OCR Text |
Show 74, Jeffries, Islamorada [Section 2] "Flagler sent down Mississippi steamboats, flat-bottomed boats that could work in the shallows, and later we run the ferries." "A car ferry ran south from Marathon." "A fifteen mile trip. . .in two hours, 'cept if it got stuck." "But the railroad. . "That was the work I loved. Seen their posters in New York. Signed on to reimburse the railroad for the fare down. Three squares and a bunk and a dollar-twenty-five a day. Working on the grade. Section gangs, signalman, stationmaster. . ." Intemperate heat and they couldn't find a shadow, but the old man's tale was talk of the night, of lucifer matches and yellow Pintsch gaslights, chromed cuspidors mirroring tuxedos in the dining car, 'Yassah!' the porters would speak fiercely, 'Spit and polish!' "And sometimes proud Rambler, Flagler's private car, coupling last. Cuban cigar ash fine as a comet's tail blowing from the deck of a caboose. "Trackwalkin'. It was right here one night, this bridge off Key Vaca. A dinkey, the small work locomotive come first. Then the light of Engine Twelve is on me and by me, bright phlogiston sparking from the chimney, as the locomotive goes laboring up its ell. There was a crane and some spools, heavyweight stuff aboard as she headed down to what was then the terminal -of the |