Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 277, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 November 1910 — RAILROAD MEN. HAVE HEART [ARTICLE]

RAILROAD MEN. HAVE HEART

At Cost of Extra Coal and Late Trains They Place Little Girli'on , the Flyer. She was just a plain little girl of seven, yet for her two great limited trains were sidetracked on the prairies, their schedules thrown out 20 . minutes, and SIOO went up* in locomotive smoke. Homer Bull, of Bull Brothers, printers, of Seattle, Wash., told the story. When, he was coming from Wenatchee, on the Great Northern, the other day, a tiny little maid, all by herself, took the seat in front of him. “You’re on the wrong train, my little girl,” said the conductor, as he looked at her ticket. “Is anybody with you?’ l "No,” she said. “I just got onwlth the rest of the people.” “But your ticket is for Spokane and this train is going to Seattle. The bridge is burned behind us and there is trouble in the mountains. There won’t be another train for 24 hours.” “Well, I’m going to Spokane,” she said with childish faith. “All right, little girl; we’ll see what we can do.” Then trainmen and dispatchers got busy. The west-bound train was to wait on a siding for the flying Spokane express to pass it. The Seattle train rushed to the siding. Miles flashed under the wheels. Then a flagman was sent out to stop ■ the Spokane flyer. The west-bound train skidded past the standing train. Then the copduptor picked up the little girl and handed her to a brakeman on the Spokane train, with a word of explanation. It made two trains late and cost something in extra coal. “Railroad men have hearts,” the conductor explained. “I’ve got a little gal at home myself just about the size of that youngster.”