By ELMO SCOTT WATSON
HEROIC railroad engi-
neer who died at his
post of duty and a negro
engine wiper who wrote
a simple song about his
death—these two gave
to the world one of the
most famous of all na.
tive American ballads
which you will stiil hear sung in al-
most any part of the
though 31 years have elapsed
“Casey Jones mounted to the cabin
with his orders in his hand and took
his farewell trip to that
land.”
In 1900 John Luther Jones was the
engineer on the Memphis, Tenn.
ton, Miss, run of the Illinois Central's
crack train, “the Cannenbalk” He was
a husky i
Inches tall, dark-haired, gray eyed, a
good-natured, big-hearted Celt i
liked by all the railro:
tion. If you had asked one of
about John Luther
ably would have answered “Oh, you
mean Casey Jones—“For Casey Jones
he was to the raliroad men, a nick-
Dame that was fastened on him
cause he was born near Cayce, Ky.,
and down there they pronounced it in
two syllables—Cay-ce. So “Cayce”
Jones soon became “Casey” Jones,
Casey started his rallroadin’ on the
Mobile & Ohlo late in the eighties.
He put in several years as a freight
and passenger engineer on the Illinois
Central between Jackson and Water
Valley, Miss., and then, at the age of
thirty-seven, he was put at the throt-
tie of “the Cannonball.” Already he
was locally famous for his peculiar
skill with a locomotive whistle. His
method of blowing It was a sort of a
personal trade-mark. It was a long:
drawn-out note, baginning softly, then
rising to a shrill moaning blast, finally
dylog away almost to a whisper. To
people living along the right-of-way
of the Central in Mississippi and Ten-
nessee it was a familiar sound. At
night they would lie in their beds and
listen for a sound of one locomotive
whistle, and when they heard it they
would say “There goes Casey Jones!"
as the train roared by and Casey whis-
tied for the next crossing.
Not only was Casey well-liked by
the other railroad men but he was the
idol of Wallace Sanders, a negro coal-
heaver at Canton, Miss, who became
an engine wiper In the round house
there about the time Casey first
“mounted to the cabin” of “the Can-
nonball” Wallace was accustomed to
brag mightily about the prowess of
“Mistah Casey,” and carifig for his en-
gine was a labor of love for the col-
ored man.
About ten o'clock one Sunday night,
April 20, 1900, Casey and his fireman,
Sim Webb, rolled into Memphis from
Canton and, going into the checking-in
office, were preparing to go to their
homes when somebady said “Joe Lewis
has just been taken with the cramps
and can’t take his train out tonight”
“All right, I'l double back and pull
old 638” said Jones. No.
Lewis' locomotive,
It was a rainy night as No. 638 with
Casey and Sim Webb in the cabin
rolled out of the station and rumbled
through the South Memphis yards.
“Wonder what's the matter with Lew.
18," remarked one of the yardmen to
another, for the switchmen “knew by
the engine's moan that the man at the
throttle was Casey Jones.” Through
the sleeping countryside of Tennessee
and Mississippl roared the train, and
more than one farmer said to himself,
“There goes Cascy Jones,” as he lis
tened sleeplly to the long moaning
whistle of old No, 638,
It was four o'clock in the morning
on April 30 as No, 638 swept around a
long winding curve just above the lit-
tle town of Vaughn, Miss. Where the
curve ended a long sidetrack began
and Casey Jones, peering out of his
cab window to see if the lights ahead
were green or red, yelled across to
Sim Webb, “There’s a freight train on
the siding.” Sim ncdded and kept on
with his coal shoveling.
Knowing that the siding was a long
one and having passed many other
freights on it, Casey didn’t reduce his
speed. He didn't know that there
were two separate sections of a very
long train on the sidetrack that night,
and that the rear one was too long to
get all of its cars off the main line on
to the siding. The freight train crews
had figured on “sawing by --as soon
a8 the passenger train passed the
front part of the train it would move
forward and the rear part would move
up, thus going off ¢f the main track.
But they hadn't figured on Casey's
gpeed-—-it was more than 50 miles an
hour.
Within a hundred feet of the end
of the siding, the startled goze ot
country, even
since
promised
-an-
Irishman, xX eet four
wells
ders in that sec-
y
them
Jones, he prob-
be-
638 was
Casey Jones and Sim Webb was met
by the sight of several box cars loom-
ing up through the gloom—box cars
which were still on the main track
and rolling roo slowly on to the side-
track to escape the thundering rush
of old No. 638. “Jump, Sim, and save
yourself!" shouted Casey Jones and
Sim Webb jumped, fell into
bushes and rolled over and
the ground—uninjured.
