The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1910-09-03
CH!TF ENGINEER E. J. PEARSON
PREDICTS AN EARLY RE.
NEWAL or TRAFFIC.
DESCRIBES CONDITIONS
Affe' Ten Days at Front in Midst Of
Fire Swept District. Big Man Has
Good Story 10 TelI--Praises Mar.
shalI, .arrott, Lanning and Eno.
nccrs--fcroic Performances.

Chief Eng ~, }. Pearson Of tile
Chicago, milwaukee, II Puget Sound
Arrived IN Missoula yesterday after "A
campaign ~ ~ days III the field where
hc has been IN general supervision Of
The reconstruction work III the tire
swept district. The road. Mr. Pearson
predicts, viii ~ open by Tuesday
night, despite the fact that throughout
fhc Bitter Root mountains practicall,
every bridge was rendered mpassab..
by the flames ana the line 20 crippled
that supplies ana men had to be taken
INTO the burned-over country by wac-
on. over road which had not been
used for three years and which was 20
blocked by fallen trees as to lie prac.
Ideally mpassable.
Traifiniastcr j. u. Hood IN In charge
of the work on the west and has been
!. pushing the crews on that front to
the limit. while Assistant General SUI
pcrintendent II. H. Barrett has been
handling the reconstruction work from
this front. Both of these men," said
Mr.. Pearson have done admirable work
and eeo much cannot be said for them"
Trainmaster Hood.
Trainmaster Hood was ut Haugan
when the fires became serious. ~
soon as the flames began to threaten
the town he took personal charge and
made UP Il train on which he took
everybody out Of the threatened town
10 safety. When he had removed all
VI the people I'm the district he went
back and pulled cut !. trainload Of mer-
chandise and II couple of trains of oil
cnrs. He did not leave until the very
last minute, and his efforts To save
Tile town were unceaslng until the limit
Il human possibilities had been
passed.
The next morning. just us soon as
the violence of the flames had sub
sided little, Mr.. Hood pushed ahead
through the fire swept district to the
west front and from that end has been
doing two mems work ever since In
guiding the work of reconstruction.
e. n. Barrett.
Mr.. Barrett left for the front Just
sts soon az the SERIOUS state Of af.
fairs became known. From this cna
he has been supervising the rebuilding
with u vigilance which mas aided won
dcrfully In getting the road into sllap.
THAT fire was terrible" said Mr.
Pearson last night. III swept that
country clean. There never had been
anything like it before. but II 1t hau
not caught US just ut the wrong min
ute we would have been all right"
The Puget Sound was right In the
midst Of It's work of making the
bridges along the road permanent when
ti,,n a.
had practically been finished. and the
work OF slncing and liiing the wooden
bridges would have been completed
ipXt spring. Had tho fire come two
weeks later The damage would have
amounted to almost nothing.
Remarkable Performance.
As II Is, the men who have been in
charge Of the reconstruction work have
done remarkably well. To ges IL rail
road so efieetuaIy crippled. as was
the Puget Sound the morning after
the fire had swept over 1t, into run
ming order again I'm tlrce weeks Is an
accomplishment which Is nearly un-
believab1e. IT was practically impos-
sfblc - get supplies In to the crews
OF men along the read, and the work
could be done only under great diff
eulties.
The unusual liberality of the road In
the way of permanent structures would
ha,e made suth IA complete tie-up inn
possible Il few weeks later. II is un-
usual for a railroad 10 replace its tenn
porary work so soon with permanent
structures and 1t seems the Irony of
fate that the Puget Sound should have
met with disaster when permanent
bridges would have been I'm place all
along the road In so short time.
Mr., Pearson's experience In the af-
fectcd country has extended over
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