HEROES: Jones

It is a fact—and no fault of aviation—that many a little boy of 1928 wants, some day. to be an engineer (the pilot of a steam locomotive). Still great is the appeal of the whistle in the night, the glare of the boiler fire, the singing rails.

All the glamor of railroading is summed up in two words—Casey Jones. Mention these words to any engineer, fireman or roundhouse worker, and he will immediately be your friend. If he doesn’t start singing, he will tell you a pack of grand stories.

There was once an engineer named John Luther Jones, they called him Casey because he was born near Cayce, Kentucky. He piloted the Illinois Central’s Cannonball

No. 1, crack passenger train between New Orleans and Chicago. On the midnight run of March 18, 1900, with Mardi Gras guests abroad. Casey Jones saw a crash coming with the rear-end of a freight train near Vaughns, Mississippi. He did all he could to prevent it, pulled on the air-brakes, threw his engine into reverse. Then he yelled to the fireman: “jump if you want to save your neck.” But Casey Jones, no jumper, stayed with his locomotive and died instantly in the crash.

After they buried Casey Jones, an old roundhouse Negro worker, Wallace Saunders, began to chant a song about him. In the railroad yards between New Orleans and Chicago, whites and blacks added verse after verse to Casey’s epitaph. Soon there were some 50 verses and many a chorus. Eddie Newton and T. Lawrence Seibert converted them into a popular hit. Extracts:

The caller called Casey at a half past jour, Kissed his wife at the station door, Mounted to the cabin with his orders in his hand, And took his farewell trip to the promised land.

Casey pulled up that Reno hill, He tooted for the crossing with an awful shrill, The switchman knew by the engine’s moans That the man at the throttle was Casey Jones. He pulled lip within two miles of the place, Number four stared him right in the face, Turned to the fireman, said; “Boys, you’d better

jump, ‘Cause there’s two locomotives that’s again’ to

bump.”

Casey said just before he died, “There’s two more roads that I’d like to ride.” Fireman said, “What could that be?” “The Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe.” Mrs. Jones sat on her bed asighing Just received a message that Casey was dying, Said, “Go to bed, children, and hush your crying, ‘Cause you’ve got another papa on the Salt Lake Line.”

The wife whom Casey kissed at’ the station door is still alive. She lives in Clarksdale, Miss. Last week, she announced that she was filing suit for $150,000 against a California motion picture company for exploiting Casey’s name without her permission.