As for Casey Jenes, there was just
one thing he could do. He threw his
into and applied the
airbrakes. it was too late. Old
No. lumbering
box match-
wood, cras! and
then turned over on her side a short
i When the freight
crews reached her and looked into the
some
over on
engine reverse
But
638 plowed into those
into
caboose
cars, smashed them
ed into the
nstance beyond.
they saw that her dead engineer
had one alr-brak
and the wi
widow the explanati
that as 1 jumped Ci
le in a long,
}
he must have
t! conductor in
} Td
so he could Jump.
e freight
They took Casey Jones to
where a committee of three of his
O'Malley, a
low workers, Edward
round-house machinist, William Bosma
and Homer English, two
engineers, took charge of the arrange
ments for sending the body of the
dead hero back to his home in Jack-
sori, Tenn., where his widow, the two
sons and a daughter awaited his last
homecoming.
Scarcely less touching than thelr
sorrow was the grief of Wallace San-
ders at the news that his idol would
take “the Cannonball” out no more,
Several days after Casey's funeral,
Sanders’ fellow workers noticed hin
going about his duties singing a song
about the deeds and the death of
Casey Jones, It was a simple mel
ody, but there was something abou
it which caught the fancy of those who
heard it and the words of it—there
were only six verses in the original—
were easy to remember, they
were all singing negro engine
wiper's tribute to his friend.
One day a year or twe later a pro
fessional song writer passed through
Jackson, Miss, and the song
sung. He saw the possibilities and re
wrote the song, retaining, however, the
name Casey Jones and some of the in-
cidents of the original story, although
changing the locale considerably. In
changing the original song, some
verses were injected Into it which
friends of the herole engineer resented
bitterly and they forbade its being
sung at all. Their protests, however,
did not prevent the song from being
published and the song writer who
rewrote it Js sald to have made a for.
tune from it, more than ten million
copies having been sold, not to men-
tion inpumerable records and plano
rolls.
“The term rounders used in some
of the verses and also other terms ap-
plied in various parodies would ere
ate the Impression that he was un-
stable and reckless.” wrote Edward
O'Malley, Casey's friend, In a letter to
Adventure Magazine several
ago. “Such was not the case.
reliable, loyal and friendly with ev.
erybody and of a smiling, pleasant dis.
position, which won him friends wher-
ever he went--such was my friend,
Casey Jones, gentleman.” An inter.
esting aftermath of the song was a
Inwsuit brought by Casey's widow
within recent years against a Holly-
wood picture company for alleged ex-
ploitation of photographs of her and
her children In connection with a
movie that had been built around the
famous exploit of the engineer, Im-
mortalized by a song. #
Although “Casey Jones” is the most
famous of all raliroad ballads, there
are others which are not far behind
it In widespread popularity. For In-
stance there is “Old Ninety-Seven.”
There are numerous versions of this
song, but the following, according to
R. W. Gordon, an authority on Amer.
lean folk songs, Is a composite of three
different versions and a representative
text:
locomotive
Soon
the
heard
Years
Sober,
I was standing on a mountain one cold
frosty morning,
1 wan watching the smoke from be-
ow;
It was curling from a long straight
smokestack
"Way down on the Southern Railroad.
.
It was Old Ninety-seven, the fastest
mail-train
The Bouth had ever seen,
And it ran so fast on that fatal Sunday
That the dbath lst numbered (hire
teen,
It was Old Ninety-seven, the fastest
mall-train
Ever run over the Southern Line,
And whan arived at Monroe, Virginia,
Bhe was forty-seven minutes behind,
Steve Branniel was the engineer,
The fastest on the line:
He ran into Monroe to get his orders,
And he got them on the fly,
They gave him his orders at Monroe
Virginia,
Saying: "Steve, you are
This is not Thirty-eight,
Ninety-seven:
must put har in
time!"
behind!
it's Old
‘way
but
You Spencer op
Branniel climbed up Into his
cabin,
Saying. “Pal,
He reversed his lever,
tie
Saying "Watch Old Ninesty-sev
Steve
it's do or die!”
threw his throt.
wide open
en fly.”
Brannlel climbed up Into his
cabin
At his throttle he made a grab,
And when he pulled over Johnson's
Steve
He was leaning way out of the cab
Branniel turned to his brave lit
tie
Steve
nireman
ie round Whit-
vers roll”
our
gan to scream
und in the wreck with
hand on the throttle
And his body
hin
all scarred by steam.
Did he ever pull In? No. he never
puiled in
Though his train was due at ten
And for hours ard hours the switch.
men walling
the mall-train that
in.
iay
For never pulled
And this is what It said-
That the brave engineer that left Mon-
roe this morning
Is lying at North Danville dead.
Come, all you young ladies, and take
warning
Take warning from
Never speak rash words to ¥
haart
He may go
this time.
ur sweet.
and never return.
