The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1915-06-11
Who LISTENED
By BENJAMIN RUSH THoRNeuRY.
lCopyright.l

In the smoking compartment Of a
Pullman on the w~estbound train were
three men. Two of them, one the
superintendent of the road and the
other an ex-railroad man, we're en-
gagged in conversation Oh the merits
Of ~railroaders in general, and con-
corning those who maintained their
positions through official relationship
in particular. The third, q we'll
groomed, portly gentleman. sat quiet
ly in the corner, pulled a cigar, and
listened.
"Rahroading isn't a profession; it's
a science" the ex-railroad nan was
protesting. I've always maintained
that these relationship jobs are a
detriment to the service, and it's been
my observation that, as a rule, the
incumbents never make good"
i've known some exceptions to
that rule; in fact, l have one in mind
now" said the superintendent.
1T was in the old days on the M.
!. and N. Old Man Goodell had come
down to Kensington from the 500 to
take over the management Of the
road; and while he didn't have a great
deal of style, he more than made up
for it in a system Of his own, that
resulted in making the two streaks
of rust and a right-of-way n Of the
best paying little roads in the country.
was a general utility clerk in his
office at that time, and sorted out the
old mans mail. One morning / came
. across a letter from Tom Goodell.
Tom was a brother of the old man,
who had been in the lumber business
[ up North, but who had taken a sud
den notion that he wanted to be a
railroad man. The letter was a re-
quest for a job.
; Joe Kelsoe was trainmaster up at
Centerpoint at that time. He had some
set notions, like yourself, about Toms
, kind, and wasn't at all backward
5 about expressing them. The boys
said he cussed a blue streak when
i, he got the old mans letter ordering
Z him to send Tom out braking on the
= local to learn the road.
We'll, everybody knew at once
what that meant, and there was a
general howl all along the line among
the trainmen, not official, OF course
but a lot Of talk, and, as usual, that's
Z about where it ended.
: About three months after that, Et
Burton, a freight conductor with
through run, came within an ace o
getting into a smash-up with an east
i bound passenger on an order he mis-
o construed, and, of course, went on thu
carpet. The old man was Away
{ mighty square with the boys whel
n hey got into trouble, and was dis
posed to be lenient with Ed, thougI
he had known for some time that e
= wasn't a man to be running a train.
I'd He was oversensitive on the sui
iect. as that kind usually are; 8
when the old man offered to com
. promise by giving him thirty days
and a gravel train when he got back
Ed fared up and quit, taking a pas
back to Arlington, where he lived.
&c THAT was the only time / eve
j. saw ed to know him; ard when h
DC came through the office, looking a
black as a thunder cloud, / surmise
sc he had been having his troubles !
ne the old mans little sanctum.
10 We'll, as everybody expected, tw
days later Tom Goodell got his trail
Oh 81 had been out on the road loo
pc ing up a claim on some stock that ha
been killed, and happened to be
- Tom Goodell's caboose on his fir
ne run out. | altered my opinion Of To
rs that night and haven't changed
since, for he proved to be n Of Il
exceptions l spoke about.
Sn The night operator at Menden hi
es given him orders to pick up son
empty stock cars at Arlington, and
guess that's all that saved US fro
about the worst wreck the road ev
tie had. for we would have gone into tn
no open switch at a f~orty-ive-mile cliT
They usually went through frC
Menden without stopping, that bel
a part of the run where they made
time. AS it was, they had slow
10 down for the stop, and when they |
TO-, expectedly shot in on the siding FRI
ore the upper end, the engineer had
train pretty well under control;
ch- the little bump they gave that strl
tn of empties did no damage. The swift
in had been thrown, and the lii
changed so that 1t showed white.
I'LL When they found out about
changed switchlight, the crew laid
- to every cause but the right one.
" Tom jumped down from the caboI
for stems. however. his quick eve !
caught sight of a man ducking arol
the edge Of the station that looked
- awful lot like Ed Burton.
= He said nothing about this wi
he came up where the boys were Il
: ing, but the next morning he
the old man we're closeted for the
= ter part Of an hour. / could tell
his loud tone that the old man
considerably worked up about 50
thing, for he always was a quiet
Of a man. All the while Tom
talking in a low, pleading voice,
= a. - - -