Services 1

At eleven-thirty I was standing by the desk talking to the clerk, when the night operator came charging out of the office and gave me a little piece of yellow paper. I quickly opened it and read, “Sampson entirely destroyed Cervera’s fleet this morning.” News like that, if true, was too good to keep, so I went into the telegraph office and had a wire cut through to the New York office and asked for a confirmation or denial of the report. They confirmed it and gave me the text of the official report. I bounded out in the hall and shouted out the glorious news at the top of my voice. Gloom was dispelled instanter, and joy reigned supreme.

Williard was deeply in love, too, with Senator Gordon’s lovely daughter, and Senator Gordon was that mysterious power which directed the Republican forces in his section of the state. So you may readily believe that Carrington was forced to put up a better fight than Williard, who stood high in Senator Gordon’s favor. The girl and the two young men had been friends since childhood, and nobody knew whether she cared for either of them in the way they desired. Everybody in town, who was anybody, understood the situation; and everybody felt confident that Williard was most likely to win. The girl never said anything, even to her intimate friends; but when the subject was brought up, she smiled in a way that dismissed it.

A woman would instantly have noticed the beauty of her sables, but I was a man pin up casino to whom such details were inconsequent. How easy it is for a woman to hurt the man she knows is in love with her! And the Girl had hurt me more than I was willing to confess even to myself. She had implied that I had carelessly broken an engagement. “Delight’! We have meexed zee hats, I have zee r-r-regret. Ees thees your hat?” He held out, for my inspection, an opera-hat.

HOW A SMART OPERATOR WAS SQUELCHED—THE GALVESTON FLOOD

The number of each train is at the head of the appropriate column, and under it are the number of the engine, the names of the conductor and engineer, and the number of loads and empties in the train. All trains on the division are arranged in three classes, and each class has certain rights. Trains of the first class are always passengers; the through freight, and the combination freight and passenger trains compose the second class. All other trains, such as local freights, work trains and construction trains belong to the third class. It is an invariable rule on all railroads that trains running one way have exclusive rights over trains of their own and of inferior classes running in the opposite direction.

THE MILITARY OPERATOR—A FAKE REPORT THAT NEARLY CAUSED TROUBLE

• “Oh, if it’s a secret, far be it that I should strive to peer within. The colonel is a lucky dog. If I were half as lucky, I shouldn’t be writing novels for a living.”
• For about eight months, when my second trick man took sick, and being advised to seek a healthier climate, resigned and went south.
• “No, I can’t say that you do. But what in the world am I to do?” He mopped his brow in the ecstasy of anguish.

He wanted that sense of physical exhaustion which makes a man indifferent to mental blows. There were many laughable episodes during the heat of the campaign; but Carrington knew how and when to laugh. He answered questions from the platform, and the ill-mannered were invariably put to rout by his good-natured wit.

“But just here an inspiration struck me. I opened the front door of the cab, stepped out on the running-board, and a second later was holding Barney’s smoking torch down in the dome. “Dick came with a sandwich in one hand and a can of coffee in the other. This reminded Barney of his lunch, and setting his torch down on the top of the cab, he scrambled down on the other side and hurried off to the sand-dryer, where the gang used to eat their dyspepsia insurance and swap lies. “When I got near my engine, I was surprised to see Barney Murry, the night machinist, with his torch up on the cab—he was putting in the newly-ground throttle. “‘Why, ain’t you gone out yet?’ and started off, telling the roundsman to keep the bunkos off me up to the shop. I thought then I was caught, but I was not, and the bluecoat bid me a pleasant good-night, at the shop yard. “I wrapped one of the packages up in these and boldly stepped out into the glare of the electric lights—I remember I thought the town too darned enterprising. “I’ll never forget how I felt there in the dark with all that money that wasn’t mine, and if some one had have said ‘boo’ from behind a stump, I should have probably dropped the boodle and taken to the brush.

I learned that our train had stopped on account of a hot driving-box on the engine; the hind brakeman had been sent back to put out a flag, but, imagining there was nothing coming, he had neglected to do his full duty, and before he knew it, a fast freight came tearing around the bend, and a tail-end collision was the result. Seeing the awful effects of his gross neglect, the brakeman took out across the country and was never heard of again. I fancy if he could have been found that night by the passengers and train-crew his lot would have been anything but pleasant.

