The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-07-27

with shovel In 4 loco
motive cab usually has something OF
that sort to look back upon. There are
no roses along the pathway he has
traversed. In the end, perhaps, he
wonders IL 1t has been worth while.
David Gable was a general manager.
He had been a fireman. 1t had required
twenty-fi years OF hard work on his
part to break through the chrysalis
Packed away IN chest upstairs in his
wholesome suit Of once blue overalls.
The garments were just as old as his
railroad career, for he had worn them
on his first trip with the shovel. When
his wife implored ham to throw away
the "detestable things" he said. with
characteristic humor, that he thought
he would keep them for a rainy day.
1t was much simpler to go from gen
eral manager to fireman than vice
versa, and it might be that he would
need the suit again. 1t pleased him to
hear his wife sniff contemptuously.
David Cable had been a wayward.
venturesome youth. His father and
mother had built their hopes high with
him as foundation. and he had proved
a decidedly insecure basis, for one
night in the winter OF 1858 he stole
away from his home in New York.
Before spring he was fighting in the
far southland, boy Of sixteen carry
ing a musket in the service Of his
country.
At the close of the civil war Private
Gable, barely eighteen. returned to his
home. only to find that death had de-
stroyed its happiness. His father had
died, leaving his widowed mother a de-
pendent upon him. 1t was then philo-
sophically he realized that labor alone
could win for him, and he stuck to 1t
with rigid integrity. In turn he be-
came brakeman and fireman. Finally
his determination and faithfulness won
him a f1remans place on one of the
fast New York Central runs" If ever
he was dissatisfied with the work, no
one was the wiser.
Railroading in those days was not
Then 1t meant that one was possessed
OF all the evil habits that fall to the
lot of man. David Gable was more or
less contaminated by contact with his
rough, rfbald companions Of the rail,
and he glided moderately into the bad
habits Of his kind. He drank and
"gamboled" with the rest Of the boys;
but, by nature not being vicious and
low, the Influences were not hopelessly
deadening to the better qualities of his
character. To his mother he was al
ways the strong, good hearted, manly
boy, better than all the other sons In
the world. She believed in him. He
worshiped her, and It was not until he
stopped to think that she was not the
only good woman in the world who de-
served respect.
Up in Albany lived the Widow Cole
man and her two pretty daughters.
Mrs. Coleman's husband died on the
battlefield, and she. like many women
in the north and the south, after years
of moderate prosperity was compelled
to support herself and her family. She
had been a pretty woman, and one
readily could see where her daughters
got their personal attractiveness.
Not many doors from the boisterous
road men snatched their meals as they
went through. the widow opened a
book and news stand. Her home was
on the floor above the stand, and it
was there she brought her little girls
to womanhood. Good looking, harum
scarum Dave Cable saw Frances Cole
man one evening as he dropped in to
purchase newspaper. 1t was at the
end of June, in 1876, and the country
was in the throes of excitement over
the first news of the Custer massacre
on the Little Big Horn river.
Gable was deeply interested, for he
had seen Custer fighting at the front
in the sixties. Frances Coleman, the
prettiest girl he had ever seen, sold
him the newspaper. After that, he
seldom went through Albany without
visiting the little book shop.
Tempestuous, even arrogant in love,
Cable. once convinced that he cared for
| her, lost no time In claiming her,
whether or no. In less than three
| months after the Custer massacre they
were married.
Defeated rivals unanimously and en-
fireman on the road had conquered the
| most outrageous little coquette be-
tween New York and Buffalo. AS a
matter Of fact, she had loved him
from the start; the others served as
| thorns with which she delightedly
| pricked bis heart into subsection
/ The young husband settled down, re-
| nounced all OF his undesirable habits
and became new man with such sur
| prising suddenness that his friends
marveled and-derided. A year OF
happiness followed He grew accus-
toned to her frivolous ways, over
looked her merry whimsicalities and
| gave her the full length of free
rope" as he called 1t. He was con-
tented and consequently careless. She
chafed under the indifference and In bel
resentment believed the worst OF him
Turmoil succeeded peace and content
ment, and In the end David Gable
driven to distraction, weakly aban'
doned the domestic battlefield and fed