The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-07-30
Well That You Abandoned
Your Tramping Days.
Sure You Were a Tramp, Prove
1t by Government Records.
TRAINLOAD TIES EVERY DAY
That Many Received at Santa
Fe's Big Picking Plant.
Albuquerque, New Mexico, Cen
ter of Industry in West.

Were yo1 ever up against it where
there was nothing for you to do but
just walk, walk, and count the ties as
you passed them?
What a silly question!
Oh, not so Very silly either. The
chances are at least one out of one
hundred that you have. The chances
are even. that strong that you have
been a hobo. Now, don't get mad.
Just wait a minute please.
Uncle Sam, speaking through his
census bureau, says there are approx
imately 80 million people in the United
States. He also estimates that at least
a half million people go a-boeing every
year. Now the same people do not
go tramping every year. Since Uncle
Sam says nothing to the contrary, let's
suppose they are all different people
every year Then a million people have
gone tramping in two years-one mil
lion out of 80, million-a little better
than one chance in a ,-undred. But
most of the S. ]. readers are more
than two years old (never mind about
whether tWo-year- olds go tramping
supposing) so the probability of the
average S. J. reader having at one
time been a hobo is much greater than
one in one hundred. If you are . years
old. But we are going to stop
right here, Statistics can be made to
way we have started. we will have you
up before Judge Huron on a vagrancy
charge
Getting back to those ties. When
you We're counting them Eve have
already proven that once upon a time
you did how many miles of ties did
you walk? The chances are that the
distance you covered was small and
the ties you counted were few, com
pared with the miles you LETT unwalked
and the numbers of ties you left I'M
counted. Don't you remember swing
ing on to a freight train when you were
just about too tired to go any further?
But suppose that freight train had
not come and you had kept right on
walking and counting ties. Well, IL
does not make any difference how long
ago you might have started on the
job. if you stuck to it, you would still
be a tramp
The Santa Fe system alone receives
d trainload of ties every day and there
are 80 cars in every train. And these
are not all the ties the Santa Fe COM
pany receives and uses. This trainload
of ties every day is only fraction of
the total-only what are delivered at
one point. s@' -
Albuquerque the Center.
That Albuquerque is the center Of
the tie industry of the west is indicated
by the fact that there are at present
plant, south of that city. and that l0o,-
900 ties are now in the yards about
the plant, shipped by the Santa
Barbara Tie & Pole company from the |
Domingo boom in the Rio Grande, |
where here are at present 100000 aa- !
ties awaiting shipment to AL !
Ties from the Domingo |
boom to the picking plant in Albuquer- |
que are being shipped daily in fifty car
train loads.
The $4,000 ties driven down the |
streams from the Santa Barbara COM |
pany's forests in the northern part Of |
New Mexico furnished employment and !
activity again this year for many eX- |
Derienced river men and lumber jacks |
The ties were damned in the rapids |
0n a number of occasions and frequent
~ dynamite was used to break the |
Jams. 1t is said that almost a ear of |
dynamite was used in getting the ties
through the streams. That the drive |
was highly successful. however, is
shown by the arrival of 100000 ties at
The Domingo boom, at which point
loaded on cars and sent over the Santa
Barbara short line to the Santa Fe
main line at Domingo, and thence ship |
ped to Albuquerque.
A hundred men are constantly = VI
oloyed at the Santa Fe picking plant,
oickling ties and shipping them to all
parts OF the Santa Fee system.
The ties cut this season by the Santa
Barbara people will be seasoned for
eight months before being picked.