Omaha daily bee., 1910-08-07
On THE TRAIL OF LOST CARS
Task of Tracing Hobo Freight Car,
Over Miles of Track.
SOME THRILLS OF THE CHASE
Twists and Turns of Elusive vehicle
OFT send the Hunter 60 the
Padded Cell.

Twists and Turns of Elusive Vehicle
OFT send the Hunter to the
Padded Cell.
In the Union Pacific car service depart
ment the documents In this case make a
paper monument more imposing than that
which was upbuilt with all the deeds per-
tanning to the purchase of the whole line
by Hartman Yet this is a simple little
case OF one empty box car that strayed,
got lost, and was stolen.
In the Northern Pacific car service de-
partment there's a similarly imposing shaft
of documents relating to that same lost,
strayed, and stolen box car.
The documents, include, principally,
letters written by the two roads at the
time the car disappeared. The tale has
its beginning in the flood that brought
devastation to Kansas City three years
ago. In that deluge a freight train Of
twenty cars. caboose and ALL was washed
from the tracks a short distance out Of
the city.
The cars were mostly empties. and all
except one Of them were afterward found,
more or less unroofed, undoored. and un-
trucked, lying thus amputated and scat
tered over a square mile of Kansas land
soape
The one missing car, an empty, re-
manned missing, despite the efforts of the
parties that secured the country in quest
OF It. with their noses to the ground. That
oar was the property Of the Unnion Pa
cific, and the road responsible for its re-
turn to its owner was the Northern Pa
cific.
gAaN
Whereupon, the Hartman people. in ac-
cordance with number three Of the Per
Diem rules for car service, made formal
demand for the return of their car:
Thirty days passed without sign Of
the lost car. And now, again in accord
ance with rule three the Union Pacific
notified the Northern Pacific that 1t was
liable to a payment of rs cents 4 day in
addition to the regular per diem charge
of IS cents.
Three months slipped by. BY that time
the car service departments Of both lines
had grown so literary, and had acquired
SO deeply the letter-wrting habit. that
great sheaves Of correspondence were
snapped almost daily.
The Documents Grow.
Meantime that car had vanished, had
melted away as If 1t had been cake of
Ice in the warm waters of the flood had
disappeared as mysterously as card
from the hands of Herman or Kelllar.
Six monthsl Still no trace, though the
railroad people pursued the still hunt
conscientiously. The Northern Pacific,
according to per diem rule seven, might
long ago have reported the car destroyed
land hence put stopper on the avalanche
Of correspondence and, incidentally, on
the per diem charge) IL only they had I'm
earthed even the smallest evidence of de-
struction.
But not even a remnant was discov-
ered-not a bolt nor a board that could
be identified as part of that particular
car.
Nine months! No car! But pigeon
holes were choked to death with CORE
spondence. The Hill car service men ragged
impotently at the failure of their sleuths
to locate the missing car, and Hartman
car service men made further demands,
just as impotent, for the return of their
property.
| A year slid into history, and thirteen
months. BY this time the Union Pacific
men were injecting sarcasm into their
literary productions, meaning, in effect;
What sort OF fellows are you, anyway,
that your search for our car is as futile
as that for Captain Kidds treasurer
In this way the correspondence grew into
reams.
Now, in the fourteenth month the
Northern Pacific men, blue in the face
at being so long baffled, decided to make
one last systematic search for that car,
even IL they could produce only Its dead
body. Right and left, men were sent,
and north and south, to scrutinize every
square inch Of that part of Kansas near
the flooded district, to hunt as man
hunts for lost collar button.
Clue at Last.
One of the sleuths of the Northern
Pacific, on the fourth day Of the four
teenth month after the flood, spied some
rusty car trucks that were revealed by
workmen In the process. who We're re-
moving the debris of barn that had col
lapsed in the deluge.
The number of those trucks made the
sleuth aforesaid whoop with Joy. Here
was part of the missing rolling stock. The
, number was that of the car that was SC
badly wanted And the trucks lay quar-
ter OF mile from the railroad track.
But the hunter was not satified. He
wanted the whole thing. The other half
he bethought him, must be near In cast
ing his eye over the geography, he finally
caught sight of the name of a patent cure
for biiousness that was painted i'm large
white letters on a black background, hall
mile from the railroad track.
In his hunting and snoopings he had
passed that sign often, And as often he
had ignored it as furnishing no clue to the
lost car. Now, however he recalled thai
the name of that patent medicine was EN-
blazoned on the four sides Of an impro-
vised stable
He sought the farmer who owned the
nag that stood in the improyised stable.
'Where'd you get that stable"
Didn't get II. Just took 1t for my mare
1t was once box car as any fool could
see"
J you remember the car number?'
How IL Happened.
mo! Hadn't more'n located It fore a
man came along and give me four bits
just for lettin' him give her a nice coat Of
! Daint along with them bilious cure words