Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1893 — A CURIOUS MONOPOLY. [ARTICLE]

A CURIOUS MONOPOLY.

Strange Thing* That Occur on a Little Sohoharie County Railroad* Schoharie County has the distinction of having within its boundariesone of the shortest, if not the shortest, railroads in New York. There is nothing remarkable about the road being short, but there is something really funny in the manner in which the road is run, if the following statements in the Albany Argus are true: In the first place the road, which runs from Schoharie Junction, on the Delaware and Hudson Railroad, to Middleburg, is but eleven miles long. The road from the 'junction to Schoharie is owned by several brothers named Vrooman, and from Schoharie to Middleburg by a stock company headed by George N. Frisbee as president. Every year the Vrooman brothers hold a meeting and bid for the lease of their portion of the road for the ensuing year. This year Cornelius Vrooman has charge of the road. He took possession April 5 last, and is showing the people of Schoharie valley an example of a model railroad man. Mr. Vrooman not only manages the road, but he sells tickets at the Schoharie station and acts as conductor on the train between Schoharie and the junction. The rolling stock of this remarkable railroad consists of one locomotive and two combination passenger and baggage cars. The road employs one engineer, one fireman, one baggageman, and one trainman. No track gang is employed, and if repairs are needed to the roadbed a farm hand is placed to work by the day. The revenue from the railroad at present will not cause its owners to build castles, but in the near future their hard work and expenditure of money in operating a road for the convenieface of the residents of Schoharie and Middleburg will be rewarded But these places are growing, and in a few years will have so advanced in population that the present road will be unable to accommodate its patrons. This will then lead to a reconstruction of the road, which will, of course, help those who have labored so hard for the success of the old road. An amusing incident occurred on the train going from Schoharie Junction to Schoharie one morning recently. There were several Albanians aboard who were going to the Schoharie County fair. Among them was a well-known real estate man, who had been “kidding” the conductor about the frequent stops made by the train to pick up passengers. At a small grove the train halted, and the real estate man, addressing the conductor, said: “Well| what are we stopping here for?” The conductor turned to his tormentor and without the sign of a smile replied: “You see that bush over there? Well, directly under that is a hen’s nest. The engineer saw the hen go on the nest, and he has stopped to wait for the egg.” The passengers burst into laughter and the joking real estate man felt like crawling out of the window.