Chapter D: E. GALLOWAY, Ass’t. to President, G.T.R., Montreal

5. J. GORMAN, Supt. Dining and Sleeping Cars, G.T.P.R., Winnipeg.

W. HERMAN, Ex-General Passenger Agent, “D. & C.” Line, Cleveland.

6. A. HILTON, Pass. Traffic Mgr., Frisco Lines, St. Louis.

J. HORSBURGH, Ex-Gen. Passenger Agent, Southern Pacific Railway.

J. T. LEWIS, Superintendent, Tenn. Central Railway, Nashville, Tenn.

7. T. MARSHALL, Traffic Manager, Board of Trade, Toronto, Canada.

8. C. R. MORGAN, Ex-C.P. & T.A., G.T.R.--Fighting for us in France.

9. A. S. MUNRO, Commercial Agent, G.T.R., London, Ont.

10. G. W. NORMAN, Traveling Passenger Agent, G.T.R., Chicago.

11. H. PARRY, General Passenger Agent, N.Y.C. & H.R.R., Buffalo.

12. N. J. POWER, Ex-General Passenger Agent, G.T.R., now in
California.

ROBERT SOMERVILLE, President, Judson F. F. Co., Chicago.

13. A. A. TISDALE, Assistant to Vice-President, G.T.P.R.,
Winnipeg.

H. E. WATKINS, General Eastern Canadian Agent, Great Northern
Railway.

14. R. J. S. WEATHERSTON, Division Freight Agent, G.T.R.,
Stratford, Ont.

N. VAN WYCK, Purchasing Agent, Canada Steamship Lines, Montreal.

15. J. A. YORICK, Canadian Agent, C.B. & Q.R., Toronto, Canada.

A PILFERED POT-POURRI

Timid Traveler vs. Tantalizing Ticket Clerk at the Bureau of Information

Ticket Clerk--Where do you wish to go, Sir?

Timid Traveler--Well, what stations have you?

T.C.--We have Portland, Oregon and Portland, Maine.

T.T.--Which is the cheapest?

T.C.--To Maine for $15 and tax, if you sit up nights.

T.T.--It hadn’t orter come so high, I paid my taxes!

Can you carry me to New York State, please?

T.C.--Delighted, if I could, but you’re too heavy.

T.T.--(Puzzled). I mean could you sell me through to the Bronx?

T.C.--The strange animals are all there--you might be caged.

T.T.--Well then, Iona Station?

T.C.--What station do you own?

T.T.--You seem stupid, I mean I might go to Iona Station.

T.C.--You have my permission, Ruben.

T.T.--I do want to go there in the worst way.

T.C.--Then don’t use this line, we’re the best way--P.D.Q. way.

T.T.--Oh indeed, what does “P.D.Q.” mean?

T.C.--I hate to tell you.

T.T.--But listen, my dear young man:

T.C.--Nay, Cæsar, I’m not your dear young man!

T.T.--May I leave this basket of potatoes in the Office?

T.C.--Read that warning:

ALL PARCELS, PACKAGES AND GRIPS LEFT AND NOT CHECKED, MUST BE
CHECKED OR THEY CANNOT BE LEFT IN THE DEPOT.

T.C.--What kind of nuggets are the spuds?

T.T.--Early Rose, my fine fellow.

T.C.--Some mistake, never knew Rose to rise early since Daylight
Saving came.

T.T.--When will the 2.00 o’clock train come?

T.C.--One sixty.

T.T.--Will she be long?

T.C.--Oh, about seven cars.

T.T.--Does she arrive soon?

T.C.--She’s about due, there comes the conductor’s dog.

T.T.--Where will she come in, you Smart Aleck?

T.C.--Right behind the engine to-day, I think.

T.T.--How long will she wait here?

T.C.--From two to two, to two two!

T.T.--(Musingly), he thinks he’s the whistle on the locomotive.

What part of the train do you consider most dangerous?

T.C.--Dining car, answered the dyspeptic.

T.T.--What became of the other clerk who was here?

T.C.--In the asylum--one day a woman got a ticket without asking
questions.

