The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1914-07-10
BREAKING The:
'.. p. LIMIT ..'.'
Al Engineers Ride For Lie
and Lives
BY JARED L. FULLER
Copyright BY Frank A. Munsey Co.

Z BY JARED L. FULLER
Copyright By Frank A. Munsey Co.
Pug Donaldson. who had been the
roundhouse foreman 80 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 M. and 8. p. And this was it:
THAT Grandfather Longlegs never II
get to hold down a passenger lever on
this road. whatever he's done back
east. 1t amt in him"
Then the old nan chalked up the
limit on the side of his little smoke dis
colored Office. spat with emphasis and
well. that closed the subject a. far
as Pug was concerned.
reckon If Lannigan hadn't begun
by blowing about his eastern record
he'd made Of q hit with US.
He was a tall, awkwardly built man.
with a shock Of sandy hair and q
smooth. humorous face. His legs and
arms were remarkably long and thin.
and old Donaldson's sobriquet stuck
to him. Daddy Longlegs" seemed
to at.
Lannigan got a freight, and the worst
bunch of scrap iron on the road. which.
In moments Of enthusiasm. Pug called
an engine. II there vas any man hand
icapped In the a to break the limit
It was the new man from the land OF
tenderfeet.
The system Of advancement follow
ed by the NJ. and 8. 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 8. P. was surveyed and laid down.
It had been a race between the NJ. and
8. r. 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 q cost which Grip
pied the road financially for years. and
the renewing Of the 6rst roadbed was
a slow and laborious job.
We ran M fast passenger-the Linn
tied. The through mail cars were at
tached to that train too.
1t was a continual fight all through
the year to keep that M train alone
up to the schedule called for by the
contract with the government. go
II any nan on any other train show
ed the ability to get speed put Of his
engine he was watched. and If he
broke the limit" he stood q good
chance of displacing the driver then
running the mail train.
The M. 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 a
certain section Of farming country
stretching westward Of the line.
Lannigan had been with US since the
winter before. He was a good driver.
but not Brilliant. Anybody but q pref
udiced old fool like Donaldson would
have recognized his good points. but
you never could stir the r~oundhouse
foreman when he'd once made up bis
mind.
Lannigan had learned the road and
bis engine. If he followed another
train he was on its heels all the time
and got himself we'll cursed for 1t.
Some Of US began to see that there
really was more to the eastern man
than we had believed.
That fall was dry. the u and wind
all day and every day drying, the sap
out Of the trees and brush and burning
the leaves brown before the frost could
make them pretty.
BY and BY the inevitable happened.
Fires began to light up the heavens
nightly. and BY day streaks Of blue
smoke hid the tops Of the higher hills.
Reports reached ~ from all direc-
lions Of families burned out and Get.
Elements threatened. but for a week
tho co~n6asrahons kept away from the
tine Of the road.
Then suddenly ~ Sunday morning
a flood Of Ore swooped down the noun
tain side and crossed the tracks some
miles south Of. Yardsley.
The Limited came through somewhat
scorched. and the next day tra6ic on
the road between Lattell and the juno
ton was cut OF altogether.
This shut OF several settlements az
well as Yardsley. except by telegraph.
The wires were still working. and our
operators stuck to their posts like the
brave fellows they were.
Pretty near every living soul in a
hundred square miles Of territory lit
out for less dangerous ground. But
Yardsley was caught mapping, and it's
500 people were practically hemmed In
by the fercest forest fire the state had
ever experienced.
The entire system of the N. and 8. P.
was pretty well tied up. We had pull
| ed freight as near the fire line as we
dared. and the sidetracks were about