The
a lawsuit, as
dispatch to the
year:
song also has an
shown by the following
New York World last
“Camden, N, J.—An effort to estab
lish the right of the author of a folk
song to coliect royalties, even though
been made here by attorneys for Da-
George, self
i-billy, and
vid Graves
styled hil
brakeman.
picturesque
“George Is suing the Victor Talking
Machine company, which sold 5.000,
000 phonograph records of the song.
“The Wreck of Old 97. g
attorneys, Robert 8. Nase of Flushing,
L. 1, and Minatree J. Fulton of Rich
mond, Va., George declared he had
derived his Inspiration for the song
on September 27, 1003, when the crack
mall train, No, 97, of the Southern
railway, sped past Franklin Junction,
Va. and jumped off a 200.foot trestle.
“Numerous fellow hill-billies, the at-
torneys stated, are ready to testify
that George originated the
which later became a favorite.
“Nathan Burkan of New York and
Louis Le Duc of Camden, attorneys
for the company, asserted the Victor
company already has paid
to one other pany,
‘Through
1
1
:
themselves a8 authors of the song.
1027, when the company announced
in a Richmond paper, according to
George, that it was looking for the
author of the song in order to pay
him royalties. From far and wide In
the hills, the authors appeared.
“In 1922, the company sets forth,
Prof. R. W. Gordon of Harvard set
out to collect American folk songs
and found that both Frederick Lewey
of Lynchburg and Carl Noel of Dan.
vell, Va., claimed authorship of *The
Wreck! The company compensated
both, and also Henry Whitter of
Lynchburg, and the General Phono
graph eompany, which had gotten out
records of the song before the first
Victor records appeared on August 13,
1024.
“Burkan asserted the plaintiff hin
billy had copied the song from phon
ograph records between 1924 and 1927,
when he read of the offer.
“George's suit Is not brought under
the copyright law, since he never
wrote down the song, but under the
common law dealing with property
rights.”
Almost ns famous as the foregoing
is the combination hobo-railroad bal
lad: “The Wabash Cannon-Ball,”
which has the following chorus:
We hear the merry Single,
The rumble and the roar,
Af she dashes through the woodland
And comes creeping on the shore.
We hear the engine's whistle
Ard the merry hoboes' call
As we ride the rods and brake-beam
On that Wabash Cannon-Ball,
(MD. 1931, Western Newspaper Union.)
CENTRE HALL. PA.
Simple Measures for _
Reducing Fire Waste
Fire waste is inexcusable, and It
can be prevented, The simple logie of
the matter is to build so that fire can-
not possibly harm our various struc
tures. Firesafe materials are the only
true safeguard against human eare-
lessness, And carelessness, after nll,
is the underlying cause for practically
all destructive fires. If the human
mind is so constituted that it will not
observe the necessary dally precau-
tions against fire, then, ns 8 matter of
self-preservation, fire-safe construction
must be resorted to.
Just how this operates to help the
public is best Hlustrated by example,
Many home fires are caused by defec-
tive flues, and fur
naces. Logically, in most homes the
heating apparatus Is located In the
basement. At this point a concrete
basement floor and nugmented
by a firestopping concrete first floor,
Walls
with ce
chimneys, stoves
walls,
will furnish ample protection
of concrete faced
ment stucco and plaster, give further
that fires will not ecm
masonry.
assurance
great structural damage. Wall
Iso protection again
wiring, an-
of home
The roof can hest he protected by
this type
the
other frequent cause
fre an
hazards of defective
fires
con
Mo tile shinrles
Righ
the national fire
or cement ashestos
building can
toll to a
portion of its present magnitud Ix
Press
t-minded
very small
troit Free
Positive Detriment in
Unwise Town Expansion
of a problem of
= than one 4
thoueh 1s
rehasers of | slthough the lat
OImes,
it is not to he averlooked
lon
inion of Henry Wright, nr
in « xpert
from the point of vie
his nr an article In
Arch
clares:
ofession in
Record
Wri
whey
mid
tectural Mr.
