Part 14

O ye hooting witches of the midnight orgy and screeching jagaurs squirming in the fatal coils of Columbian pythons, never was there such a scream and succession of fearful cries emitted as arose from the prostrate player rolling over and over before the multitude in an agonized struggle to right himself. The approaching bay of a hungry winter wolf pack in full tongue is unequalled as a shudder producer and fearful indeed, our ancestors say, were the howls of redskins bent on massacre. The field and stand had never listened to these, but they heard Spider O’Toole and were transfixed with thrills in speechless anticipation. Wild eyed and sweating they found him, the grimey ball still in his grasp and two water snakes wound about his wrist and forearm with ugly heads and forked tongues shooting this way and that as their bodies writhed and rubbed his bare skin in efforts to free themselves from his powerful clutch, poor O’Toole dancing in near convulsions, meanwhile beseeching the rescuers to free him from the loathsome girdle. It would appear that the reptiles had come out of the water, as they sometimes do, and after the manner of their kind, curled up together and gone to sleep in one of the swampy depressions close to the fence bounding extreme centre field, and this was the handful the fingers of Claudius O’Toole closed on. The shortstop and fielder who first reached their horrified leader state _sub rosa_ that he was muttering pieces of prayers, swearing on the bones of King Kelly, and vowing by Ptolemy’s ancient mummies that he would nail those flying runners at the plate. In his wanderings he was heard to mention “Log over the Chaudiere”, “See their flat, evil heads” and “St. Patrick to the rescue”.

When the commotion subsided and the contented Peterboroughese were discussing the absorbing topic on their way home, Mister O’Toole disrobed in the dressing room and while introducing his friends Gerald O’Flaherty and Jimmie Goodall to Mr. Nelson, declared by all the hairy chested “oorang ootangs” in the Zambesi Country that he would in future manage his team from the bench when they clashed with the Bluejays at home. Therefore you may not view Spider O’Toole in action again beside the winding Otonabee River, but sooner or later, he will emulate a spike-heeled river driver with peavie in hand, riding a pine log over the Chaudiere in order that a pound of flesh may be delivered to Silent Tom Nelson, President of the Brantford Green Sox.

A HAPHAZARD CHRONOLOGY

1804--Richard Trevithick experimented in England with the earliest type of steam locomotive and it is said that his son F. H. Trevithick, was the first locomotive superintendent of the Grand Trunk Railway.

1807--Fulton introduced the use of a steam propelled vessel on the Hudson River, which proved a practical success in handling passengers and goods between Albany and New York.

1809--Period of the first steamboat operated between Quebec and Montreal on the St. Lawrence River.

1814, July 25--George Stephenson, Father of Railways, successfully operated his steam locomotive “Blucher” in the coal country of the Tyne, at four miles per hour, which was the first real inception of steam engines as a commercial possibility.

1816--S.S. “Frontenac” was the earliest Lake Ontario steamer.

1825--Stockton & Darlington Railway opened to traffic in England.

1828--Saw the first steam driven train in America, operated by the South Carolina Railway, South Carolina.

1830--The Baltimore & Ohio Railway engine “Tom Thumb” was used.

1831--Witnessed the launching, according to Doctor Sandford Fleming, of S.S. “Royal William” which completed a passage from Quebec to London, England, in 1833, consuming 25 days from Pictou, N.S. One of the owners was Samuel Cunard, born in Halifax, N.S., who, with his brothers, created the nucleus of the now famous Cunard Line. In June, 1894, a brass tablet commemorating the event was unveiled in the Parliamentary Library at Ottawa, by Lord Aberdeen.

1832, July 31--First American Railway train on the Mohawk & Hudson Ry. which ran between Albany and Schenectady, N.Y. The train was pulled by engine “John Bull” which came from England in S.S. “Mary Howland”. It heads this chronology. Among other passengers in the last coach was Thurlow Weed, Esq., Editor Albany Evening Journal and ex-Governor Yates. The footnote states that in the second coach traveled Jacob Hays, a celebrated New York thief catcher.

