Show FORTY YEARS AS G. G P. P AG A. A I I I I G uG G. G P. P A. A means general passenger agent Colonel S. S SK K Hooper of ot Denver has worn worn and and worn worthily worthily the the rank the Initials Imply for forty years He is now now now-as as all aU men know know general general passenger agent of or the Rio Grande company Forty years rears as a 3 passenger agent agentIs Is an astonishingly long record It isn't that a man has ived aved to a great age Colonel Hoopers Hooper's hair Is la dark darkas as ns the wing of the night raven His carriage e Is erect and his grasp of or hand band and mind as clear and firm as ever He Is better capable of or work now DOW than he ho has e etor er r been Maybe tie ie likes to get gat up a little later in the morning But that is nobody's ys y's busi busl ness excepting hi his own One time time and and that was his first venture Into the life Ufe of a general passenger agent agent he he was in charge of that department for the old Louisville Louis Louis- ville vIlio New Albany and Chicago Railroad Rail road company of Indiana It was one of the first roa roads s in the state state and and at Colonel Hoopers Hooper's day in that service was one of the worst When he proved ability to make passengers smile as the they got down from the old L. L N. N A. A C. C trains he was fit for service Inan in an any company compan on earth Nothing could be harder than that The line traversed the state from south to north It started at the bank of the Ohio river in the time of steamboats steamboats steamboats steam steam- boats on the Wabash It ran in and out among the hills of ut Wash Washington and Orange and Lawrence counties past farms so steep that the good people plowed both sides It crept carefully across U the c shaking bottomless swamps ot of Pu aski and Sta Starke ke and It tt putted puffed and snorted saucily at the foot of the great sand hills on the edge of ot Lake Michigan Passengers used to get down and androU roll roU rock of off tho the track in the southern end of the road and farther north when there had been a heavy dew the theties theties theties ties would splash as the truck came over and squirt muddy water fan far above tho the tops of the the coaches And ma maybe be when they ther got to Michigan City the depot was vas out In the level leveliot lot and maybe it was under twenty feet of sand A changing and vacillating vacillating ing lag nature was the characteristic of the sand dunes of Colonel Hoopers Hooper's northern terminus Through It all he worked for the comfort of or the tile people and the profit of his employers He succeeded In both both and and that is a hard haId thing for a pass passenger nger agent to do Forty years in one service in one line lino of or work There is a stead steadfastness s fastness T about bout it a proof of fitness an evidence of success And If ones one's future state is secured by the good wishes of ot the multitude hero below then Colonel Hooper Hooper when when ho he gets ready for it it- it will be he carried to the skies on flowery beds of ot these |