Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1909-08-25
CAP'N. BILLY SMITH.
The Veteran Conductor is Yet on the
Job-SOme "Reminiscences.
columbia State.)


Perhaps the oldest passenger train
conductor, continuously in active ser
vice, in the United States Is Capt.
"Billy" Smith, who for more than so
years has had the run on the South
ern road between Columbia and
Greenville. On his sleeve are ten
chevrons, each stripe representing
five years honorable service.
Capt. Billy" as he is affection
ately called by the railroad en-
ployees and by thousands Of passen-
gers who have come to know him in
travelling over the road, is approach
ing 80 years of age. yet no detail Of
a conductors duty escapes him. In
his long service he has especially en-
deared himself to the lady passengers
who travel over his line. The old
gentleman always makes 1t his busi-
ness to see personally to the COM
fort and convenience OF the passen-
gers, and no one who has ever rid
den with him has been carried past
station by mistake.
On his train there is no indistin-
guishable yell that nobody under
stands except the yeller thereof.
When Capt. Billy goes through the
train every passenger knows what
the next station is, and at functions
he is particularly careful to make
the train connections known. This
is one reason why ladies like to ride
on his train. They don't make any
mistakes.
!. i. !.
Capt. Smith is one of the first men
to run on the Southern road. He
has had the one run, from Columbia
to Greenville, for more than half
century. His "reminiscences of old
time railroading are extremely inter-
estjng and entertaining. He was
running a train before the war and
he tells of incidents that occurred
before Secession was declared. On
enc occasion, the day before South
Carolina seeded, he was standing on
Main street In Columbia, and there
was a great crowd in front of the
Nicholson Hotel, calling for Senator
Chestnut. The war fever ran high,
and Senator Chestnut was one Of
the leaders who famed 1t. The Sen
ator appeared on the balcony and
made a speech in which he declared
that South Carolina would secede
hn Int hot No
right and its cause would prevail.
''The Northern people" he said, "are
too busy making money to go to
war; If an army Is raised 1t will be
an army of the rabble and the slums
They will not fight. One regiment
of South Carolina soldiers can whip
a ten-acre lot full of them. can
drink all the blood that will be shed
in the war with the North. Go in,
boys, and win fame and glory" That
is the way Capt. Billy tells 1t.
He says he was standing on the
street near where the skyscraper now
is and heard the speech. Capt. Billy
was not in favor of the war, and said
to himself, You know not what you
say But, Capt. Billy was an in
tense Southern partisan, just the
same, and Is to-day a good deal of
un 'unreconstructed Rebel" The
other day when he carried the mill
tia on his train he could not recon-
cile himself to the sight of soldiers
from the South carrying the bag that
half a century ago was carried In the
van Of the forces that laid waste in
his State.
!. /. i.
Capt. Billy told how, when the
Southern soldiers returned after the
war, the women at the various sta
tions along the road from here to
Greenville prepared tables filled with
things good to eat, and dressed the
soldiers wounds. tn veterans way
of telling about these things is in
teresting in the extreme.
He told of one soldier who had
eight children and an invalid wife.
lie had come home on a furiough to
see his family, and had done some
work to get them provisions, and he
knew to go back to the army meant
starvation for them. He overstaye /
his time, and the provost came after
him and compelled him to return
with them Shackled. When the
train they were on reached Colum-
bia this man in desperation, mana