1832--First railway charter issued in Canada to Champlain & St. Lawrence Railroad, an 18 mile line from La Prairie, Quebec, on the St. Lawrence above Montreal, to St. Johns, Quebec, on the Richelieu River. The motive power was horses until steam engine replaced them in 1837.

1837--Cumberland Valley Railway, in Pennsylvania, is said to have used the first sleeping car.

1838, April 3--Lieutenant Roberts, R.N., set sail from Cork, Ireland, in the two funnelled, one master “Sirius” of the St. George Steam Packet Company, with forty passengers at 35 guineas per capita, and arrived at New York in 19 days, being the earliest steam vessel crossing from Europe to America.

1850--First public proposal, as a practical enterprise, to lay a Trans-atlantic cable, made by Right Reverend J. T. Mullock, Catholic Bishop of St. Johns, Newfoundland, which American Trans-atlantic Telegraph Company realised in 1867 under the chairmanship of Peter Cooper, the philanthropist.

1851, Sept.--At Boston, Mass., occurred a three day jubilee to celebrate the connection by railway of Montreal and Boston, at which President Filmore of United States and Lord Elgin, Queen Victoria’s representative in British North America, were prominent amongst a large gathering of distinguished international visitors.

1851–2--First international suspension bridge erected over Niagara River by Great Western-New York Central Rys. The engineer was John A. Roebling, it cost $400,000, kites were used to carry across the first ropes. The late Bob. Lewis was telegraph operator at Suspension Bridge at that time and Ferdinand Richardt painted from a daguerreotype the picture of this bridge from which D. L. Glover engraved any prints extant.

1852–3--Inauguration of Ontario, Simcoe & Huron Railway. Incorporated 1849, it was the first of Ontario’s lines and ran from the foot of Brock Street, Toronto, to Collingwood, on Georgian Bay. It became the Northern Railway 1859, amalgamated with the Hamilton & Northwestern Railway 1884, and was merged into the Grand Trunk Railway 1888.

The Lady Elgin, Ontario’s first locomotive, made for the O.S. & H.R., came in parts from Portland, Maine, 1852, traveled via Oswego, N.Y., and vessel to Toronto, and John Harvie, lately deceased in that city, was the first O.S. & H.R. conductor in charge of the train this engine pulled, Carlos McColl was the first driver and Joseph Lopez was the first fireman of that ancient locomotive. It was broken up and melted in 1881.

TOO MUCH NERVE TONIC

Timid Party--“This train seems to be traveling at a fearful pace Ma’am! I feel nervous.”

Stolid elderly female--“Yus--aint it? My Bill’s a-drivin’ of the ingin’ an’ ’e can make her go when ’e’s got a drop o’ drink in ’im.--_Tit Bits_”

1853--Telegraphy was used by the Grand Trunk Railway. H. P. Dwight is said to have been the father of the utility in Canada.

1853–4–5--Great Western Railway of Canada built from Niagara Falls via London to Windsor beside Detroit River.

1853–63--C. J. Brydges was managing director, respectively of the Great Western Railway and Grand Trunk Railway in Canada.

1854, July 22--Victoria Bridge over St. Lawrence River, which cost $7,000,000, was started and in November, 1859, it was opened for traffic.

1855--H. C. Bourlier, formerly Western Passenger Agent Allan Line, Toronto, was manager, agent and conductor of trains on 48 miles of line from Point Levis to St. Thomas, Quebec, on the I.C.R., which he designated the “Tommy Cod” Line.

1856, Oct. 27--The Grand Trunk Railway, incorporated 1852, operated its first train from Montreal to Toronto in fourteen hours, the Quebec Metropolis celebrating the event by a banquet in the Point St. Charles Shops when 4,400 people sat down beside a mile of tablecloth.

1858--Chicago & Alton Railroad experimented with George Pullman’s car and Colonel J. L. Barnes, afterwards for years superintendent on the Santa Fe System, was the first parlor car conductor.

1860–63--A brother of John Bell, late General Counsel of Grand Trunk Ry., genial, humorous Robert Bell, built and managed the Prescott & Bytown (Ottawa) Railway, an early undertaking born of many vicissitudes, which resorted in extremity to wooden rails to enter Bytown.

