The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1907-01-19
The Mail for FairpIay
BY cHAs. w. cUNo.

wen, SIT, says "Hee Haw'
Smith, as he came into the scale
house and knocked the mud from his
shoes, while the weighmaster was
out taking a check of the "cut'
tnote-a train of cars), "did l ever
tell ye how we took the United States
mail to Fairplay?"
Nav" says easy Money Haw-
kins, mot as l can recollect of 'thout
referrin' to my notebook"
''Tell it." says Bill.
Gimme a chew" "Hee Haw" says
kind of p~romiscous like, sitting
down on the keg and pulling out his
jack knife.
Both Bill and easy Money"
pulled out a plug, but 'Hee Haw"
took easy Moneys" it was big
ger.
"Do you know" says he, "what old
Happy Cal used to say about bitin'
often his plug of tobacco?"
"Naw," says Easy" mot as p.
"Well," says "Hee Haw' inter
rupting, zeal used to say he'd a heap
rather ye'd bite often his plug than
pinch it off with yer fingers, cause
ye cud get yer fingers in lots Of
dirtier places than We could yer
teeth"
"Aw," says Bill, 'let's hear about
the mail fer Fairplay. Don't believe
ye ever went there"
"Shure," says "Hee Haw" paying
no attention to this slur upon his
~veracity, as he returned the much
diminished plug to easy" cit was
this way" he continued, slowing the
Inv IN ms iieii cheek and splitting
on the stove. 81 was working fol
the D. L. & G. in '83, when along
bout November it began to snow.
Great ROOSEVELT How it did snow!
Ye know what a jerkwater road the
ID. J., & G. was anyway, showed in
bout half the time in winter. Well,
it was the worst winter we ever had
for snow. Did ye ever buck snow,
you fellers?"
"Buck snow" says EASY Money"
"Why, back on the Pan Handle"
"Pan Handle" sneered "Hee
Haw," "why, iumpin' toothache.
man, what does the Pan Handle
know about snow? Pan Handle
Why, man, there's more snow on one
mile of the D. L. & G.. on Boreas
hill than there is on the whole thou
sand miles Of the Pan Handle"
go on" says Bill. Lets heal
about the mail"
AS | was sayln' says "Hee
Haw," shifting his chew to the other
cheek, "there'd come an awful snow.
1t was all we could do to keep the
main line open and a side spur like
that from Como to Fairplay the com.
pany didn't aim to keep open nohow.
But they didn't reckon on the Unit
ed States government. The road
had been tied up for about three
weeks when some official in Washing
ton with a hot walnut under his col
lar began to stir things up.
There's a sack Of mail in Denver
for Fairplay," he t~elegraphs to the
general manager. "'Why don't the
D. L. & G. deliver it?"
"Buck was the general manager
then. He sits down and telegraphs
back: Showed in Showed in be
"Snowed,"' SEES the official at Wash
ington, the mails got to be deliy-
ered,' ses he.
"Buck laughs when he gets the
telegram, and thinks that's about
the end of it, but it waren't. That
pesky official comes all the way from
Washington to Denver to see about
that mail, and when he walks into
Bucks Office, Buck knowed it was
up to hiA to do something.
"He sits down and t~elegraphs to
Como: Send crew Of 81 with snow
pillow and three engines to Fairplay
with the United States mall
E~ighty-one; that was us. We just
come in from Leadville with a train
load of iron ore, buckin' snow all
the way for IA hours, but that didn't
matter. 1t was go or get canned,
so we went.
eve got out the snow pillow and
the engines and hitched on a ca
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