“Convention! Formality! Detestable things, always setting Romance at arm’s length, and making Truth desire to wear fashionable clothes.” “It might really belong to a princess, but only in a fairy-book; for all the princesses I have ever seen couldn’t put a hand in a shoe like this, much less a foot. And when I declare to you, upon my honor, that I have met various princesses in my time, you will appreciate the compliment I pay to Cinderella.” There was, however, a mixture of amusement, hauteur (that darling word of the lady novelists!) and objection. She hadn’t the least idea who I was, and I was not going to tell her for some time to come. “Madam, have you lost a slipper?” I asked politely. I held toward her the dainty shoe that might very well have appareled the foot of Venus; only one can not quite lift the imagination to the point of picturing Venus rising out of the Cyprian wave in a pair of ball-room slippers.

I believe that the last time I heard the story, it was calmly stated that thirty million dollars was taken. One of the strongest characters I ever knew was a runner out there by the name of Gunderson—Oscar Gunderson. He was of Swedish parentage, very light-complexioned, very large, and a splendid mechanic, as Swedes are apt to be when they try. Gunderson’s name was, I suppose, properly entered on the company’s time-book, but it never was in the nomenclature of the road. With the railroaders’ gift for abbreviation and nickname, Gunderson soon came down to “Gun,” his size, head, hand or heart furnished the prefix of “Big,” and “Big Gun” he remains to-day.

“I am sorry. You are in great trouble of some sort, I know; and there’s nothing in the world I would not do to save you from this trouble. Let me take you home and continue the search alone. I’ll find him if I have to search the whole town.” “I am poor, and the case involved some of my bread and butter. The work was done at ten, and even then I did not discover that I had in any way affronted you. I had it down in my note-book as Wednesday night.” So I reluctantly got into my coat again, drew on a topcoat, and put on the hat that fitted me. Probably the girl had been writing some fortunate fellow a love-letter. No gentleman will ever overlook a chance to do a favor for a young girl in distress. I had scarcely drawn my stick from the umbrella-jar when the bell rang once again.

The cords and gags were beginning to hurt, and my anxiety was very great. The minutes dragged slowly by, and I thought that hour would never end; but it did end at last, and all of a sudden I heard the long calliope whistle of the engine on the Flyer as she came down the grade. This was followed by two short blasts, that showed she had seen my red-light and was going to stop. “Has she been warned?” So soon as the train whistled the men went out leaving me helpless on the table. I heard the whistle of the air brakes and knew the train must be slowing up.

“No. 21 went through Big River bridge to-night; track was soft all the way over from Truxton; engine, mail, baggage and one coach on the bridge when it gave way; three Pullmans stayed on the track. Roberts, engineer; Carter, fireman, and Sampson, conductor, all missing. Need doctors. They received their orders, and as Roberts went out the door, he laughingly said, “I reckon, Bates, you’d better send the wrecker out right after us to fish me out of Big River to-night.” Things ran along very smoothly for a while and I was having a good time. The winter passed and with the advent of spring came the heavy rains for which that part of the country was justly noted. I started to reason with him, when he slammed the window in my face. That made me madder than a March hare, and I told him if he didn’t let me in that office mighty quick, I’d smash that window into smithereens and come in anyhow.

The transom over the door to the “Holy of Holies” was open, and I heard the well-known voice of ‘Lige “the Lion”. “Mother,” was still for a minute, looking at the fire in the grate. “James, it is late in life to apply such tests, but love is like gold; ours will be better now—the dross has been burned away in the fire. I did what I did for love of you, and you did what you did for love of me; let us all commence to live again in the old way,” and those arms of hers could not keep away from his neck.

My berth was in the front end of the last car on the train. I retired about half past ten and soon dropped off into a sound sleep. I had been asleep for perhaps two hours, when I was awakened by the car giving a violent lurch, and then suddenly stopping. I was stunned and dazed for a moment, but I soon heard the cracking and breaking of timbers, and the hissing of steam painfully near to my section. I tried to move and rise up, but found that the confines of my narrow quarters would not permit it. I then realized that we were wrecked and that I was in a bad predicament.