1864--The first successful trial of a railway postal car, assorting mail matter in transit, occurred on the “C. & N.W.R.” and other lines.

1869--A. O. Pattison, now G.T.R. Agent at Clinton, Ont., was ticket seller with the “G.T.R.” at Brantford, Canada, in the days of C. J. Brydges and W. J. Spicer. Conductors Ausbrooke and David McHaffy were his contemporaries.

1869--Toronto, Grey & Bruce Railway, Toronto to Owen Sound, Ont., and Teeswater, was built by Edmund Wragge.

1869–1875--Walter Shanley, a Montreal railway engineer, constructed the Hoosac Mountain Tunnel. He was a Canadian M.P. and lived for forty years in the St. Lawrence Hotel at Montreal.

1871--John Francis, youthful, alert and clever, was day operator and ticket clerk in the old station at Prescott Junction, Ont., laying the foundation with a little wrestling and scuffling thrown in, for his gradual progress to the General Passenger Agency of C.B. & Q.R., Chicago.

1873–4--International Bridge from Black Rock, N.Y., to Fort Erie, Ont., endorsed jointly by C.G.W.R. and G.T.R., built at a cost of $2,000,000, was opened to traffic at this time. C. Czowski and D. L. Macpherson were the contractors. Thomas Matchett, now C.T.A., C.P.R., Lindsay, Ont., was installed as the first telegraph operator at Fort Erie by H. P. Dwight, Superintendent of Montreal Telegraph Co., Toronto.

1876--Intercolonial Railway, opened for traffic Levis, Quebec, to the Maritime Provinces, was constructed under commissionership of C. J. Brydges.

1881--Nicholas Weatherston managed the Grand Junction Railway at Belleville in this year. A graduate of the “Great Western”, he was long with the Intercolonial Ry. at Toronto, and his father commenced work in 1835 on the Normanton & Leeds Railway built by the famous George Stephenson.

1883--Regime of the late (Sir) William White and John W. Loud, at the period of the G.T.R.--G.W.R. merger, Toronto, when George Pepall, Asst. Foreign Freight Agent, G.T.R. to-day, was Inwards Freight Clerk and D. de Cooper, now C.F.A., L.V.R., was employed on the “Outwards” desk.

1891, Dec. 7--St. Clair Tunnel, Sarnia, Ont., to Port Huron, Mich., opened to travel. It was begun in 1888, cost $2,500,000 and was electrified in 1906.

Entries in diary of E. de la Hooke, London, Canada--City Ticket Agent, Grand Trunk Railway. Callers who registered at his office:--

1892, Jan. 6--Snowing heavily--

J. J. McCarthy, West Shore Edson Weeks, P. & R. J. A. Richardson, Wabash J. H. Morley, C. & N.W.R. H. D. Armstrong, M.P.R.

1892, Jan. 20--Bright, 30 degrees below zero; lunched at Tecumseh Hotel with:--

J. N. Bastedo, Santa Fe J. M. Huckins, G.N.R. Jim Steele, C.P.R. A. J. Taylor, St. Paul Road

1892, July 18--“Grand day, but Oh my, another hot ’un”. Meeting of Grand Lodge. Callers who registered:--

Wm. Askin, Beatty Line C. W. Graves, G.T.R. W. G. McLean, C.P.R. A. Patriarche, F. & P.M. T. Ridgedale, N.P.R. P. J. Slatter, G.T.R. L. Wheeler, Clover Leaf Route.

1892--Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo Railway Company secured charter, its nucleus being the 18 mile Brantford, Waterloo & Lake Erie Railway, their Waterford extension opened 1895 and the Buffalo-Toronto through service was inaugurated June, 1897.

1893, Jan. 18--Entries in diary of E. de la Hooke, London, Canada--“Blizzard, one listener frozen”. Visitors registered were:--

W. R. Callaway, C.P.R. M. C. Dickson, G.T.R. J. D. Hunter, Allan Line McCormick Smith, C.B. & Q.R. W. B. Murray, Erie Rd.

