Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 240, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1910 — TRAMPS AND THE SNOWSHEDS [ARTICLE]

TRAMPS AND THE SNOWSHEDS

Officers Now Guard the Tunnels and the Word Is “Dig Up or " ~ tilke." Up among the serrated peaks of the Sierra the Central Pacific Ratyway company is trying to solve the problem of the age in making suitable disposition of the übiquitous tramp. the picturesque town of Blue Canyon to Truckee is forty-three miles, and with able strategy the railroad generals have picked this section of the road as the battleground. The ultimatum has been issued that stealing rides on trains passing through the snowsheds must cease, and to walk through might result in a fire that would tie up transcontinental traffic. The smoke-grimed wooden tunnel begins at Blue Canyon and ends oij the heights above Donner lake. Through the heart of the Sierra the sheds stand out in bas relief. A mighty monument it is to the energy and constructive genius of those giants of the early ’6os. Crude were the tools —it was the day of black powder blasting—but the completed work stands typical of the dauntless courage of its creators. Having decided that all beating of trains must stop, the Company placed Officers McAuley and Wright at the Blue Canyon portal. Both these men are of tried courage. In the month of May they took vagrants dff the trains and marched them up to the ticket office and compelled them to purchase tickets —the net results being a sale of over $260. The officers are commissioned by the governor of California, but are paid by the company and wear the star and uniform of state police. So where the campfires glitter from coast to coast the alarm has been sounded: “The snowsheds are closed; it’s dig up or hike.” —San Francisco Chronicle.