T.T.--Mercy Mister, this is terryble, give me a ticket to
Moffat’s Corners.

T.C.--Can’t give you one, but I will sell it.

T.T.--Why is my train arriving so late?

T.C.--It’s just like this: the train ahead is behind, and this
train was behind before besides.

T.T.--Ma’ conscience!

When they found the old gentleman towards sundown, he had wandered to the yard limits and was seated in a free reclining chair car waiting for a hair cut. On hearing the doctor’s diagnosis: “Reason undermined,” he was assisted to an ambulance, as a hoot owl settled on the bridge at midnight, and a yellow fog enveloped the sleeping city.

❦ ❦ ❦

A DESERVED REBUKE

Speaking of “Back talk” at a railwaymen’s dinner, President Howard Elliott of the New Haven Lines, expressed sympathy for an employee temporarily under unbearable conditions and explained that when the conductor was punching tickets a man said to him, with a nasty sneer--“You have a lot of wrecks on this road, don’t you?” “Oh no,” said the conductor, “You’re the first I’ve seen for some time”.

PHILADELPHIA BULLETIN

❦ ❦ ❦

ONCE WAS ENOUGH

A sweet young thing who had not traveled much, was riding on a high speed interurban trolley noted for its accidents.

“How deliciously dangerous”, she was thinking as the conductor approached. “How often do you kill a person on this road?” she enquired. The ticket collector smiled and as he pocketed her coupon he said, “Just once, Miss”.

ELECTRIC SERVICE MAGAZINE

THE TRANSPORTATION CLUB OF TORONTO

Although the members of this Club carefully safeguard their Death Benefit Fund and derive profit from periodical addresses delivered to them by qualified speakers on topics of specific or general interest, they have realized that all work with trains or traffic affairs and no play, is an unwise plan of campaign. Until war time exigencies discouraged the practice, the Transportation Club indulged in an Annual June outing.

THE TRAIL OF THE SERPENT

“Let go the balloon and come to earth you crimson-thatched, wind-jamming bush ranger,” called Tommy Nelson, president of the Brantford Green Socks, from the convention hall vestibule to discursive Claudius O’Toole, manager of the Ottawas, and the centre of a group following on the flight of steps above.

“Heraus mit him!” vamoose with that lingo you ivory-crested Fenian, we’ll shoot your team in the air like puffed rice from a Quaker Oats gun,” was the manager’s quick rejoinder, as he lighted a fragrant panatela.

“You’ll think you are playing in a vat of molasses when our merry men begin to stampede your bronchos,” continued Mr. Nelson, winking at Duff Adams and Will Lahey to the accompaniment of covert snickers from the near by delegates dispersing after the session.

AT THE BALL GAME

The members and guests in the circular group ardently participated.

They are:--E. CALLAGHAN, General Agent, B. & L.E.R., Toronto; W.
J. CONNELL, Traffic Manager, Linington, Connell Co., Toronto;
L. L. GRABILL, General Baggage Agent, G.T.R., Toronto; Late
JOHN GRAY, Agent, G.T.R., Toronto; F. G. GOULD, Traveling
Freight Agent, G.T.R., Toronto; W. J. HAMILTON, Canadian
Passenger Agent, L.V.R., Toronto; T. JACKSON, Traffic
Manager, Jackson Manufacturing Co., Clinton; F. JACKSON,
Merchant, Clinton; JOHN JOLLY, Contracting Freight Agent,
C.P.R., Toronto; R. MCRAE, Accountant, G.T.R., Toronto; P. G.
MOONEY, Assistant General Freight Agent, C.N.R., Toronto; T.
MULLINS, City Passenger Agent, C.P.R., Toronto; F. P. NELSON,
C.C., D.F.A., G.T.R., Hamilton, and JOHN RANSFORD, Passenger
Agent, G.T.R., Clinton.