1893, March 23--Bright, mild, springlike:--

Howard J. Ball, D.L. & W. B. H. Bennett, C. & N.W.R. Phil. Hitchcock, D.L. & W. W. E. Rispin, G.T.R., Chatham S. J. Sharpe, Erie

1893, Sept. 28--Bright, glorious morning--Entries--

G. T. Bell, G.T.R. J. Guerin, C. & N.W.R. Will. Jackson, Clinton B. W. Johnson, U.P.R. J. G. Laven, M.C.R. H. G. Thorley, White Star Line

1895, Jan. 1--Sunshine, cold and dusty--

New Year gift, Eastern Line commissions all withdrawn.

1895--Henri Menier, famous French Chocolate King, secured possession of Anticosti Island in the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, first fiefed by Louis XIV in 1680 to the explorer Sieur Louis Joliet, and Senator Gaston Menier now uses the 30 mile Anticosti Railway to market the island’s pulpwood.

1895, Feb. 7--Coldest yet, lines blocked--Callers to register:--

W. E. Belcher, N.P.R. R. S. Lewis, L.V.R. A. J. Macdougall, Ill. Cent. R. F. MacFarlane, Dominion Line W. J. Mason, N.P.R. A. J. Spurr, C.B. & Q.R.

1895, July 12--Very hot and close, circus in town, L.O.L. William III--

J. H. Duthie, Dominion Line W. Hatch, R. & O.N. Co. W. B. Lanigan, C.P.R. C. E. Macpherson, C.P.R.

1897, July 20--Extract from E. de la Hooke’s diary:--Arrival in London of Geo. B. Reeve and official car party, including Geo. T. Bell, W. E. Davis and J. E. Quick.

Other agents in town who dropped in at the Clock Corner were:--

P. F. Dolan, Gorge Route Geo. McCaskey, N.P.R. C. E. Morgan, G.T.R. H. J. Rhein, Big 4 (L.S. & M.S.)

1902, Oct.--Canadian Ticket Agents’ Association held its annual meeting in Washington, D.C., this being their first convention taking place outside of Canada.

1902--Conductor James Guthrie, who so ably handled the special train on tour with their Royal Highnesses, the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York--now the King and Queen--was complimented in special letters for his appearance and deportment on this occasion by Geo. T. Bell, G.P.A., and Superintendents Brownlee and Gillen.

1903--National-Transcontinental Railway--1,804 miles Moncton, N.B., to Winnipeg, planned by the Laurier Administration, was begun this year.

1903–04--Canadian Government issued a charter to Colonel Floyd, Cobourg, and others, authorizing the Campbellford, Lake Ontario & Western Railway from Cobourg to Campbellford, which became the nucleus of the “C.P.R.” Lake Shore Line to Ottawa.

1904, March--C. B. Foster, then D.P.A., C.P.R., and J. O. Goodsell, C.P.A., U.P.R., gave a supper of clams and drawn butter, periwinkles and toast, with good fellowship, to fourteen railway guests at the Leader Lane Cafe, Toronto, Ed. Sullivan, Proprietor.

1907--Tehauntepec Railway, 190 miles from Atlantic to Pacific Oceans, constructed by British capital and partly controlled by the Mexican Government, was this year opened to traffic.

1908, Sept. 22–23--American Association of General Passenger and Ticket Agents held their 53rd annual convention at Toronto.

1909, Nov. 30--At Queen’s Hotel, Toronto, W. R. Callaway, G.P.A., Soo Line, was tendered a luncheon by railway men and personal friends equally represented. A. J. Taylor in the chair.

1909--St. Valentine’s Day--The Rainy Day Club convened at the King Edward Hotel and received William Shakespeare’s report on the Merry Wives of Windsor.

1911, March 17--J. D. McDonald tendered a farewell banquet to mark his promotion to position of A.G.P.A., G.T.R., Chicago.

1911, Sept.--Aerial post first attempted in Great Britain between London and Windsor and proceeds devoted to public charity.

1911–12, April--Fat stock shows at Clinton, where some laundries were purchased and addresses made on intensive cultivation of the juniper bush by railroading honorary judges.

1911–12--$180,000,000 was total cost of Grand Central Station and environs, built by the New York Central & Hudson River Ry.

