The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1907-11-08
The JEALOUSY
OF TIGE

yond question, 'the junior dry goods
box which did duty as a railroad sta
ton was connected with the house
of the station by private telephone.
This telephone was equipped with
bell that could make a noise to put
any peace congress in the shade.
ITO muff1e the sound of this bell 1
stuffed it with paper every night. AS
l was lying on the table one night try.
ing to catch few winks between
trains, every few minutes / would be
awakened by the rattle of the paper
stuffed bell.
Il would answer the phone and the
station agent would declare that he
hadn't been anywhere near the line
and furthermore, if didn't stop dis
turbing him and calling him out of
bed to ask such fool questions he
would come down to the station and
endeavor to change the topography
of my face.
$50 lay down to rest, there being
hiatus in the trains owing to small
freight wreck up the line. But after
brief interval I was awakened by
buzz right by my ear.
Il jumped about 'steen feet when
l discovered that had made my bed
right near the biggest rattlesnake I
had ever seen. He was all curled up
ready to strike. This was what had
been disturbing my rest.
ora hbod hrcp,,, handle ovid ,,ync
going to put him out of business. But
a kindly CLEAN of something in the
snakes eye seemed to fascinate and
deter me from killing the reptile.
Well, sir, do you know that snake
seemed to have degree of intelli-
gence, and as I had more or less ex-
perience in the training of snakes,
having been with travelling circus in
my youth, decided 1 could teach the
reptile so he would be of use to me
in my business.
$50 gave him the high sign and in
few minutes 1 had him charming
mice, with which the little station
was overrun. 1t wasn't many days be-
fore l had broken the snake, whom l
christened Delirium Tremens, so that
he was regular alarm clock.
Il would make up my bed and on
the approach of train the snake
would sound his rattles-he had 13 of
them-and wake me up. I would then
report the train as passing the station
and go back to sleep.
81 never knew old D. T. to fall down
on single train. 1 might have fore
seen, though, that snake with 13 rat
ties was in for an unlucky existence.
Zone day the electric bell on the
highway crossing which warned We
hicles and pedestrians passing along
the road of the approach of a train got
out of order 1t would be some time
before a lineman could make his ap-
pearance and readjust the apparatus.
The station agent was in a pretty
pickle.
"Why,' l said, that's easy. I'll
just put old D. T. up there in the bell
box and he will stay on the works and
do the job up to the handle He did,
too.
There was only one thing which
marred the happiness up there at
Kimbles after 1 adopted the snake as
assistant night operator. The station
agent had a large hound which was
a general facvorite around the sta
ton with the hangers on. But the
wonderful accomplishments of my
trained snake got noised around and
Tige's nose was out of joint.
"He plainly showed that Tremens
was persona non grata with him. How
ever, the dog was a little afraid of
the snake and 1 had no fear that he
would dare to violate the principles
of the Hague conference and mix mat
tiers up.
1.-THE day that Tremens was doing
duty as a crossing bell happened to
be my pay day and strolled down to
the station about noon to get my coin.
1 saw the station agents dog going
along ahead of me with his masters
lunch bucket. 1t was his daily duty
to see that his master got warm
lunch.
GAS Tige happened along by the
crossing bellpost Tremens was just
being relieved from duty, the bell hav.
ing been repaired. When Tige spot.
ted Tremens dropping from the bell
box the green-eyed monster within
him overcame his fright, and letting
his masters pail shift for itself he
made jump for the snake.
"Tremens curled himself up to
strike and succeeded in sticking his
fangs into Tiges neck, but not be-
fore the dog had sunk his teeth into
Tremen's publicity bureau and snap
ped off his 13 rattles. Tremen's dead
ly fangs fixed Tige up all right, and
the dog died before the sun set that
evening.
"That night Tremens was on duty
as usual But he was no longer any
use as assistant night operator. Tige's
teeth had put his fire alarm system on
the blink and he couldn't create any
more of a disturbance than a katydid
In a boiler shop.
"Delirium had intelligence enough