The trail of the swinging lanterns : $b a racy, railroading review of transportation matters, methods and men — John Shaqi
The trail of the swinging lanterns : $b a racy, railroading review of transportation matters, methods and menCopeland, John Morison
History
The trail of the swinging lanterns : $b a racy, railroading review of transportation matters, methods and men
Copeland, John Morison
Railroads -- Canada
Moving westward over designated routes from Chicago, the canary-colored
coaches were pulled by locomotives with yellow bellied boilers, wheels
painted scarlet and ponderous smokestacks--hummers in the old days--but
antiques in 1918. They bore such names as Antelope, Reindeer, Thistle,
&c., as well as of prominent people.
BOIL THEM WHEN THEY’RE TOUGH
Picking her way daintily through the grime of the locomotive works,
a young woman visitor viewed the huge operations with visible awe.
Turning to a young man from the office who was shewing her through and
pointing, she asked, “What is that big thing over there?”
“That’s a locomotive boiler”, said the guide.
She puckered her brows.
“And what do they boil locomotives for?” she enquired.
“To make the locomotive tender”, said the young man from the office,
with amazing effrontery.
YOUNG’S MAGAZINE
What a shock it would be to My Lady’s complacency if, on her journey
now, she should find it necessary to raise a sunshade in the coach to
protect her raiment from the rain and snow sifting through the chinks
and rifts in the car. This age is not without some blessings, as Ben
Fletcher might have exclaimed. We are reminded here of a characteristic
of Mr. Fletcher, who was advance agent for “D.G.H. & M.” He had been
working up business for an excursion to Nebraska, which did not “pan
out,” one solitary passenger offering his patronage. The selling agent
wired him for instructions and received reply couched thusly: “By the
great horned toad Reginald, chain him to the seat!”
The “St. P.M. & M.,” at birth “St. Paul & Pacific,” later converted
by astute minds into the “Great Northern Railway,” was the railroad
which gave that big quartette, Messrs. Angus, Smith, Hill and Stephens,
a gilt-edged monopoly of Manitoba emigration and, incidentally, the
patronage of dame fortune. Men and chattels had only shank’s mare as
an alternative to this line northward from St. Paul as far as Fisher’s
Landing, a Red River port. Here, transfer was made to the Kittson Line
of steamboats plying to Fort Garry now Winnipeg, and owned by Norman
Kittson, a colleague of J. J. Hill in some early business ventures.
In winter the trip was made by stage travelling part way over thick
ice. Mr. Kittson was one of several successors to Anson Northrup, the
pioneer navigator of the Upper Mississippi River who launched his first
craft there in 1835.
The Great Northern Railway, during the time of the Manitoba boom, and
since, was championed in Canada by “live wires” such as Jack Huckins,
resourceful Ham McMicken, who is acting for the road in Europe at
present, Messrs. Kinsley, Graves, Wurtele, Watkins, Hetherington, Tudor
and Brooks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account