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

~ to the world one of the
EEIH most famous Of all ma
tive American ballads
which you will still hear sung in al
most any part of the country, even
though 81 years have elapsed since
"Casey Jones mounted to the cabin
with his orders in his hand and took
his farewell trip to that promised
iand.n
In 1900 John Luther Jones was the
engineer on the Memphis, Tenn Can
ton, Miss, run Of the Illinois Central's
crack train, "the Cannonball." He was
husky Irishman, six feet four
inches tall, dark-haired, gray-eyed,
good-natured, big-hearted Celt, we'll
liked by all the railroaders in that sec
ton. If you had asked one of them
about John Luther Jones, he prob
ably would have answered "Oh, you
mean Casey Jones-"For Casey Jones
he was to the railroad men, a nick
name that was fastened on him be-
cause he was born near Cayce, KY,
and down there they pronounced it in
two syllables-Cay-ce. So "Cayce"
Jones soon became %Casey" Jones.
Casey started his railroadin' on the
Mobile & Ohio late in the eighties.
He put in several years as a freight
and passenger engineer on the Illinois
Central between Jackson and Water
Valley, Miss, and then, at the age Of
thirty-seyen, he was put at the throt-
tie of 'the Cannonball." Already he
was locally famous for his peculiar
skill with a locomotive whistle. His
method Of blowing 1t was a sort of a
personal trademark. 1t was a long
drawn-out note, beginning softly, then
rising to a shrill moaning blast, finally
dying away almost to whisper. To
people living along the right-of-way
Of the Central in Mississippisand Ten
nessee it was a familiar sound. At
night they would lie in their beds and
listen for a sound of one locomotive
whistle, and when they heard it they
would say "There goes Casey Jones ~
as the train roared by and Casey whis-
tied for the next crossing.
Not only was Casey well-liked by
the other railroad men but he was the
idol Of Wallace Sanders, negro coal
HEAVIER at Canton, Miss, who became
an engine wiper in the round house
there about the time Casey first
mounted to the cabin" Of 1.-THE Cam
nonball." Wallace was accustomed to
brag nightly about the prowess of
'Mistah Casey" and caring for his en-
CINE was labor of love for the col
Ored man.
About ten o'clock one Sunday night,
April 20, 1900, Casey and his fireman,
Sim Webb, rolled into Memphis from
Canton and, going into the checking-in
Office, were preparing to go to their
homes when somebody said "Joe Lewis
has just been taken with the cramps
and can't take his train out tonight"
"All right, Ill double back and pull
old $685." said Jones. No. 63S was
Lewis locomotive.
1t was rainy night as No. 63S with
Casey and Sim Webb in the cabin
rolled out Of the station and rumbled
through the South Memphis yards.
"Wonder what's the matter with Lew
is," remarked one Of the yardmen to
another, for the switchmen ''knew by
the engines moan that the man at the
throttle was Casey Jones'" Through
the sleeping countryside of Tennessee
and Mississippi roared the train, and
more than one farmer said to himself,
'There goes Casey JONES'" as he lis
tened sleepily to the long moaning
whistle Of old No. 638.
It was four o'clock in the morning
on April 80 as No. 6SS swept around a
long winding curve just above the lit
tie town Of Vaughn, Miss. Where the
curve ended long sidetrack began
and Casey Jones, peering out of his
cab window to see If the lights ahead
were green or red, yelled across to
Sim Webb, "There's freight train on
the siding" Sim nodded and kept on
with his coal shoveling.
Knowing that the siding was long
one and having passed many other
freights on 1t, Casey didn't reduce his
speed. He didn't know that there
were two separate sections of a very
long train on the sidetrack that night
and that the rear one was too long to
get all Of its cars off the main line on
to the siding. The freight train crews
had figured on Saving by''-as soon
as the passenger train passed the
front part of the train it would move
forward and the rear part would move
up. thus going of CT the main track.
But they hadn't figured on Casey's
speed-it was more than so miles an
hour.
Within hundred feet of the end
Of the siding, the startled gaze OF