Beverly banner. [volume] (Beverly, N.J.) 1877-1964, 1925-04-24

The award of a Theodore N. Vail gold medal
came to Rider because of an exceptional act
of bravery and loyal public service. Pulling
rowboat against the stubborn current OF
stream on which foated a sheet of blazing
gasoline, at the risk of being carried into the
flames or of being killed by exploding tank
cars on railroad bridge nearby he restored
important telephone toll lines that had been
melted by the heat of the burning bridge.
When 1t Is borne In mind that he suf-
fering from chronic illness at the time and
was under a physicians orders not to risk
exposure to smoke or dust or to risk undue
fatigue, 1t will be understood that his loyalty
was of a sort not ordinarily encountered 1t
will be understood too why he singled
out from among $4,000 Bell employees to re-
ceive the only gold medal awarded during
the year 1924.
His chance came June s. 1923, when he was
at his home in Guthrie, Oklahoma At eight In
the morning, a few miles north of Guthrie,
freight train was derailed the Cimarron river
bridge on the Santa Fe railroads main line be-
tween Chicago and the Gulf The train was made
up of tank cars carrying gasoline and oil and fiat
cars loaded with lumber.
When the cars were deraied. one or more tanks
of casing head gasoline exploded transform
ing the river to blazing flood and setting fire to
the cars of lumber
Hearing the explosion, Rider hurried to the
scene He found that the main toll lines of the
American Telephone and Telegraph company and
the Southwestern Bell Telephone company, ex-
tending from Chicago, Kansas City and other
northern points through Oklahoma to Texas. had
been put out of service.
Thirty-four wires, in ALL were down. Rider for
got all personal danger, for, to telephone
parman, interrupted service means more than per-
sonal ills. Service must be restored" Is the
motto of the telephone man, "The lines must be
kept open.'
Through the year 1923 hundreds of telephone
man had mn f0 thQun-
selves as they risked life and limb to restore
broken lines, but to Rider come the biggest OPP
portunity. Riders use of the opportunity was due
to himself and to his loyalty to the service
Rider attempted to get a boat at the river but
was unable to do so. So he drove In his trouble
car with ladders and coiled rope to city lake
some seven or eight miles distant. There he got
a boat that he had built himself for fishing and
hunting.
Returning through Guthrie, he obtained from
the telephone company's store room the necessary
materials for repair work, reaching the bridge
shortly after noon. With the assistance of other
telephone employees he at once began the work
of restoring circuits.
Putting out in the boat, he carried a coil of
twisted wire across the river, paying out as he
| went This was put into service at 15 D. M, re-
| storing the Chcago-Galveston toll circuit.
| Rider then aided In spanning the river with a
| steel wire from which two improvfsed cables of
telephone drop wire (the twisted wire that ordnar
! lily leads from telephone pole to the wall OF
| building) so that by four O'clock In the afternoon
/ Is OF the circuits were In service. Service on all
| circuits was restored by six o'clock.
/ In completing these operations he made repeat
| ed trips across the river. The Cimarron is known
| AS treacherous stream and at the time of the ac-
| ident II was full TO the banks and was running In
il raging torrent. On account Of this current It
| was necessary for him 70 cut upstream on each