Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 October 1885 — INVENTOR OF THE BELL ROPE. [ARTICLE]

INVENTOR OF THE BELL ROPE.

The First Bell in an Engine Cab Was a Cow Bell, and a Clothes-Line Jingled It. “Did you know Capt. Ayers ?” said a well-known railroad man. “Well, he was famous for two things. He was the conductor on the first through train on the Erie from tide water to the great lakes, and he was the inventor of the bell rope by which train men signal the engineer. He was familiarly known as Poppy. Trains on the Erie, when Capt. Ayers was first employed, were few and far between. Passengers never thought of buying tickets, but paid fares on the train. In case a passenger was obstreperous and refused to pay up, there was no way of stopping the train to eject him, and so people were frequently carried from one station to another without paying anything for it. “Poppy Ayers was running a train between Piermont and Turner’s, which was the western terminus of the road at the time. The engineer of the train was a big burly German, who, like all engineers in those days, regarded himself as the master of the train, the conductor being simply a machine to take fares. One day Poppy had been bothered more than usual on his train by stubborn passengers, and be got to thinking how he could establish communication between himself and the engineer while the train was in motion, and the idea struck him. When he got to Turner’s he obtained a section of clothes-line long enough to reach from the engine to the rear of the train. He tied a stick of wood to one end of the rope, and fixed it in the engineer’s, cab so that when he ran the rope back over the train and pulled on it the stick would be agitated. Then he explained to the engineer the idea, and told him whenever he saw the stick move up and down he must stop the train, for there would be some one on the train who ought to be thrown off. This innovation was resisted by the engineer as an infringement on his rights and the dignity of his office. It was virtually placing the train at the order of the conductor —a thing that could not for a moment be tolerated. So when the train started he removed the stick of wood that dangled near his head, and tied the rope fast. Poppy Ayres persisted in tying on the rope and the engineer persisted in ignoring his authority, until one day Poppy, after tying the wood to the rope and hanging it in the cab, turned to the engineer, and, taking him by the throat, exclaimed: “Now, you pig-headed idiot, which will you do: Let that stick alone and stop the train when I pull the rope, or will you take the d——dest licking you ever heard tell of ?’ “‘The engineer weakened and said he’d mind the signal, and he did. Shortly after that Poppy fitted a cowbell in the cab and threw out the stick of wood. Whenever that cow-bell sounded the train was brought to a stand in short order, and some passenger knew that he must either come down with his fare or get hustled out between stations regardless of circumstances. At dne stroke Poppy Ayres subordinated the engineer and increased the revenue of the company.” —New York Sun.