The San Francisco call., 1908-05-15
Gossip of RaiIwaymen

! OVOOtk atsbft
| A stalwart young man has been
| haunting the Flood building for the
| past week with long bill of damages
! for ruin to boots and garments He
contends that on the day the fleet
sailed into San Francisco he wore new
| clothes and new shoes; that they are ir-
revocably ruined through the contents
of a lunch basket; that he failed to
obtain satisfaction from the Key Route,
but was referred by the management to
| j. NJ Brewer, freight claim agent of
! the Southern Pacific. Brewer saws he
! is innocent of the charge and were he
not a railroadman he would bring suit
against the Key Route for injury to
his health by having to starve all day
on Goat island. Brewer has this to saw:
Il will not mention any names. for
the subject is too painful to the parties
concerned. Let this suffice great
friend of mines who is profound
scholar and knows rates better than
any man in the west, decided that his
family and mine should see the fleet
enter from Goat island. He went to
great expense in preparing a lunch of
chocolate cakes, fried chicken. salads.
white and red wine, whisky and other
necessaries A part of his family won't
with me on the Southern Pacific, while
the lunch basket, he and portion of
his family went on the Key Route.
He lost his wife and child, and in
stead found on his hands a strange
baby and a strange lady in his wild
scramble to get aboard Key Route
train In the awful fight to prevent
being smothered to death, or crushed
into a jelly. he also lost the lunch bas-
ket. The young man wants me to
pay for a suit of clothes he declares
was spoiled by stepping into my choco-
late cake and wading through my river
of claret, Sauterne, whisky and cham
pagne, while ] was out a lunch, for my
friend never got to Goat island at all,
but had to restore the strange lady and
her baby to distracted husband"
A concern in this city manufacturing
fiavoring and perfumery extracts has
applied for a lower rate on it's products
to the east. This is done because the
firm claims that it's products are now
being sold by $4,000 to 10000 druggists
in the United States and in every large
town from the Pacific to the Atlantic
This is an illustration of the demand
throughout the east for any article
labeled California" The rate at the
present on this class is $1.35 per 100
pounds less than carload The appli-
cation is for a rate Of 81, which latter
rate was formerly in effect and aided
the manufacturers in building up this
trade which they control throughout
the eastern states
A well known passengerman was
pitying an officer of the torpedo boat
destroyer Hopkins on his cramped
quarters aboard and comparing the
luxury of travelling on a railroad train
with that on the Hopkins.
Luxury on railroad train" retorte6
the officer; why, you talk like rail-
roadman Let me tell you If you want
real comfort travel on a torpedo boat
destroyer. Could you have this on a
railroad car?
when we were off Cape Horn we
ran into loose ice and replenished our
supply without it costing a cent. Then,
when we were near the Galapagos
group we got into a school of turtles
turtle soup for weeks.
When we stopped at any South
American or Central American port we
were treated to banquets with seven
kinds of wine
I'll get all that. won't l, when 1
cross the continent in one of Harri-
mans fiiers, eh?'
Any menagerie wanting to fill out
its list of curiosities with ant eaters
can apply to the beet sugar growers
of Lamar, Colo, and will be able to Sc
cure 20> of these interesting creatures
1t appears that the ant is the greatest
enemy the beet sugar growers in that
state have to fight. and in order to
overcome the pest they sent for 20 of
these animals from Rio Janeiro They
came by express via FL Paso, but so
great a time elapsed in their reaching
destination that the growers decided
not to take them. A suit is likely to
grow out of the shipment. as the ex-
press companies have no use for ant
eaters, and insist that the growers
must take them, and also find them
ants to eat while a settlement is
reached.
The Rock Island railway has made
a traffic agreement which will enable
it to give quick water and rail freight
service into Colorado from Atlantic
seacoast points.
Under the new arrangement it will
with the Seaboard Air line
Providence, Philadelphia and other
ports. The Seaboard Air line has an
Is hour steamship service between New
York and Norfolk, from where the rail-
road tracks of the company run to Bir-
At Birmingham connections
are made with the Rock Island Frisco
lines.
E. II. Hartman. by acquiring the
Central of Georgia and the Illinois
Central. has also a through line into
E. E. Calvin, vice president and gem
eraI manager Of the Southern Pacific,
is expected home in the early part of
next week.