SOME OF THE PLAYERS WERE:--H. C. BOURLIER, G.A.P.D., C.N.R.,
Toronto; H. A. CARSON, C.F.A., G.T.R., Montreal; A. CRAIG,
C.P.A., C.P.R., Hamilton; GEO. DONALDSON, C.F.A., G.T.R.,
Toronto (Overseas); T. HAGARTY, L.F.O., G.T.R., Toronto; R.
M. HAMILTON, Superintendent, Hendrie Co., Hamilton; W. M.
HOOD, D.F. & P.A., C.N.R., Sudbury; W. J. HOTRUM, C.C.L.A.,
G.T.R., Toronto; H. J. LECLAIR, T.P.A., C.N.R., Quebec; TOM
LOCKWOOD, T.A., Allan Line; C. MCHARG, M.C.P.A., T.H. &
B.R., Hamilton; A. J. MITCHELL, L.O., G.T.R., Toronto; J. A.
MORICE, Import Department, C.P.R., Toronto; H. PETERS, Fruit
Merchant, Toronto; I. G. REECE, C.P.A., C.N.R., Ottawa; H.
J. ROBERTS, C.C., D.T.A., C.P.R., Toronto; R. M. SEDGEWICK,
Traffic Manager, Standard Chemical Co.; S. S. STACKPOLE,
G.C.F.A., P.R.R.; J. THOMSON, Superintendent, Canadian
Transfer Co., Toronto; E. R. THORPE, City Freight Agent,
G.T.R., Toronto; C.L. WORTH, C.C., M. D., G.T.R., Toronto.

“Ho! Ho! merry men and molasses is it? We’ll feed them the syrup to sweeten their tempers after the Redskins scalp their cow-licks and curly-me-Q’s,” the Ottawas’ chief exclaimed.

“Your bunch of pretenders would grade about Tenth in the Western Classification and that’s the tariff rating the railways give sand, bricks and other heavy, commodities” answered the director of the Green Sox.

“Believe me, President you have a raft of flotsom and jetsom as variegated as a hedge of Sweet William; a flock of tortoises I call them,” responded the ladylike O’Toole, appropriating the last word.

However, “Opinion is private property which the law cannot seize,” the old saw says.

As with all other mortals of divers pursuits, these ball tossers can stand just so much baiting and then they bristle like an old cock when young chantecler invades his yard reaching for high C. With plenty of such good natured badinage and the dissemination of unlimited sunshine, the owners and managers of the clubs composing the Inter-lake League finished the early spring meeting convened to arrange the games schedule for the current season, making due allowance for national holidays and discussing railway fares with ticket agents Jack Campbell, Albert Craig and J. B. Doran. This league comprised the Brantford Green Socks, Knotty Lee’s Hamilton Bengal Tigers, Saints of St. Thomas, home town of Bob. Emslie, National League umpire, and Gladstone Graney with Lajoie’s Cleveland “Naps”; also the Cockneys of London, where Pittsburg Pirate George Gibson dwells neighborly beside the railway triumvirate Messrs. Ernie Ruse, Harry MacCallum and Hubert Hays, with Ottawas of Ottawa and Peterborough Blue Jays completing the roster. The rivalry and fortunes of the bustling sextette, as will later be seen, ebbed and flowed between Brantford, the hub of two thirds of the circuit, presided over by president Silent Thomas Nelson, C.P.A., G.T.R., nick-named the “Sphinx” for his wisdom and ability to guard a secret deal, as far east as Ottawa on the big river where Claudius O’Toole had cajoled and berated his henchmen into winning the bunting the season before.

When the present Mr. O’Toole was yet a squalling infant the suffering, patient sponsors saw to it that his name was set down in the vestry register as “Claudius” with the saint’s name Dominick added, but the creepy nickname “Spider” automatically clung to “Claude” like the monkey man to the neck of the famous Sinbad the sailor who figured in Arabian Nights. The youth grew rangy, with long shifty legs, and his arms, ornamented with grapplers, seemingly as numerous and resourceful as the tentacles of a cuttle fish, were the wonder and pride of the freshmen at St. Augustine’s Seminary who doted on his prowess and perennial good nature.

