The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1915-09-30

W
stopped laughing at it. That
was the dayit saved the roads
reputation and landed mail contract for
Us that was worth more in profits than the
directors cared to tell, and with an adver-
Using value that the general freight and
passenger agents couldn't tell.
Il began with the business men down in
New Orleans kicking on the New York mail
service. They had been complaining for
years. and finally new Postmaster General
cana along and saw chance to stir I'D
spark or two Of kindly feeling for the Repub-
hcan party south Of the Washington monu-
ment. In those days the administration
was mighty anxious to "break the Solid
South, and It looked to the new official
IKE q good opportunity to drive an extra
nail u his own job. So one day he sent
Tor the general managers of the four lines
that had look-in on such proposition as
? really fast mail service below Washing
%on- Aweeklater quartet of hard-headed
railrcadeEs satin the government officials
inner Office to talk as experts in the matter
OF speed. Every man Of them had already
figured the time down to the last minute
and then chopped off an hour for luck.
Each thought IN bis heart that be could
put It over any other road by thirty
minutes.
Well, gentlemen, !" began the head Of the
postal service, 1--WE want to do better on the
New Orleans mail schedules. Cutting out
only two hours on the present running time
would mean half day saved for Houston
and Dallas. As it Is now, it takes forty-six
hours from Jersey City to Canal Street
torty hours, even, below Washington.
How much could that be decreased, Mr..
Waiten1"
The general manager Of the Shore Line
hred the answer straight at him. "Three
hours and twenty minutes between Wash
ington and Riverview Junction-fve cars. =
Not enough" said the postal official.
We want thirty-eight hour run from
City to NewtO Orleans"
~ eminent railroad men strove to
feason with him. They said it was out Of
the question. His ideas sprang from his
ignorance of Southern railway conditions.
Did heimagine that they had roadbeds like
the Pennsylvania across the Mississippi
and Louisiana swamps9 Then a fourth
eminent railroad man spoke for the first
time. 1--WE VIII take your FIVE cars through
ia thirty.six hours, he said, sand YOU can
make the penalty for delays high because
there aren't going to be any delays"
That was Holconab all over. It was such
things that made him loved and respected
by every man on the w. G. S. system, from
car-tink TO superintendent. And men
feared him who feared neither God nor
man-savc Holcomb.
After that there was no need for further
argument.
g II you make good on the trial runs and
put that offer in your bid next month, +" said
be Postmaster General, the contract is
practically yours But warn you that we
hall expect the service"
a little later on news came that the
v. G. S. would make a trial on the new
aaiI-caExying contract at a speed that in
IL part of the country was hair-raising.
Then HcIcomb sent for McStewart
6cStewart was the superintendent of
motive power, q big, blond-whiskered,
outstanding Scotchman who went to church
&egulaxly and openly deplored that it was
necessary in the very nature of the railroad
business that man should swear. With
him lay the responsibility for the engines
that would haul the mail trains. The big
ScotchmAn put on the old brown derby that
he wore on special occasions-his war
bonnet, the men called it-and went down
the line from end to end. And In his wake
was trail of astonishment and enthusiasm
Everybody seemed to catch the fever In
depots and towers and switch-shanties and
roundhouses the talk was all of the new
hiezs. Grizzled old Dennis O Rourke, sec
ton boss on the Divide, fired green
sectionhand for expressing a doubt that
the road could maintain such schedule
Johnnie Baptiste, engine foreman at Clinch
River, got publicly and disgacefrllly drunk
and held rousing prayer meeting IN one of
the cleaning pits over the foresight of Hol-
comb N having ordered the six new ten
wneelers that were just coming cut of the
Baldwin works. They would be delivered
N time for the new trains and would walk
away with tve mail cars like playthings.
linen came the day when the Pennsyl-
vania delivered i've new mail cars on time
The dot. The twenty-third az October
a clear, crisp sort Of a dav. and II the
little towns up the line people turned ont =,
crowds TO see the new Number Fiftv-s;~ =,
BY. It was, Here she comes vorder s6e
goes just roar, a flash of black al
olivesgreen, and the smoke trailing - fs-
ees-.SNAsI-- Sx