Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1911-07-08

souri, Pecihc railway. Naily,' as
the veteran engineer is Familiarity
known, despite he passed his 13C mile
stone in life Saturday, walks with
steady step and tells story Of rem
iniscent interest.
Now that automobiles throng the
Olive street road, carrying thousands
of visitors to the resort, and the Unit
ed Railways company maintains serV
ice to accommodate immense crowds
every dav III the week, in addition to
the regular schedule on the Missouri
Pacific b1anch, the following story, told
by Mr.. Even, is seasonable:
1t was hot day. just the kind
You expect on the Fourth of July, when
on our nations birthday, 1881. I pulled
out from the >old Twelfth street. sta
ticn with q doUble-dome Rogers en-
CINE, bearing the name ID. r. Carl
son, and eight passenger coaches, with
seats. aisles and platforms crowded,
for Creve Occur lake-the very day
that popular place was opened as a
public resort.
Two other trains. each with nine
passenger coaches, We're operated that
day, and it was estimated that a total
of 10000 passengers visited the resort.
Extra crews We're kept at work the
night before the Fourth completing
the stretch of track from the y to
the lake front, where Charles Forth
conducted a saloon restaurant ard pic
III SItuIuS. lit L. EIlSOH DIS
the first engine to take water f. bnl the
tank at the lake. ON the wey o-Jt from
the city 1t was Necessary 10 tut the
engine from the train at Ewing avenue
rum i'll and replenish the water supply
in the Ter. The coaches were prac-
tically crowded before we left the
Twelfth street station, and by the time
We reached the lake there were hun
dreds on top of the coaches, on the
pilot of the engine and cIinging to the
guardrails on the platforms.
Gun Fired from Train.
From 6 O'Clock the morning of that
memorial Fourth. until $50 o'clock the
next morning, the engine crews We're
not relieved, with only one meal in
the time, and that was handed into the
cab at o'clock at night. john Rey-
nolds, who now runs a punter out of
Pacific, on the main line, was my fire
man. 1t required US from one hour
to an hour and fifteen minutes to make
round trip. and each time We COW
cred the road we were crowded going
out, and at night it seemed like we had
even bigger crowds coming in.
'tOf course. we did not get much
chance to watch the crowd a the lake
but after each trip we could see that
the pile of empty bottles. which were
near the track. had grown. indicating
that there was plenty of refreshments
without forming a bucket brigade to
tap the lake.
"one of the trains had a flat car
trailers on which a gatling gun was
mounted. At frequent intervals along
the lines. after the city limits were
passed, the gun was fred in demon
stfation of the event"
In the twenty-nine years Even was
engineer on the Creve Occur branch,
there was a period of five and a half
Creve Occur lake. The engineer
acres and improved it. Emerson sta
ton is loc=-" on a tract of land
adjoining his property. Since retiring
from the road last year, he has de-
voted most of his time to garden work
and farm pursuits.
Many Churches Had Picnics.
In the first twelve years after the
opening of the lake as d resort, the
train schedule called for four round
trips a day, with Wednesdays and
Thursdays designated as church
DAYS All Sunday school picnics and
outings given by other church organ
izations were held Wednesday or
Thursday. The traffic in lemonade was
stimulated in the middle of the week,
by this arrangement, while the crowds
which went to the lake on other DAYS
often represented the membership of
different organiza tons which favored
dancing and other forms of amuse-
ment On what were termed the open
days the consumption of beer helped