Fighting a Railroad
By M. QUAD
C op yrigh t, 1916, by the M cClure
N ew sp a p er Syndicate.
When the surveyor» for the B. and B.
railroad reached within a mile of the
town of Scoville they were stopped by
the owner o f a farm, who threatened '
them with an action for trespass if
they set foot on Ills land.
it was old Ransotne who had lived
on that farm since he was born aud
was now over sixty years old. Boy
and man, he had been known us stlugy
aud mean, und no one had ever dealt
with him a second time. His w ife was
about like him in her disagreeable way.
The two seldom or never disagreed
with each other, but they disagreed
with everybody else.
The town o f Scoville wanted that
railroad aud wanted it built at once,
but there was old John blocking the
way and his old w ife backing him up.
It must cross ills eighty acre farm to
reach the town. The surveyors argued
und coaxed, but it was of no use.
The railroad Anally guarded its sur
veyors and the line was run. but that
was only the beginning o f the tight
It collected its forces and began the
grading. Old John was out there with
his gun and his w ife was there with a
club, but the lusty men laughed ut
them and carried them o!T the scene,
and In a few weeks there was the
hooting and tooting that the oi l couple
dreaded to hear. They would not sell,
and the railroad waited for them to
propose some sort o f settlement
There was a highway about u quar
ter o f u mile to the south o f the Iljtn-
soine farm, and the new railroad cross
ed it at a level. The soft earth was
soon gullied out by the wheels of the
wagons, and this left the tracks three,
or four inches above the surface. When
old John observed this be yoked up
his oxen and hitched them to his wag
on and went after a load of wood.
When he returned with it to the cross
ing he stuck there. The oxen could not
pull the wagon across the rails. The
old man sat down to patiently wait
for a train to come along. One appear
ed In sight in about cn hour and found
Its progress blocked. It took all the
train hands and some o f the passen
gers to boot to get that wagon across
the track.
There was fuming and
threatening, but old John was very
quiet and calm. He repeated this per
formance once a day for a week. Then
the railroad put down planks and the
scheme was defeated.
“ Well, w e'll have to try some other
trick,” said tlie old folks to each other.
And as a result o f their planning they
went out at night with a big pail of
soft soap and smeared the rails for a
distance o f thirty rods. The next train
that came that way did not whizz past;
it stood still and whizzed, and it iook
the best part o f an hour nnd a barrel
o f sand to make the wheels go round
again and have n grip on the rails.
Old John was arrested for this soapy
trick, but they could prove nothing
against him, and he was discharged
from custody. A fte r this a new at
tempt was made to bring about a set
tlement. but it was doomed to failure
from the start. Then came another
adventure. Old John cut the grass in
his meadow, nnd while drawing it to
the barn to store aw ay he drove across
tlie track at a point on his own farm
and a wheel somehow came off the
wagon and dumped hay and vehicle In
a grand heap. There was Just time to
get the oxen out o f the way when a
locomotive o f a freight train plunged
Into the mess. H ay end splinters flew
over half the county, and the whole
train was derailed at a cost o f many
thousand dollurs to the coini>au.v.
There were two lawsuits begun im
mediately, one by the company to
make the old man pay damages and
one by Old John to collect the worth of
a wagon and a ton o f bay. The rail
road folks could not show any scheme
on his part aud was the loser in its
suit
A Jury also held that an en
gineer who would slam bang into a
load o f bay in broad daylight should
be held responsible, and Old John got
about throe times the value o f the
property destroyed.
By and by when the pumpkin season
had come old Mr. Rausome kindly
permitted a passenger train to run into
a wagonload o f them—that is. his oxen
stopped to rest when the wagon was
halfway over the track. H e was heard
shouting at them at the top o f his voice
and seen to flourish his gad in an ex
cited manner, but he was forced to es
cape to save his own life. Pieces of
those pumpkins were picked up miles
away, and a week nfter the wagon
was wrecked again, nnd one o f the
oxen was converted into fresh beef.
Here was groundwork for another
lawsuit, and the jury decided that a^v
railroad that would strive to lessen the
pumpkin crop ought to pay for it right
smartly.
It is very probable that the old
couple might have returned to the soft
soap trick if they had been given more
time, but fate willed it otherwise.
They were coming home from a call on
a neighboring farm, and it was a
gusty, rainy night. As they approach
ed the crossing they saw the light o f a
locomotive approaching, but defiantly
kept on their way and were struck nnd
hurled into a field nnd both instantly
killed. No one in Scoville was mean
enough to say they were glad o f it. but
the B. and B. railroad saw its chance
and moved quickly. Before it could be
sued by the heirs it went into court
against itself and was legally permit
ted to settle the claim for $5,000.
They say that the ghosts o f old Ran
some and his w ife haunt the farm.
Hard to Tell.
“ I see your son is home from col
lege, Mr. Jims.
Is he developing
well?”
“ Can’t hardly tell y e t He's only had
his moving picture camera a week.” —
Baltimore American.
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