The Eureka sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1902-current, 1915-02-13
NOW CREssWELL BROUGHT
THE C. P. TO TERMS
Prominent Nevada Attorney Cuts
Red Tape By Claiming Engine
To Railway Track

The following story is from the
San Diego Examiner. edited by ).
L. Considine, who is known to every
body in Nevada:
There died in San francisco not long
ago a man who did at least one no
table thing during his life and who
was able to do it because his arms
were not inextricably bound in folds
of red tape. His name was Harry
T. Creswell, and at the time of his
death he was of sufficient Importance
in San Francisco to merit and receive
obituary notices in the metropolitan
press, none of which, however, told
of this particular deed.
In 1883 Creswel was district attor-
ney of Lander County, Nevada. The
Central Pacific Railroad ran through
that region and it owed Lander
County considerable sum for taxes,
which it had refused to pay. The
railroad owed the county. but t
owned the county Judge, the Stat :
supreme court, the United Stat
district Judge and the United St. IS
circuit Judge. To obtain that tax
money by legal process was plainly
an impossibility.
Creswell demanded the money. and
the railroad officials laughed at him.
as they had laughed at other district
attorneys. But Creswell differed
from those other district attorneys
in that he was very much in earnest.
TheCentral Pacific overland trains,
running between Ogden and San
Francisco, passed daily through
Battle Mountain, little eating sta
ton in the northern part of the
county. Pullman dining cars were
then unknown on the Central Pacific
and so one of the trains was obliged
to stop at Battle Mou3,sin for 20
minutes every day at noon.
One noon day. soon after his last
fruitless demand upon the railroad
for that tax money, ,Creswell appeared
at the railroad station accompanied
by a blacksmith, who carried sledge
hammer and chain. and a brace of
deputy sheriffs. whose hip pockets
bulged with a more deadly variety
OF hardware. Engineer and fireman.
conductor and brakeman, all were
busy in the eating station, but a
lettering engine wiper gave the alarm
and the train crew came a running
to avert the sacrilege. But a word
from Creswell and glance at those
bulging hip pockets was enough. So
the blacksmith proceeded unmolested
with his work and in trice the loco
motive was riveted to the track.
AT once there was high commotion.
Train hands raved. station men
swore. and even the passengers,
streaming out of the eating house,
sided for once with the railroad COM
pany and protested at the delay,
Threats were made. but to be ig-
nored. the silent. square jawed dep
uty sheriffs standing ready to resist
interference or repel attack with
their deadly six-shooters. Finally
hurried conductor asked Creswell
what he wanted. That gentleman's
requirements were simple. He
wanted the tax money. That was
all.
Instantly the station was in COM
motion again. Such ademand was un-
heard OF. The treasurer of the COM
pany was in San Francisco. more than
500 miles away; so was the auditor.
Money could not be paid out without
their order and sign manual. 1t
would take days to get the authoriza-
ton. Red tape by the bale was un-
rolled by the gesticulating conductor
and distraught station agent.
But the infexible Creswell was un-
moved. He stood by his original de-
mand without quibble or qualifca-
tion. And presently the wires to
the headquarters of the company at
Fourth and Townsend streets in San
francisco sang with messages and
replies.
At first the burden of these replies
was of the same tenor as the protests
of the conductor, only pitched in
fiercer, 'hotter key. But the ada
mantine Creswell remained unmoved.