The Daily Missoulian., 1909-07-30
NEWS OF THE RAIL
FOR A DAY
RECENT HAPPENINGS OF LOCAL
INTEREST IN THE RAIL-
ROAD WORLD.

Traffic on both the Northern Pa
/ c1flc and the Puget Sound was notice.
4 ably lighter yesterday and no trou-
\ bic was encountered at all in
! getting the crowds in and out of town.
Whether the big rush has spent it.
I sell or whether there is merely q
slight decline in the force Of it, is a
i question, but one fact remains, that
the crowds have lessened appreciably.
! The trains ran in double sections as
usual yesterday but the big lam
around the ticket windows and on
the platforms was not noticeable and
things were comparatively quiet On
the Puget Sound the travel was very
llght and within couple of weeks the
rush has deprecated by almost half
The Spokane people are having a
railroad sensation which is wonder
these days and 1t begins to look at
lastas if the Puget Sound might en-
ter the Inland Empire capital Ever
since the road built it's lines past
Spokane without entering the city
there has been no end to the talk as
to just what the road intended do
ing. Now some mysterious person has
been buying property in the railroad
district in large pieces and the people
of the city are beginning to think that
perhaps the road is to enter the city
Every day, almost sees lot more
property in the district bought up and
already the buyer, whoever it is. has
enough land for good sized yards. The
latest story denies the Milwaukee the
credit fer the work and gives it to
the Hill roads, the argument advanced
being that the Great Northern and the
Northern Pacific want to build al
Union station there. Whatever ii is,
the Spokane people are pretty much
excited over the mystery and it be-
gins to look as if things would be
stirring in the town pretty soon. 1t
is not likely that the Puget Sound will
pass the city by altogether aud # it
is that road which is doing the buy
ing the hopes of the Spokane people
in this regard will be gratified at
last.
sunny Jim Brown has returned to
his duties again after a fishing trip
up the Bitter Root, bringing with him
big string Of trout and bigger /
string Of valuable information. Brown
got q good mess Of fish, that is
habit he has, and all day long yes
tarday he was busy telling about it,
The string OF INFORMATION. however, is
the more interesting and the railroad
men are busy fitting themselves out
according to the advice given them
for Jim is an ardent follower Of the
sanity Isaac and an expert in all
things pertaining to fish. He reports
that the gray hackle" was also a
favorite, especially in the morning.
Sunny Ji1ns' trip will start an ex- 4
odus of railroaders for the valley and
with his advice trout should L
be plentiful along the right-of-
The Northern Pacific local offices
received the first shipment of some
very valuable and efficient little book
let's yesterday and they are being dis
tributed. The little booklet is copy
give the railroad rules alone but the
whole set of state laws regarding the
of the public health. 1t
IS Iull OF interesting information ana
is one of the most practical which the
road has published in a long while.
These are easy times compared
to what we got a year ago." said a
Northern Pacific man the other day as
a big brakeman of the "boomer" type
stepped into the office for his time
"Then the country was full of these
boomers and many an exciting time
I've had with them too. I would go
home at night with the call-board full
of names and then when / would come
back there would not be a single one
there. Everyone scattered off be-
cause the boomers refused to work
We had to hire a hundred new men
every day and out of the hundred we
would probably get one good one. Now
we don't have to get any new men to
speak of and there is scarcely ever any
trouble. In the office here we all had
a club handy and / saw a clerk here
one day smash the glass in the door
there with big brake stick trying
to hit boomer who got too gay.
Them was the happy days for sure