At all times an awed respecter of Irish tradition, Spider O’Toole reverenced St. Patrick’s memory in full measure, and like that venerable sainted man, could not tolerate anything that wriggled: and who could blame him. The word “cringe” was not in his encyclopaedia and as he never “crawled” himself, he abhorred spiders and snakes as the devil scowls on piety. With him they were as popular as a horse thief in Utah. His dislike for cobras, constrictors, rattlers and all that ilk that do the hesitation glide without legs, was no spasmodic, abnormal antipathy, mark you, born of flirtations with the grape when purple, for he had never been known to arrive at a condition superinduced by an over-indulgence in the bottled and popular elements of conviviality. Always a man of nerve and aggressiveness, he shunned those toy cameras and fake electric pocket flashes, concealing jumping adders as he would the wails of the family Banshee, while buggy whips and garden hose lying about in the gloaming were sure to send shivers gamboling up and down his spinal network. Naturalists tell us the sagacious elephant, big as he is, will promptly side-step a lizard--and why not?

One rainy evening after the teams of the Inter-lake League had rid themselves of Charley-horse, glass arms and proud flesh, and were schooled and whipped into tolerable fettle for the ordeal of endurance and dexterity, with the opening day a short week off, Thomas Nelson, President of the Green Sox, met Spider O’Toole with others of the clan in the Algonquin Hotel rotunda. With them were Francis Nelson, Sporting Editor of the Globe, Dick Kearns, Fitzgerald and Charlie Good, and near by in the billiard room Harry Thorley and Billy Hamilton were making some fancy shots with a party they were booking to Europe, via the L.V.R. and White Star Line. Said Thomas quite carelessly, to Claudius, as he shifted the position of an undiscernable portion of Piper Heidseick from one cheek to the other, “We think we have better than an even break with the Ottawas on dates for the season’s schedule Mr. O’Toole: in other words, my Christian friend, I have the edge on you.”

Oh, have you Mr. Sphinx--well don’t strain your diaphragm gloating over that paper advantage: I’ll dull your edge so badly that you will have your spavined free lances at the horse shoers in a month, I will, so I will and I’ll leave it to your friend Ira Thomas, Mitch. Thomas or St. Thomas.

“I trow not, Spider. We have gathered in the net as fine a cluster of brilliants as ever crossed the Giant’s Causeway since the days the Gauls hung to the branches with their tails. I hope Connie Mack is unaware of their speed.”

“Mr. McGillicudy is still a young man: too bad to have him choke to death with laughter and he in his prime,” commented Claudius O’Toole.

“The Green Stockings are a lot of limber base ball professors, bright as patent stove polish, and when your kindergarten is introduced to their science.”

At this juncture, Will. Connell and Harry Watkins with the “Great Northern”, who had just come in from the theatre after enjoying Dick Sheridan’s “School for Scandal”, naively enquired if Mr. O’Toole’s redskins would win their opening game with the Peterborough Bluejays a week hence, adding “The birds are touted tough as hickory and hard nuts to crack”.

“We’ll crack their kernels as sure as Hades is a man trap,” said the Spider, “or make them work so hard they’ll ferment and blow their heads off.”

“As a precaution, have your willie pink collegians remove their hobble skirts,” chimed in Tom the Sphinx, with a significant smile.

“If the Bluejays loom such a menace to our aspirations, gentlemen,” retorted O’Toole, with a twinkle in his eye, “my humorous contemporary of the Brantford Green Legs had better buy nine shrouds now and fix a date for the wake.”

“Too much levity Spider, too much levity: ‘a sooty chimney spoileth many a beefsteak’. Do be advised” continued Nelson, childlike and bland. “The Green Sox team has one batter who is a potential phenomenon. On a clear day he can propel the sphere across the lagoon to the Cape Verde Islands and make it sizzle so that the natives think it is a Jack Johnson or a sputtering meteor from Mars.”

This was intended to spike the mortar of the rangy collegian but it didn’t.

“See here, Mr. President, be careful that no one hangs crepe on your nose or the public will get on to the fact that your brain is dead”, was the response.

“I’ll bet Senator, the Irishmen will stitch up your savages so neatly they will be about as effective as a camera fiend in a London fog.”