“No one will deny the Importance
stimulating home hulldis
add
credit In
hut if
rows of flimsy
credit is merely to more
those unfortunate horder communities
which from
land past
maost
remain to us the great
hooms of the we could al
wish that such credit might he
suppressed
“Only one worse fate could be Im
that new
tion mar again be used as A cloak to
ngined- homeawning agita
open miles of unused vacant
populated
# and roasting nines, of
up more
lots or sparsely wastes of
1"
rement sldewn
which wo have acquired enoush tn
entisfy even the most ardent expan
slonist
Brick im Varied Effects
Taste decrees that homes and
ings must he
than beautiful In
face effects
The
unique
build
today something more
color tone, in =ur
great call today Is for style:
surfaces Unusual wall han.
dling New wrinkles In bricklaving
that brickiayers learend
architects. For example, hricks laid to
form a Flemish bond, or lald in skin
tled formation. or walls with the very
distinctive “squeezed Joint” treatment
~~0ldl effects. new effects, in scores of
modish variations,
There are no fetters and restrie
tions, no real limitations, to what an
architect can do with brick—in plan
ning anything from a six-room ent
tage to a cloud-plercing office build:
ing
Whatever the architect sets down In
have
a blueprint the bricklayer can set up
in the wall—iline for for
color. brick for brick-—to endure as n
permanent example of the architect's
genius
line, eolor
Study Home Ownership
The new machinery which is boing
set up by the federal government spe
home ownership Is to be built up as
an organization within the Department
of Commerce. The conference Is being
so named gs to draw facts and ideas
from the various existing business or
ganizations and groups whose work Is
related to or concerned with home
production. ¢
Twenty committees will be set up
within the conference, according to the
program formulated at a recent Wash:
ington meeting. The co-ordination of
their work Is to be made possible
through a new organization formed for
that purpose within the United Stutes
Department of Commerce,
Looking te the Future
City planning had its origin In a
remote past when some potentate is
sued decrees setting forth the specifi.
cations of his capital and commanding
his underlings to build accordingly. In
Europe, where centralized government
has always been stronger than in in
dividualistic America, many of the eit.
ies have been systematically laid ont,
It is comparatively rare in Europe to
find a municipal water front not ar.
ranged to advantage with much consid
eration both for the requirements of
commerce and the needs of recreation,
Over nere “down by the docks” is like.
Iy to be squalid. But we are doing
better. Boston Globe,
Southern Cit’s Wisdom
Two thousand young shnde trees
will be planted slong strects of Rich
mond Va,
When You
CAN'T
QUIT
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In every package of Bayer
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to end it.
Chickens Were Tough,
but Sentence Tougher
There is a «¢ mn do
lave in th NOx (Tenn)
rigtrate
ored
did no
asked by the magistra if It were
true he hae olen some chickens, as
charged, arky answered seri
ously :
"Yo
name bein’
simply cannot tell a lle. Yessuh
done took
ah oh
tell de truth’
“And
three ch
“Ah et
de truth
was discouragin’ly }
“Well, this will i tougher.”
growled the
30 days for
dem chickens "0' de hon
'
mah name Ah's to
done go
what did you do with those
ckens?"
thot
Ah'g tell
when tions dat dey
out
meted
To keep clean and healthy take Dr
Plerce's Pleasant Pellets. They regulate
liver, bowels snd sic i Ady,
HILL SIDE CHICKS
ay an per 100
Aut
J. EHRENZELLER, Prop.
McAlisterville, Pa.
Teeth
Risen guarag
te and plate
Kleen. Our product
toed 10 Kee .
$ and
if dis
Bupply
BEwissvale, Pa
Dept, § Sox 2
SARI in VER ul
Roofin id established
went smpetitive
tected ter
ry. permanent position. Make $50 te
weekly fo start Experience in Hoe
a Must have car
FRAXKLIN REFINING CO
Dept. BR, Fulten St. & P. RR RAR
FITTSBURGH, PA.
Grease, Paint
quailty ne
*
Ces; sure repeat business: pro
HANFORD'S
Impetuous Youth !
“How old is your son?” asked the |
vigitor
"Weil," replied the father, “he's
just reached that age
that the most
pass a
cir ahead.” —8tray Stories
when he thinks
impw rtant
isn't hi X..min
5 ning
Some men would get along much |
faster If they didn't much
time telling other people how smart
they are.
lose 80
Baisam of Myrrh
Dangerous Bacteria
at some bac-
lapt them-
tures, in-
the cold.
ments si
iat EDO
aang $a
3
Was supposed.
¥
that re
lovers,
ive
to the makeup box
Fussy, fretful, can't sleep, won't
eat. ... Itisn't always easy to find
just where the trouble is with a
young child. It may be a stomach
upset; it may be sluggish bowels
But when little tongues are
coated and thre is even a slight
suspicion breath-——it's time
for Castoria! .
Castoria, you know, is a pute
y
vegetable tion especial
made for babies and children. When
cries with colic or is fretful
because of constipation, Castoria
beings quick comfort, and, with
ief from pain, soothes him to
restful sleep. For older children—
up through all the school years,
Castoria is equally effective in
ig to right irregularities. Just
in larger doses. What
Get the genuine, with Chas H.
Curicura
Soap and Qiztment
Teach your children the
Cuticura habit
Komp The, Oiatoment 25,