Show in the Wipers rs tor 1 U W rat an Engine CB BY Y FRANK F R f N K fel S 8 PEA P R M A N M IDS HIS came about through there being whisk whiskers whiskers ers on the rang rails It may not n t be generally 1 g understood that whiskers grow on steel It rails curious as It seems seem they the do More Moreover Moreover t f y f over on steel rails they are dangerous d and 0 at times exceedingly dangerous Do not infer that all steel ste 1 rails rans grow c whiskers nor is It as one might suppose only tile the theold old tall rai that sport them fie Jl youngest rail on the curve cune may boast as stout a beard as the oldest rail on the tangent and ono one just justas as gray They Uney flourish too in spite of oC orders for while whiskers are are permitted on engineers and tolerated on conductors c rs they are arc never novel encouraged on rails however pro provides proVides vides tides the whiskers regardless of at discipline and what Is Ismore ismore ismore more shaves them herself Their culture depends on conditions Some months grow better whiskers than others September is h famous for whiskers while July Tuly grows very few Whiskers will HI grow on steel rails raUs in the air all of a single night but not every very night air will produce whiskers It takes tak I a high frosty air airone airon one that stays out late to make whiskers ra Take for example the night air all of the Black Hills It Jt Itis Is 11 known know 1 everywhere among steel rails as a beard tonic The days moisture falling as the sun drops drops be bC beyond yond ond the hills is drawn Into feathery jeweled crystals of frost froat on the chilly steel as a glass of at Ice water beads In summer shade And these dewy stalagmites rise In a a dainty profusion until when the day peeps into the he cannons tho the track looks like a pair pall of long white streamers winding up and down the levels But Dut beware that track It is ita a very dangerous track and Its ts possibilities lie whore lay layia in the whiskers So it lies in early morning as pretty a death trap as any flower t ever lured a fly only this pitfall waits walts for engines and trains and men and sometimes gets them It waits there on the mountain grades in an am ambush ambush 4 bush really deadly for an unwary train until the t e sun l which is particularly lazy in the fall peeping over Into int the tho th cuts smiles smilee at length leng h on the bearded steel as if it it were too funny and the tha whiskers vanish into thin air airA airA A rail presents no especial dangers and if trainmen In the hills had their way they would w uld never turn a wheel until the sun fun had done bartering barbering I Jut Sut dispatchers not having to do with witti them take no noC C account of whiskers They make only the schedules and the whiskers made mode the tho trouble To lessen their dangers dangersen engineers en always start up hill or down with a tankful of sand and they sand the whiskers It is rough gh barber barberIng barberIng barbering Ing but it helps the driver tires grit a bit Into the face e Of 01 the rail raU and in that way hang on In this emergency a tankful of sand Is bettor than all the air all Westinghouse ever vel stored Alo McGrath was a little sweeper but bul was an all aspiring ono for oven a sweeper may aspire and In n point of or fact most of them do aspire Aloysius worked in the round house hous at the head of or the Wind River RIYal past pass pason paston on the West cst End mountains It is an amazingly rough i ugh country and as for or grades it takes your breath merely j tj to t took look down the levels Three per cent 4 per cent 5 ii per cent It is if really frightful But Aloysius was used us a ato to heavy falls he had begun working for the company c j a I A sweeper under Johnnie Horigan and no engineer engineer would have hae thought of running a grade Stade to compare with Johnnies s headers Horigan Horigan was the first boss Aloysius AJo over Oer had Now Aloysius if caught just right is a a very pretty pr tty name but Johnn o Horigan could make nothing whatever ot of it so ho called Aloysius Alosius Cooney as he said for f short c oney McGrath and by b the way wa If you ou will call caU that M we shall be started right As for Horigan fhe ho homay may mav bo o called anything at least it is certain that on the tho West End Id he has been called everything Johnnie was ordinarily boss sweeper He had suffered numerous pr promotions several times time s to wiper and once once n e eto to bl jJ Pip file hie tendency cy to celebrate t th Se occasions o cal ns lually cost W llin his J job b a and d h he reverted to sweeping If It he be had not Ut been such an w inoffensive lo sawed off little old hl he nl have been tolerated rated on the pay payroll Pl roll tOn but bat fit fie s lead had been b en with the company eom re ho lang arii a ait Jf discharged jo ilo often that of trying a ato to 10 pet get rid of him and In spite of his very er regular habits l hr he h was hanging on somewhere all the time When Johnnie Johnne was gone sone using the word in at least two senses Aloysius Cooney Coone McGrath facto boss bos bo s sweeper It happened first one Sunday morning just ju t after pay pa day IR when Johnnie applied to the preman for permission to go to church Permission was wafa granted ranted and Johnnie