The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1931-04-17

casey Jones ana Sim WeDD was met
by the sight of several box cars loom
ing up through the glOom-box cars
which were still on the main track
and rolling TOO slowly on to the side
track to escape the laundering rush
of old No. 638. Jump. Sim, and save
yourselfl" shouted Casey Jones and
Sim Webb jumped, fell into some
bushes and rolled, over and over on
the ground-uninjured.
AS for Casey Jones, there was just
one thing he could do. He threw his
engine into reverse and applied the
airbrakes. But it was too late. Old
No. 638 plowed into those numbering
box cars, smashed them into match
wood, crashed into the caboose and
then turned over on her side short
distance beyond. When the freight
crews reached her and looked into the
cab, they saw that her dead engineer
still had one hand on the air-brake
lever and the other on the whistle
cord. Later Sim Webb told Casey's
widow the explanation: II remember
that as jumped Casey held down the
whistle in long, piercing scream. /
think he must have had in mind to
warn the freight conductor in the ca
boose so he could jump"
They took Casey Jones to Canton
where committee Of three of his fell
low workers, Edward O'AIalley, a
round-house machinist, William Bosnia
and Homer English, two locomotive
engineers, took charge Of the arrange
ments for sending the body Of the
dead hero back to his home in Jack
son, Tenn, where his widow, the two
sons and daughter awaited his last
homecoming.
Scarcely less touching than their
sorrow was the grief Of Wallace San
ders at the news that his idol would
take "the Cannonball'' out no more.
Several days after Casey's funeral,
Sanders fellow workers noticed him
going about his duties singing song
about the deeds and the death of
Casey Jones. It was simple mel
ody, but there was something about
it which caught the fancy of those who
heard 1t and the words Of it-there
were only six verses in the original
were easy to remember. Soon they
were all singing the negro engine
wipers tribute to his friend.
One day year or two later a pro-
fessional song writer passed through
Jackson, Miss, and heard the song
sung. He saw the possibilities and re-
wrote the song, retaining, however, the
name Casey Jones and some of the in
cidents of the original story. although
changing the locale considerably. In
changing the original song, some
verses were injected into it which
friends of the heroic engineer resented
bitterly and they forbade its being
sung at all. Their protests, however,
did not prevent the song from being
published and the song writer who
rewrote 1t Is said to have made for.
tune from it, more than ten million
copies having been sold, not to men,
ton innumerable records and piano
rolls.
"The term FOUNDERS used in some
Of the verses and also other terms ap-
piled in various parodies would Gre
ate the impression that he was I'M
stable and reckless" wrote Edward
O'Malley, Casey's friend, in a letter to
Adventure Magazine several years
ago. "Such was not the case. Sober,
reliable, loyal and friendly with ev-
erybody and of smiling, pleasant dis
position, which won him friends wher-
ever he went-such was my friend,
Casey Jones, gentleman" An inter
esting aftermath of the song was a
lawsuit brought by Casey's widow
within recent years against Holly
wood picture company for alleged ex-
ploitation of photographs Of her and
her children in connection with a
movie that had been built around the
famous exploit of the engineer, i'm
mortalized by a song.
Although Casey Jones" is the most
famous of all railroad ballads, there
are others which are not far behind
1t in widespread popularity. For in
stance there is "Old Ninety-Seven."
There are numerous versions of this
song, but the following, according to
r. w. Gordon, an authority on Amer
lean folk songs, is composite of three
different versions and representative
text:
/ was standing on mountain one cold
frosty morning,
] was watching the smoke from be-
low;
1t was curling from long straight
smoke-stack
Way down on the Southern Railroad.
1t was Old Ninety-seven. the fastest
mail-train
The South had ever seen,
And it ran so fast on that fatal Sunday
That the death list numbered thir-
teen.
1t was Old Ninety-seven, the fastest
mail-train
Ever run over the Southern Line,
And when arrived at Monroe, Virginia,
She was forty-seven minutes behind.
steve Branniel was the engineer,