The Newark journal., 1908-06-12
S N OR Z AN .
SAW wi Ill
How the Fat Engineer Was Fooied
by the UnmusicaI Flagnan

start / cOuld near d saw mn S"tN
TO beat the band.
Now that's a fine layout, ! says
to Hank Simms in the next bunk.
How under the canopy do they eX-
pect man to sleep. buildin' a bunk
shanty right near sawmill?'
'Sawmill notkin!' says Hank.
That's Jerry Day. the new flagman
for Archie Dunn, snorin' over In the
trainmens bunk room. Amt he
pippin?'
If that anti-noise society gets next
to him. | says, they'll hotfoot him out
Of this community instanter
There was no more sleep for us
that afternoon, SO we got up and sat
in hot game of pinochle.
Jerry Day was first out with Archie
Dunn that evenin' on the first 10 n
was second out on second 79, freight
runnin so heavy them days that they
we're runnin' the fast freights In two
or three sections.
When it 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, movin' along on only about
notches of steam on the throttle.
Pretty soon on the heavy air I
heard sawmill goin' full blast.
Strange | says to myself, that
they're running 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 fash
what it was. That's that green flag
man of Archie Dunn's,' it came to me;
he's just hidin' his red lantern under
bushel of snores while his train is
stalled on the main track
80 quicker'n a deaf n dumb man
can say Jack Robinson | got my engine
in back motion I couldn't see a thing,
but from the sound of that foghorn
ahead we'd stopped about caboose
length this side of that warnin' snore.
THE fog shifted for minute n
there was the tail lights of Archie
Dunn's caboose almost restin on the
right of my coweatcher It was a
lucky thing for me that | had reeog-
nized the deep snora of that flagman.
"Mebbe | didn't climb onto that ca
boose n give that new hand brief
N pointed speech on the rules n regu-
1ations of sleepin on duty, especially
dwellin' on the necessity of the flag
man totin' his red n white lights II
telegraph poles back when his train
stopped en- the main track.
second out again behind Archie Dunn.
An 1t was just such foggy night as
the one | was spealzin' of before She
rock Holmes himself couldn't pene-
trate the density of that mist.
Il was moyin' along again under two
speeds forward. keepin my weather
goggles trimmed for trouble ahead.
Just as sure as you're born there
came to me again that 40-sawmill-pow-
er snore of Archie Dunn's rear guard.
so says to myself: My little heart
to-heart talk with that fiagman bore no
fruit. Ell? Well. I'll GUST give him lit
tie bump this time n see what little
scare will do him.
You can just imagine | was pretty
warm under the collar, comm up on
that Teller snoozin' on the breastworks
twice in two weeks. | kept getting
closer n closer TO the snore, but
there didn't come along any hind end
for me to bump into.
Il got little scared myself, then,
thinkin' mebbe might hit EN- too hard.
so / sot up in the air n we swung
under the lee of that warnin' snore.
Well, now, mebbe | hadn't made up
my mind TO write up round robin on
that careless fagman of Archie
Dunn's.
You bet what I would say in my
report would end his usefulness to the
railroad. | hadn't reported him the
first time, thinkin he was young n
new to the business, relyin' on my lit
tile talk to reform him. But it was all
ION now. Discipline required that /
must make written report.
I'VE laid there few minutes, with
that Teller snorin', me jawin' to myself
n mebbe envyin' him just little OF
his sound sleep. when all at once the
fog cleared away as IL it had been sent
for You could have bowled me over
with a toothpick, Scan that track
ahead of me as far as l could see,
could detect no tail lights of train
ahead But off to the right in the
fields was really truly sawmill, prob.
ably worxin overtime on some little
extra job.
Nov. say, mebbe I didn't feel as
cheap as a pair of ice skates In the
summer time. | nearly got laid of
for ten days myself for delayin' that