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Show (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) That 'Brave Engineer' FOUR o'clock of a November morning in the year 1041. North of the little town of Vaughan. Miss., the Panama Limited, crack train of the Illinois Central, slows down, then comes to a stop at a switch. Down from the observation platform on the rear car steps a little group of men. They are members of the American Railway Magazine Editors' Edi-tors' association, en route to New Orleans, for their annual meeting. A moment later they are joined by a few passengers rubbing the sleep from their eyes. They group themselves across the roadbed, around the V-shaped switch. Then ' I : .. . , I -' ', ' j ; i : i ) CASEY JOKES in the hush of the "darkness just . before dawn" they raise their voices in this song: Come, all you Rounders. I want you to hear : The story of a brave engineer: Casey Jones was the Rounder's name. On a high right-wheeler, he rode to fame. : Caller called Casey about half past four; I He kissed his wife at the station door. i Climbed into the cab with orders in his hand, I Saying. ."This Is my trip to the Holy Land." Through the South Memphis yards on the fly, He heard the fireman say, "You got a white eye." All the switchmen knew by the engine's moans. That the man at the throttle was Casey Jones. It had been raining some five or six weeks: The railroad track was like the bed of a creek; They slowed him down to a thirty-mile gait-Threw gait-Threw the southbound mail about eight hours late. Fireman says, "Casey, you're runnin' too fast. You over-ran that signal the last station we passed." Casey says. "Yes, I believe we'll make it though. For she steams a lot better than ever I know." Casey says. "Fireman, don't you fret. Keep knockin' at that fire-door; don't give up yet. I'm going to run her till she leaves the rail. Or make It on time with the southbound mail." Around the curve and a-down the dump. Two locomotives were bound to bump. Fireman hollered, "Casey, it's just ahead! We might jump and make it, but we'll all be dead!" Around the curve he spied a passenger train. Rousing his engine, he caused the bell to ring. Fireman jumped off, but Casey stayed on. He's a good engineer but he's dead and gone. Poor Casey Jones was always all right. For he stuck to his duty both day and night. They loved to hear the whistle of ole Number Three. I As he rolled into Memphis on the ole I. C. Headaches and heartaches and all kinds of pain Thev ain't apart from a railroad train. Stories of brave men noble and gran Belong to the life of a railroad man. And thus it was that, 40 years later and on the scene of his death, tribute was paid to that "brave engineer," en-gineer," the immortal Casey Jones. He was an engineer in the passenger passen-ger service of the Illinois Central. On April 30. 1900. he took another man's run and made up an hour and a half's lost time on a three-hour three-hour dash of 174 miles. His engine crashed into the caboose of a freight train that had just failed to clear the main line at the "north switch" near Vaughan and "Casey" Jones became a folksong hero. Born in Hickman. Ky., on March 14, 13G4, John L. Jones gained his famous nickname from the fact that at one time in his youth he had lived in the town of Cayce, Ky. (pronounced "Kay-see"). When he applied for his first railroad job he gave Cayce as his home town and j during his six years in train and en-! en-! gine service on the Mobile and Ohio, 1 it was natural that his felluw-v.ork-crs should call him "Casey" Jor.cs. He entered the service of the 1 1 1 i -! nois Central as a fireman in- Mwrch. J 18r.IJ,. and was promoted to engineer engi-neer in February, 18S0. |