“If that strain is put on us,” cried O’Toole, “I’ll ride a slippery log over the Chaudiere Dam at Ottawa and you can be there to see from the bridge north of the Chateau Laurier.” And he wished later there was bark on that log.

Some one said “Would you indulge in a mild libation if properly approached?” and a wag you all know said “We do not know you well enough to refuse you, is the gentleman with the ‘still’ exclusive?”

“So exclusive, my boy,” was the reply, “that you have to be both a True Blue and a Knight of Columbus to gain an _entree_”, and with that their voices died away in the distance.

Tim Mullins, Mel. Thomson and Jim Edwards of the G.T.R., who came up from Ottawa said at dinner the day Peterborough and Ottawa clashed that Spider O’Toole refused spaghetti because it squirmed and slid off his fork like the tempter in the Garden of Eden and he finished the meal without ridding himself of a half-defined presentment of evil. It beats the Dutch what odd little whims and superstitious notions some of those base ball players cherish and permit to influence their daily actions and fortunes.

Try to develop on the film of your memory the picture of a moderately expansive diamond and outfield, the grass exceptionally abundant on account of the adjacent moisture and the entire enclosure surrounded by the shapely maple and a variety of other trees adorned with vivid spring foliage. Include in the perspective the hurrying, foamy waters of the serpentine Otonabee River flanking the parkside before spreading wide to the harbor beyond and you glimpse the arena where Claudius O’Toole lost his first game to the merciless Bluejays and likewise his wager.

These were the home grounds of the Peterborough Bluejays, and the players located on the chessboard as strategetically as might be, were there “with the lard in their hair,” eager to circumvent the Ottawa nine and provide an interesting _premiere_ that afternoon for their supporters who buzzed with expectancy and speculation, tier over tier, as the early innings progressed.

Jim Skinner and E. T. Carr encouraged the Jays, and in the telegraph cupola where Tony Webster was at the key, sat Jimmie Anderson, Jack Tinning and John Melville, hoping to ticket the players to Western Ontario.

Considerable betting and some odds had been laid here and there on the result among the fans and normal local adherents, and in several outside quarters anticipation was keen, but down in the reeds and stone piles beside the rushing eddies, where a large water snake and his partner were basking with several smaller amphibious creatures in the sunshine, nothing was known of all this. The pair in sable and bronze habiliments, displaying the activity and boldness peculiar to the breed in mating season and their need of food after long hibernation, were fearlessly foraging beside the sedge at the river’s edge, and woe betide the luckless chub in the shallows or lazy frog on shore caught napping. The ball ground outfield ran down close to the river, terminating at a high fence, and was uniform and level save for a few depressions in the black loam where was once a swamp. Owing to the dampness and shade the grass refused to grow hereabouts. The game progressed with tantalizing uncertainty until the pivotal seventh innings, the advantage resting first with the Bluejays and then with the Redskins. At this point the Ottawas gained the ascendancy with a batting rally and Spider O’Toole, who played deep centre field, worked closer in stimulating his men with “Ginger up Germany, to the youth at second--you can’t coax a living from the public on that form.” And again, to the young spitball pitcher, “Steady Slim, nice work lad, take your time, you have them coming and going as easy as pulling on an old glove.”

At the conclusion of the eighth inning the score stood 4-4 and the Spider’s braves in their half of the ninth chalked up but one more circuit as the Bluejays, though nervous did not crack and were making no costly errors. The stands began to rumble as the home players went to bat for the last time, a boy clinging to an over-hanging branch called “Oh Mr. O’Toole, we’ll make you take your gruel” and the palpable excitement of some of the ladies who were on their feet, caused otherwise sober spectators to turn the meeting into temporary pandemonium with waving arms, hats and vocal extravagances. M. J. Baker and his friend Jamieson, came with the saints, and the stentorian tones of Stanton A. Baker, representing the “Great Western”, calling the plays to Tommie Gormally and Harvey Hagerman over at Oshawa, could be plainly heard above the din.