started for church but It Is doubt doubtful doubtful ful ul whether he ever eer found it At all events at the end endo o oo of three weeks he lt turned up again at the round house considerably the worse for his attempt att to locate the u c house of oC prayer which he had tried to find only after lit lu had been kicked out of oC every other place in town Aloysius had Improved the intervals by r sweeping tho hP round house as It never noer had been before and ad when Johnnie Horigan returned morally disfigured Aloysius McGrath was already alread promoted to be wiper over 01 his old ohl superior Johnnie was In no wise envious enviouS His only onh move mo was to turn tun the misfortune to account for foran fOrm foran of an m ulterior purpose and he congratulated the boy af ar affecting that he h hal hail stayed away awa to let lot them see gee what stuff the tho young oung fellow was wan made of This put him In a position to negotiate a small loan from his a position of which he never neer neglected the possibilities les It was out of oC the th question to be mad very very long at Johnnie though tho sh one might be very ver often After a time Aloysius got to firing Then he wanted an engine But Hut Huth ho lee h fired tired many months and there came no promotion The trouble was there were no new crews added to the th engine service Nobody got killed nobody quit nobody dUd died One two and three years without a break and little Aloys ius had become a bigger Aloysius and Was still firing He became also alBo discouraged for then the tho force was cut down and he was put back to wiping Never y mind never y mind Cooney old Johnnie Johnniel J g l say It 11 come ome all aU right get yr 1 vet t Lind me a couple till pay pa day da RODne Cooney will w ll you ou I Ill H y yr r ingin yet Cooney Which As Assurance always s cost Aloysius 2 till pay day dV d a and no nond end nd of oC trouble getting petting it back for whoa when ho be collection Johnnie took a very dark view of oC the lads Suture future alluding vaguely vaguel to people who wore were hardhearted od td and ungrateful to their best b t friends And Aloysius Io ius paid raid slight attention to the old sweepers ho really was in the end the means of the tho boy boJ getting his I After three throe years ears of panic and hard ard times on tho mountain division the mines began to reopen r new spurs were 10 laid out construction crews wore were put on anda new activity was everywhere apparent But to filling fill cup of Aloysius woe the tho new new crews crew crews were all sent sen up from McCloud That they the were older men mon inthe order orde felt fo t crowded crowded of It promotion was cold comfort Aloysius out He went very veo blue and the next time Johnnie Johnno ap applied applied plied rIled for a loan Aloysius rebuffed him unfeelingly This in turn tarn depressed John Never mind never mind Ill not be speak In Sn n t Neighbor agin agn t sot set y up If y like stick sUck be Neighbor again agin a ln Johnnie to ut Ill t pt professed a great grett pull with nh the master mechanic That Aloysius might feel still more the sting of hiS nis oldness coldness Johnnie for some days Jays paid much court to the new fireman and engine runners runn rs Nothing about the house was too good for them and as the crafty sweeper never overlooked an opportunity he was In debt before tho the end of the week to most of the brother brotherhood h hood But the tha memorable morning for Aloysius s came shortly th t a It was as one ono of those keen keon October Octo er mornings that bite so in the hills Hm The construction n train Stra extra to west had started about 5 from r m he the head of oC tho the pass with a load of ot steel steal for Dr the tra layers lavers and stopped for a bite of ot breakfast ft at Wind River Above Aboc the round house there is a switchback W When hen the train pulled in the crew got off of for soma hot coffee Johnnie Horigan was around playing good fel fellow fellow fellow low and he ho climbed into the cab to run the train trail through the switchback while the crews brews were at the eating house It was irregular to leave the engine but they did and as for Johnnie Horigan he was regularly Irregular There were sixteen cars of steel in the tho string s string besides a caboose full of laborers Tho The backing Up ip the leg l on the nipper was easy cagy After the switch h was set Johnnie pulled down the tho lower leg and that at con considering considering considering tho thus whiskers was too easy When tP hp pulled past the eating house on the down downgrade grade prado he was going so ro lively livel with his flats lats that he was qs away before the crew could coul get o out t of o the lunchroom In just ono one minute everybody in Wind Ind River Rh er wa was in trouble the crew Crew because their train ws disappearing down the canyon the eating house man because no ne nobody body paid him for his coffee and Johnnie be foe cause he found it impossible to stop He lie had dumped the th sand he had applied the air he had reversed the engine By all the rules laid down in III the instruction car she ought to stop she stop and this was the embarrassing feature she was headed down a hill twenty miles mUes long with curves cunes to weary w ary a boa con constrictor constrictor constrictor John