The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1912-08-30
MAURY COUNTY BOY
WHOSE LIFE READS.
LIKE A ROMANCE
CLAUDE HENDLEY RETURNS TO
FAR WEST AFTER VISIT TO
FATHERS AND BROTHERS.
STORY OF HIS EXPERIENCES
Has Travelled an Aggregate Of More
Than Two Million Miles by Rail
and Never lnjured-Wife and Boy
In San Francisco Earthquake.

After a visit to his father and
brothers Claude Hendley has return
ed to his home on the Pacific coast,
to resume his position with the Sun
set route, running from Washington
to San Francisco. He has been In
the present position little better than
ten years, and has crossed the CONT
nent considerably more than five
hundred times, and during all that
time and travel he has never been
injured. The story of his expert
ences sounds more like fiction than
fact and are intensely interesting.
He makes two, round trips per
month from San Francisco to Wash
ington, spending "a to 4S hours at
each end Of the trip, and the aggre-
gate mileage of his travels In his
present position approximates 2,O00,-
900. He says he can sleep on the
roaring train like child, while In a
quiet room the football of mouse
makes him nervous beyond the posi-
bility Of sleep.
or course Mr.. Hendley has his own
special car, and this car has been
ditched no less than a dozen times
in accidents, but as stated, he has
been fortunate enough to escape in
jury of any character.
The longest period Of continuous
stay on board the train was fifty four
nights in succession.
He says that he has had all fornfs
of accident and incident on the train
OF which he is the conductor. Births,
deaths, marriages, fights, are nothing
out Of the ordinary, but the most har-
rowing experience Mr.. Hendley says
he ever had was to see crazy man
60 out Of the window and fall beneath
the car wheels and cut to pices, all
within less time than It takes to tell
1t, and all coming in way that there
was no possible way to avoid the
tragic occurrence.
He is married and has one child, a
son seventeen years of age, and his
family was at San Francisco at the
time of the great earthquake, when
the city was almost destroyed and
thousands upon thousands of the res
idents of the coast city lost their
lives. He was in Cincinnati at the
time Of the occurrence and received
his first information there. His wife
and child were at their home and
there was no possibility Of reaching
them by telegram or to hear from
them in any way If they had escaped
the horrors Of the fire and the crumb-
ling buildings. For four days he was
aboard the train en- route to his home
enduring all the horrors of magma
ton after anxiously and feverjshly
scanning the newspaper accounts and
looking over the lists Of names pub
lished daily, hoping almost against
hope that he would find his wife and
boy mentioned among those saved.
After reaching the city he was TWEEN,
ty-four shours finding them, blistered
by the intense heat, In tatters and
~ os aud not a penny's worth of any
thing saved from the terrible hollo-
caust, but overcome with joy to see
him and to realize that they had es-
capped with their lives.
Mr.. Hendley. is genial, pleasant
gentleman, and probably has a wider
personal acquaintance than any man
who ever went out of Maury county,
and his friends are glad TO know that
he is making good.