The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1908-08-17

fine layout, I says
to Hank Simms, In the next bunk.
How under the canopy do they ex-
pect a man to sleep, buildin' a bunk
shanty right near a sawmill?'
sawmill nothin'l' says Hank.
That's Jerry Day. the new fiagman
for Archie Dunn, snorin' over in the
trainmens bunk room. Amt he a
pippin?
II that anti-noise society gets hep
to him. says, they'll hotfoot him out
OF this community instRnter
There was no more sleep for us
that afternoon, so we got up and sat
in hot game Of pinochle.
Jerry Day was flrst out with
Archie Dunn that evenin' on the first
7s n was second out on second 70,
freight runnin' so heavy them days
that they were runnin' the fast
freights in two or three sections.
When 1t came time for us to leave
the freight yards the fog was so thick
you couldn't shoot holes into 1t with
a machine gun, | tell you / was
mighty cautious goin over the Jersey
meadows, moYin' along on only about
two notches Of steam on the throttle
Pretty soon on the heavy air
heard a sawmill goin' full blast.
Strange says to myself, that
they're runnin' a sawmill in these
parts this time of the night
There was a peculiar sound to that
sawmill that I'd heard before
All Of a sudden it came over me like
a fash what it was. That's that green
fiagman Of Archie Dunn's, It came to
me; he's Just hidin' his red lantern
under bushel Of snores while his
train is stalled
"sS quicker'n deaf n dumb man
can say Jack Robinson got my en-
gine in back motion. couldn't see
thing, but from the sound Of that
foghorn ahead we'd stopped about a
caboose length this side Of that warn
In snore.
"The fog shifted for a minute n
there was the tail lights Of Archie
Dunn's eaboose almost restin on the
nose Of my cowcatcher. It was
lucky thing for me that / had recog-
nized the deep s9ore Of that flagman.
Mebhe | didn't climb onto that ca
boose n give that new hand a brief
n pointed speech on the rules n reg
ulations Of sleepin' on duty, especial
ly dwellin' on the necessity Of the flag
man totin' his red n white lights II
telegraph poles back when his train
stopped on the main track.
"A week or so after that | was sec
ond out again behind Archie Dunn
An It was just such foggy night as
the one | was speakin' Of before. Sher-
lock Holmes himself couldn't pene-
trate the density of that Jersey mead
ow mist.
i was movin' along again under
two speeds forward, keepin my weath-
er goggles trimmed for trouble ahead
Just as sure as you're born, over the
meadows there came to me again that
40 sawmill power snore OF Archie
Dunn's rear guard. So says to my
self. MY little heart-to-heart talk with
that fagrnan bore no fruit, eh7 Well
I'll just give him a little bump this
time n see what little scare win do
for him.
You can just imagine l was pret-
ty warm under the collar. comm up
on that feller snoozin' on the breast
works twice in two weeks. I kept
gettin' closer n closer to the snore.
but there didn't come along any hind
end for me to bump into.
Il got a little scared myself then
thinkin mebbe I might hit EN- too
hard so I sot up in the air n we
swung to under the lee Of that warn.
In snore. Well, now, mebbe | hadn't
made up my mind to write up a round
robin on that careless fagman Of
Archie Dunn's.
we laid there a few minutes. with
that feller snorin, me jawin to my.
self n mebbe envyin' him just a lit
ie Of his sound sleep, when ali at
once the fog cleared away as If 1t had
been sent for. You could have bowled
me over with a toothpickl Scan that
track ahead Of me as far as | could
see straight across the meadows I
could detect no tail lights of train
ahead. But off to the right in the
fields was really IA truly sawmill
merrily on the works which was prob
ably workin overtime on some little
extra job
Now say, mebbe ! didn't feel as
cheap as pair of ice skates in the
summer time. l nearly got laid of for
ten days myself for delayin' that fast
freight However, can truly say
that / have never been 40 fooled he.