In the midst of the uproar Eddie D---- and his acquaintance O. G. C. Willard, faultlessly attired, when passing the grand stand, and thus perchance unconsciously giving the ladies a treat, overheard an Old Country friend with John Ransford exclaim,

“Aw, my word, this is a strange game!”

“How so strange?” queried John.

“The players seem to have an unlimited license to indulge in personalities, don’t you know--hear how they ‘rat’ each other!”

“They don’t mean it, those boys are milk-fed, college-bred, and the salt of the earth”, explained the sage from Clinton.

“My Eye, observe the pitcher and catcher are even now conspiring to beat the batter”, continued the newcomer.

“Oh, that is only camouflage to deceive the enemy,” replied his host. The visitor’s marked impartiality towards the stubborn progress of the contending teams recalls the attitude of the lady whose husband was in mortal combat with a grizzly bear, exclaiming, “I never saw a fight I cared so little about who won”.

As was prognosticated, the heavy hitter to Cape Verde Islands arose to the occasion and smacked a fair one on the nose to left which the fielder fumbled. He lead off a dozen feet and made second with a hook slide when a foul tip clipped the catchers’ finger and the ball rolled to the screen. The tension increased. From where he stood, legs apart and watchful, O’Toole stormed and upbraided at the top of his voice, swearing by the web-footed, bald-headed Siamese twins, while the pitcher and backstop conferred. The umpire’s indicator shewed two men on bases and no one out when the third birdman stepped over to the plate and stood motionless as Sejanus on his horse. His plan or the captain’s orders counseled a waiting policy, and such patience was repaid with four balls, earning first base, forcing his mates and filling the bags. Whoops and yells tore jagged holes in the atmosphere, and even momentarily disconcerted the fourth and last friendly batter. “Slim” threw him a swift ball at which he swung to no purpose, and it lodged with a resounding plop in the cavity of the catcher’s mitt. Again the man on the mound moistened the now soiled horsehide and repeated the performance, but the strain was terrific and his features registered it plainly. The next one was low and wide. Once more he threw, transmitting decided curve to the sphere, but it lacked sustained velocity and slowed down in progress. The waiting batter saw his opportunity, breathed a fervent “Welcome Mr. Spalding” and received it squarely. The ball sailed over the pitcher’s head and past the shortstop’s clutching digits just at the instant Spider O’Toole was vociferating “Oh, you son of a snail”. This compliment to the exhausted “Slim” smothered in his mouth as he realized the sphere was heading to his territory. True to instinct, his tentacular mechanism sprang alert and making a sanguine, mighty vault his fingers just touched the ball, the contact and a puff of wind diverting its course and down it came behind him not far off. The dirty ball ceased rolling two yards away, resting in one of those shady, somewhat deep hollows in the black loam close to the river bank and fence. Alive to the crucial situation quivering at half cock on the diamond and savagely intent on thwarting the runners as well as to maintain his lead, the Spider spun round in a flash of time and half blindly leaping on the dirty horsehide stumbled, falling at full length face down as his hand closed over the coveted ball.

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”.

City Passenger and Ticket Agent, G.T.R., Brantford, Ont.; former President, Brantford Baseball Club.]

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.

YOU EAT A
CHRISTIE
BISCUIT
YOU EAT
THE BEST

CHRISTIE, BROWN & CO.,
LIMITED
]

THE QUEEN’S HOTEL
TORONTO, ONT.

400 ROOMS

120 of them _en suite_ with bath; long distance telephone in every room; elegantly furnished throughout; cuisine and service of the highest order of excellence. Pleasantly situated near the lake and beautifully shaded; it is cool, quiet and homelike.

American and European Plans

McGAW & WINNETT, PROPRIETORS
]

The High Class Hotel with
Moderate Rates

HOTEL BRESLIN

Broadway at 29th Street

NEW YORK

The New York Home
for Canadians

THE ONLY OPEN AIR CAFE
IN THE CITY

Restaurant Prices Most Moderate
]

THE
DOMINION
BANK

ESTABLISHED 1871

Head Office - Toronto

Traveller’s Cheques and Letters
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