Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1914-07-01
BY JARED L. FULLER
Copyright by Frank A. Munsey co

Pug Donaldson, who had been the
roundhouse foreman so long that he
thought he owned the entire system.
gave out his opinion Of Lannigan at
the end of the latter's first week on
the NJ. and S. P. And this was it:
'aThat Grandfather LongLegs never IL
get to hold down a passenger lever On
this road, whatever he's done ns8csz
east. It amt in him"
Then the old man chaIkP<< the
limit on the side of his lit e smoke dis
colored office, spat ttsfemphasis and
well, that closed toe subject as far
as Pug was concerned.
reckon if Lannigan hadn't begun
by blowing about his eastern record
he'd made more Of hit with us.
He was a tall, awkwardly built man.
with a shock Of sandy hair and a
smooth, humorous face. His legs and
arms were remarkably long and thin.
and old Donaldson's sobriquet stuck
to him. Daddy Longlegs' seemed
to fit
Lannigan got q freight, and the worst
bunch of scrap iron on the road. which,
in moments OF enthusiasm, Pug called
an engine If there was any man hand
icapped in tAe race to break the limit
it was the new man from the land of
tendeTfeet,
The system of advancement follow
ed by the NJ. and S. P. did not include
length of service or pull" Just one
thing counted-the ability of a driver
to get speed out Of his machine over
the worst track the law ever allowed
man to lay.
The country was new when the NJ.
and S. P. was surveyed and laid down.
It had been a race between the NJ. and
S. P. and another corporation to see
which should reach the terminating
town where connection could be made
with the Pacific road first.
We won. but at a cost which Grip
pied the road financially for years, and
the renewing Of the first roadbed was
a slow and laborious job.
We ran one fast passenger-the Lin
tied. The through mail cars were at
tached to that train too.
the year to keep that one train alone
up to the schedule called for by tn,
contract with the government.
II any man on any other train show
ed the ability to get speed out of hi:
engine he was watched, and If b.
"broke the limit" he stood a goot
chance Of displacing the driver thei
running the mail train.
The NJ. and s. P. in those days was
a farmers railroad" Most of the
way stations were merely huts and wa
ter tanks in forest clearings, tapping {
certain section Of farming country
stretching westward Of the line.
Lannigan had been with US since thu
winter before. He was a good driver
but not brilliant. Anybody but a pref
udiced old fool like Donaldson would
have recognized his good points, bu
you never could stir the roundhoust
foreman when he'd once made up hi
mind.
Lannigan had learned the road an(
his engine. If he followed anothe
train he was on it's heels all the time
and got himself well cursed for 1t.
Some of US began to see that Their
really was more to the eastern mai
than we had believed
That fall was dry, the sun and wine
all day and every day drying the sal
out Of the trees and brush and burnin;
the leaves brown before the frost coul,
make them pretty.
By and by the inevitable happened
Fires began to light up the heaven
nightly. and by day streaks of blu
smoke hid the tops Of the higher hills
Reports reached us from all diret
tons of families burned out and SCI
Elements threatened. but for a wee
the coniagrations kept away from th
line of the road.