Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-11-22

empty seats at the shock burying his
nose in the whiskers of an old cattle
man, who was lying senseless in the
aisle.
| They used to sue us-yes. But
lthey never got anything. Conductors
used to knock down fares till it's
wonder to me some of 'em amt il
Wall street bucking Morgan. 1 re-
member one chap, Bill Blank, who
used to do the braid-on-t -the-cap busi-
ness in the coaches. 1 pulled Bill out
on his first run. When we got back
to St Louis after the round trip, Bill
shelled out his punched tickets, and
was moving off, when they called him
back.
where's the cash collections? p
called the big fellow behind the rail-
! ing
Collections, HI shouted Bill;
you got your d-m old train back
didn't you?
Il forgot the name of that big chap
but he came over the railing and
punched Bill's face into stewed beef
| L amt a-going to fire you he said to
Bill, but if you don't bring in wad
here after that extra run, I'll make
cats feed of you all over And 1 guess
Bill did, for he was conductor on that
division-oh, I reckon for twelve or
fifteen years.
You see Bill had a way with him,
both with the ladies and the rough
necks. He could smile at the prettiest
woman that ever tried to travel a
hundred miles on a six-mile ticket
he could smile her into digging down
in her purse and pay him full fare and
the 10 per cent overcharge for not
having bought her ticket through.
And him for II
with the roughnecks that had
about a gallon of squirrel whisky be-
tween 'em and wouldn't pay, Bill
would tip the bottle to his tongue.
blow some bubbles through the
rotgut, get crying drunk and 'em
old pals, tell 'em how he'd lose his
job, and how his wife, mother, moth
er-in-law, and seven children would be
thrown into the street if he did lose
it-and they'd pay fares and most
likely take up a collection for him.
bill always did have that durndest
way with him. Once, years ago, on
that old Missouri run, we passed a
train coming east that had some swell
road guys aboard from st. Louis. The
westbound train they were on had to
wait half an hour for us, and while
they waited, one of these chaps
president, vice president, or something
got out of the special car and walk
ed uptown to a saloon. We passed
'em and at the next stop Bill got a
wire, saying: Find Mr. Bosun, on
your train, drunk, and send him back
in caboose No. 26" Twenty-six was
a freight that we had to pass twelve
miles ahead
well, Bill went through the train.
looking for the man, Bosun, who was
drunk He'd never seen Bosun in his
life. He rounded up just twenty one
drunken men on that train, with only
about a half dozen who knew they
had any names. All this time we were
hitting it up to make schedule to the
place where we passed 26. AS we
pulled into the Station Bill had tele-
gram for the passenger that was wait
ing about eighteen miles back. ii
read something like this:
"'Got twenty-one BoSunS ABROAD.
Which one do you want?'
Then he gave me the bell and we
pulled out for home. / don't know
whether they ever found Bosun or
not. You see Bosun had taken few
in town, then jumped our train on the
run.
Now, all that. as I said before, was
railroading. 1t amt like it is these
days Wnen people lIdNSillS "dht ~
be overfed and amused and enter
tanned in palace cars. In my day you
couldn't entertain a passenger. He
had to be awful reckless, or awful
drunk, If he could get rid of a laugh.
He didn't know what minute we'd
go into the ditch. He hadn't guess
coming whether we'd make a division
run of $50 miles inside the schedule
of six hours, or whether we'd get there
in twenty-six hours. The hardest
worked men on the road in those
DAYS were the crews Of the wrecking
trains-and we had a dozen of them
to a division.
II don't wonder that nowadays the
passenger gets bored and tired on the
rails. He sits in a sort of parlor, hard
ly feels that it's moving, don't see
anything that's worth while any more,
so that after all day of it he hates the
sight of most of his fellow passengers.
All he thinks of is whether he's go
ing to get in on time-and if he don't
maybe he has dollar an hour coming
to him at the terminal.
Just look at EN-" he said. turning
to the still full and filling counters of
the downtown ticket office, they're
asking seven questions to the dollar.
In the old depot ticket office 1 used
to know seven relatives were crying
on the shoulder Of one traveller who
was going sixty miles-crying because
they never hoped to see him alive
again!
"As 1 said, this sort of stuff makes
me tired. d."-Chicago Tribune.