, 1924-04-10
YOUNGSTERS IN
RAWLINS YEARS
AGO REMEMBERED

The Republican is In receipt Of an
interesting letter from John F. Haeg-
ney in which he states thai the de-
partren. now being published in this
paper giving news OF "a years ago
has brought To his mind many in
teresting happenings OF those days.
In this letter Mr.. Heagney writes
of .EsEy old-timers and these name
will bring to the minds of some of
cur readers pleasant recollections.
IEa letter follows:
Casper. Wyo., March 80, 1924.
Eji'cr i.awlins Republican,
itawlins, Wyo.
Dear Editor:
with the Republican before me
opened at the page Thirty-Four Years
6 GS90)) can you wonder at the
wheels in my old bald pate working
overtime. Nearly every name ap-
pearing there / knew in Rawlins
both as a boy and man and 1t seems
strange at this time to me that be-
ing only a little ever 100 miles from
there hat l have only met a couple
OF them since 1890. l refer to thS
old Rawlins Concert Band. l met
Carl Bryant about 20 years ago and
DR.. A. Thode last year.
Many names appearing there take
me back to boyhood and especially
the name Bob Baxter who was much
older than me as also were john
Baxter and Alice Baxter, but a
younger brother, Billie Baxter, was in
our class and somewhat a leader in
our crowd or gang as some of the
good people preferred to style us
and l guess we were very tough but
nothing to what boys are now for
downright meanness.
Among our class or gang were
Dan Healy, Jim Granger. John Healy
Jim Quinlan. John Hays, Guy Haw-
ley. Frank Spafford. Roy Bailey,
Frank Thompson. Fred Smith, Harry
(Windy) Smith, Frank Blake, Lin
coin Cox. VIM. Candlish. Ed. Mer-
rill. John Fisher. Frank Fisher.
Frank Scott. Bill Foote, Gilla Ma
ghee. Morgan Maghee and a II y
more that l cannot recall to mind
just at this time but believe we
were about as happy a gang as ever
purloined California fresh fruit from
a U. p. train.
You know at hat time there were
no refrigerator cars like they have
now and the fruit was shipped in
Gals WIN nut" ana uODTS WHICH
had iron bars up and down and
about three inches apart and we boys
could easily get cur arms between
the bars and when a fruit train pulled
out going east a few OF us would
climb on the sides of cars and would
break the thin boxes and throw out
the fruit wAile Others would follow.
along and pict /; uT. About the
Imc we reached tn, old stockyards
or before th' train had gained much
hednwny. W. womb Jump on. But
sometimes il ICY would wait too long.
and when h jumped would pillow
into the cird"rs with his face and
cary the mark OF that jump FOR
some time
SImG'imCs the town marshall
Little Dick Daley or the constable.
Jim Finley. would fellow us up and
give US n big scare but we always
made II n point to get away (and J
have always thought they did not
weu. 20 catch us for they knew u
ALI. There was one boy in the
gang whom we always tried to leave
behind on these occasions but he
would stick to us like a leech and
We could never get rid OF him. That
wa, Harry (Windy) Smith. When
the Marshall or Constable would
start after us he would commence to
laugh and you could hear him 10!
n mile and he would continue to
laugh until the Marshall had become
tirc1 ard quit or until we knew we
were all safe. Sometimes clear up In
Fishor'r canyon. We had a rock house
Just east OF Fishers canyon wher
WI had many n good chicken stew.
tic. and the chickens and others
things wero furnished by the good
people Of llawlins but OF course they
iid Tot know II at the time. and |
dcn't think any OF us ever told thCm
These were the good old boyhoCd
days gud there are many In Rawlinf
who viii remember US boys and who
I believe would like TO see US all
boys again Even though we were
.usl boys and made mach toll and
trouble
nu' we r passing aud II Is only
a matter OF a short time until the
old timers and those good old day
Will be n matter OF history only and
AZ n hitting finale to this story !
might odd here n song which was
spoken by mo about n year ago NJ
"a party and which | dedicated to the
pioneers u Carbon aud Natrona
counties. l say spoken by mo foi
this reason: that up to and including