The Monmouth inquirer., 1925-04-16

The award of a Theodore N. Vail gold medal
came to Rider because of an exceptional act
Of bravery and loyal public service. Pulling
a rowboat against the stubborn current of a
stream on which hoated q sheet of blazing
gasoline, at the risk of being carried into the
flames or Of being killed by exploding tank
cars on a railroad bridge nearby, he restored
important telephone toll lines that had been
melted by the heat of the burning bridge.
When it is borne In mind that he was SUI
fering from a chronic illness at the time and
was under a physicians orders not to risk
exposure to smoke or dust or to risk undue
fatigue, it will be understood that his loyalty
was of a sort not ordinarily encountered. 1t
will be understood, too, why he was singled
out from among $4,000 Bell employees to re-
Pceive the only gold medal awarded during
the year 1924.
His chance, came on June 5, 1923. when he was
at his home in Guthrie, Oklahoma. A t eight In
the morning, a few miles north of Guthrie, a
freight train was derailed on 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 ~derailed, one or more tanks
of casing-head gasoline were exploded, transform
ing the river to a blazing food 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 Bell Telephone company, ex-
tending from Chicago, Kansas City and other
northern points through Oklahoma to Texas, had
been put out of service.
Thirtyfour wires, In all, were down. Rider for
got all personal danger, for, to a telephone re-
pairman, interrupted service means more than per-
sonaI 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
-A+- ma rn-.A - A-n
selves as they risked life and limb to restore
broken lines, but to Rider came the biggest op-
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 a city lake
some seven or eight miles distant. There he got
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 1:15 p ma re-
storing the Chicago-Galveston toll circuit.
Rider then aided in spanning the river with a
steel wire from which two improvised cables of
telephone drop wire 1.-THE twisted wire that crdinar-
ily leads from a telephone pole to the wall Of a
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 a treacherous stream and at the time Of the ac
! cident it was full to the banks and was running in
q raging torrent. On account Of this current II
was necessary for him to cut upstream on each