The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1908-08-15

- With a shovel in a 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 If it has been worth while.
David Gable was a general manager.
He had been q fireman. 1t had required
twenty-five years of hard work on his
part to break through the chrysalis.
Packed away in a chest upstairs in his
house there was a grimy, greasy. un-
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 him 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
heal his wife sniff contemntnnnslv
David Gable had been a hayward,
venturesome youth. His father and
mother had built their hopes high with
him as a foundation, and he had proved
a decidedly insecure basis, for one
night In the winter Of 1863 he stole
away from his home In New York.
Before spring he was lighting in the
far southland. a 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 n 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 f|aithfulness won
him a ireman's place on one Of the
fast New York Central runs" If ever
he was dissatisfied with the work, no
one was the wiser.
Railroadlng in those days was not
what 1t is In these advanced times.
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, rlbald companions Of the rail,
and he glided moderately into the bad
habits of his kind. He drank and
Ito oboIodw Nth fbo roet % tbo hove.
but, by nature not being vicious and
low, the Influences were not hopelessly
d~eadenlng 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
was well up in the twenties that 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 attractiyeness.
Not many doors from the ~boisterous
little eating house in which the rail
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 II
wal there she brought her little girls
to womanhood. Good looking. harum
scarum Dave Cable saw Frances Cole
man n evening as he dropped in Ia
purchase a newspaper. 1t was at the
end Of June, in 1876, and the country
was In the throes Of excitement ovei
the first news Of the Custer massacre
on the Little Big Horn river.
Cable was deeply interested, for be
had seen Custer fighting at the from
in the sixties. Frances Coleman, tht
prettiest girl he had ever seen, sold
him the newspaper. After that, h,
seldom went through Albany withou.
visiting the little book shop.
Tempestuous, even arrogant in love
Cable, once convinced that he cared fol
her, lost no time in claiming her
whether or no. In less than three
months after the Custer massacre thel
were married.
Defeated rivals unanimously and en-
yiouslv observed that the handsomes
fireman on the road had conquered TIL
most outrageous little coquette be
tween New York and Buffalo. AS
matter Of fact, she had loved hin
from the start; the others served a
thorns with which she delighted,
pricked his heart into subsection.
The young husband settled down, re
nounced all Of his undesirable habit
and became a new man with such SUI
prislng s~uddenness that bis friend
marTeled and-derided a year Q
happiness followed. He grew accus