McWilliams'
secret-would you believe it?-tbe even
ing papers had half a column, practi-
cally the whole thing. OF course they
had to guess at some of it, but for
newspaper story it 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 very
slow records. And-here in q scoop
was the secret-the train was to con-
vey prominent Chicago capitalist to
the bedside Of his dying son, Philip
McWilliams, 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, it was hoped by all the
evening papers Ito fill out the half first
column scarce that sunrise would see
the anxious parent we'll on toward the
gateway Of the Rockies.
OF 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 logged refusal to confirm the
report or to be interviewed at 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 a time
card for 1,O26 miles?
When our own, the west end of the
schedule, came over the wires there
was a 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 be grief for young Nc
| Williams and for his dad" grumbled
the chief dispatcher that evening as
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. 1t came personal, and
he took it personally, but the manner
In which he went to work clearing
track and making a card for the Nc
Williams Special showed better speed
than the train itself ever attempted,
and he kicked no more.
After all the row it 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 it was like dropping a mountain
lion into a bunch Of steers.
Freights and extras, local passenger
trains even, were used to being side
tracked, but when it came to laying
out the f1iers and Il whisper this) the
White Mail and the Manila express the
oil 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 a
cooked hat
From the minute it cleared Western
avenue it was the only thing talked
Of. Divisional headquarters and car
tink shanties alike We're bursting with
excitement.
On the West End we had all night to
prepare, and at o'clock next morning
| ,,,o,, i1 thu fsop donarfrp