1912, May 1--Richard Tinning completed fifty years with “G.T.R.” in Canada and was given complimentary dinner, diamond pin and purse.

1914, April 7--Cy. Warman, engineer, Denver reporter, publicist and successful writer of railroading prose and verse--once with “G.T.R.” advertising department--died in Chicago this date.

1914, July 24--A century of locomotive use was appropriately celebrated when a 410 ton “Centipede” engine of the Erie Railroad pulled 250 loaded cars, weighing 21,000 tons, a distance of 40 miles at 15 miles per hour.

HANDY ANDY

“Can you run an engine,” said the yardmaster to Martin Maguire?

“Can I run an engine,” sniffed the bold Hibernian; “there’s nothing I’d rather do than run a lokeymootive all day long. Huh! Can Oi run an engine?”

“Suppose you run that engine into the round house,” suggested his boss.

Bluffing Martin climbed into the cabin with his orders in his mind, looked the ground over, spat on his hands, grabbed the largest handle and gave it a mighty yank. Zip! away went the engine into the roundhouse. Guessing the trouble ahead he reversed the lever clear back. Out she went--in she went--and out again.

Then the chief yelled, “I thought you said you could run an engine?”

And Martin Maguire quickly replied, “Oi had her in three times, why didn’t you shut the door?”

1915--$113,000,000 in taxes was paid by United States Railways.

1917, Oct. 17--The first train rolled over the new Quebec Bridge and trans-continental link.

1917, March 17--The Alfalfa Club gathered and performed with eclat. Owing to the date and name, somebody suggested that the green tablecloth be used and many witticisms and bon mots were exchanged.

1918--Grand Trunk Railway System, composed of about 125 lines, that had early independent, statutory beginnings, celebrates her 66th birthday.

1918, March--President T. Woodrow Wilson, U.S.A., signed the bill which empowered Director General of Railroads, W. G. McAdoo to assume complete control of the railways of the United States.

1918, April--United States railroads “off the line” agencies in Canada and in many “American” centres, withdrawn for the period of the war.

1918, May 15--America’s first aeroplane mail service inaugurated between Washington, Philadelphia and New York, President Woodrow Wilson receiving the first letter from Governor Charles S. Whitman, New York.

1918, August 18--Aero Club of Canada promoted through Royal Air Force, first temporary weekly aerial mail between Leaside Aerodrome (Toronto), to Ottawa.

The frontispiece photograph of passenger train is an early edition of the Empire State Express, by courtesy of the N.Y.C. & H.R.R.

The Frontispiece lettering was executed by Harry Moyer, cartoonist of Toronto Daily Star.

The Frontispiece conductor is Mr. D. J. Carson, former Chairman of the Brotherhood of Railway Conductors, Toronto, a popular vocalist who is widely known by patronizers of C.P.R. trains running between Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario.

The pen and ink decoration for “Navigators of the Blue” is the work of Miss Alberta L. Tory, daughter of Mr. Alfred Tory, Storekeeper, Grand Trunk Railway, London, Ont.

The half-tone engravings used in this book, with a few exceptions, were made by the British & Colonial Press, Limited, Toronto, Ont.

BALLAD TO THE BROTHERHOOD

Despite the rush of commerce and distractions linked to life, Forgetting one brief moment all the noise and ceaseless strife: Reflection’s voice reminds me that with ebbing tide of time, Floats away a merry epoch--hear ye not the watch bells chime? Dear friends and faithful colleagues on this strand and o’er the sea, I recall your proffered kindness and your courtesy to me.

Memory serves to paint a picture shewing changes in the past: ’Tis well the Reaper’s scythe is stayed until the die is cast. Though our day is dark and troubled by the ruthless hand of Might, All trust the scourge will vanish like the mystic flight of night. Let encouragement and counsel nourish hope and banish fear, May the bonds of friendship strengthen and expand from year to year.

We’ve had, methinks, more happy times than sorrows in our lives, To you, Messieurs a bumper--to your sweethearts, daughters, wives; Here is hoping that prosperity and robust health be yours, For you a peaceful future is the wish my heart conjures: And when that silent Skipper with his phantom craft steals ’round, May he steer us safely over to the Happy Hunting Ground.