hung his head wildly over the drivers looked back at the th yelling elling crew contemplated the load that was pushing him down the grade and lite hea head began bt gan to swim Thero appeared but one thing more to todo todo do that was to made madea a noise and andas as he neared the round house he whistled like the Ule wind Aloysius loy IU Cooney McGrath at the alarm d darted rt o fth the house ouse iZ F i of the two flats fiats for tor a head and from the far corner threw himself across the gap sap like a bat on n a load lOad of the runaway steel Scrambling to lug his feet teet he be motioned m and yelled to the hoboes who w o were pouring frantic out outon outon outon on the hind flat fiat of at the string to set yet brakes then he made ahead for the engine It was a race w with tB the odds all wrong for with very every yard rd gained the train gained a dozen By B the time he reached rea hed the th tender breathless and rid slid down a athe the coal eoal Into the deserted ab was healing heading Into Little Horn Born gap giP gap and Italian aboard f yelling elling lJ g for life Aloysius jumped r ti the levers poked poke ins lils head through too the window and ana looked a at the drat drivers ers That i f u were in the back motion and In front front of them Sand was wai streaming t wide open The first first i thin he did did was s to shut shut half alf it it the fight could not be won by b wasting r ammunition Over and over again he jerked at the air It was refusing its work Where so many maw a hunted hm t d runner has turned for salvation there ther was Was none for Aloysius He opened and closed threw on and threw off it was all aU one on and all useless The situation was as simple as it was frightful Even If they leave eave the track they were certain to smash into No N 16 lG the up passenger which must meet them somewhere on the hill t Aloysius fingers closed slowly on the sand lever leer There was nothing on earth for it but sand merely sand and even the wipers was oozing with the stream that poured from the tank on the whiskered r d rails He shut of oC a bit more thinking of the terrific curves curves below and mentally calculated or tried to how long his steam team would mould last to reverse the drivers how bow he could ahoy it coal and sand the curves cunes at the th same sa e time and how how much slewing slowing the th Italians at the tail tall tail of the kite could stand without landing on on the rocks The pace was giddy and worse When his brain was whirling fastest a man put a hand on his shoulder Aloysius started as if Davy Jones had tapped t him and between n bounces looked scared around He ed into a aia face ehe he know from Adam Adams s but there was s sand sandIn sandin sandin In the eyes that met his i iV What V tat can I do doJ Aloysius Alosius saw saw J the mans lips Ups move sand without taK i 0 c 4 0 f 0 tab f i i f I 1 l I qi I ri i I f i lz I 4 t I 1 a 1 i ir ii ip W r p i 1 Q y ya f fi fV 1 i a i V 1 f l 4 i l r l Y rI r l jT I 2 i p t l 2 1 l I the boss b ss When Wh n I made Id made madee it harder har der 1 lad d J known oW Who you ou u were vere ti V d the foreman t IS p fY t p is t like a fox As he reached the door he h saw th con construction construction On train coming and Johnnie Johnnic Horigan in the sang gang gangway i ng way wa looking for a soft place pla e to light The wiper wip r chartered ch the situation in a mental sec sac second second ond The train was running away awa and Horigan was leaving caving it to its fate From any an point of ot vieW it was a tough proposition but tough propositions come come rarely to t ambitious railroad men and Aloysius was wafe starving st for f rany any sort of a proposition that would hemp help 1 him liim out of the waste The laborers In the caboose already dy be bewildered bewildered bewildered were craning anxiously from the windows Horigan opposite the round house jumped jumpe J in if f sprawl wl the engine was shot past Aloysius boarding vas out of the question But on the siding stood a couple of flats empty and with his hair hall straight on centers the little wiper wi POl ran for them and mounted the nearest The steel train was was jumping Aloysius bunched his hl muscle mus e ran the length 4 4 ins inc his hands from the levers bent hiss head to catch the he hew w voids of ds What can I do shouted shouted the man at his elbow Give Ghe me steam steam cried the wiper looking stra straight hf ahead It was the foreman of the he steel steer gang from the caboose ca caboose boose Aloysius through the the backs of C his Is eyes saw s him himm n erab the shovel and make a pass at the tender t Doing Dorng so he nearly took a header through the gangway but buthe buthe buthe he hung to the shovel and braced himself himself better better With the next attempt he sot got gota a into the ie cab celb but in the delivery passed it well up Aloysius neck There were neither words nor grins but just an another another other of coal a minute after and the track tracklayer layer laver in spite of ot the dizzy lurching shot it where it belonged into the furnace Feeling that if one could be landed more could Aloysius Alosius own steam rose As As they headed madly around the Cinnamon bend the dial began to climb in is spite of obstacles and the wiper considering there were |