Sir William Cornelius Van Horne - Date/Photographer unknown.

19 September 2013

Close Call in the Wild West

Missouri USA - Sir William Van Horne, who served as president of the Canadian Pacific Railway from 1888 to 1899, was one of the undoubted giants of 19th-century Montreal.
 
But he might never have achieved that eminence had things played out differently some years before.
 
Van Horne was born in Illinois and worked for a number of American railroads before coming to Montreal in 1882.
 
One of those railroads was the St. Louis Kansas City & Northern, and in the summer of 1872, as its new superintendent, he was crossing Missouri on an inspection tour.
 
At one stop, four young toughs swaggered onto the train and found seats in Van Horne's carriage.
 
Also in the car were a young black woman and her disabled infant.
 
The baby was crying, and finally one of the ruffians turned around, gave it a slap and told it to "shut up."
 
The mother looked around desperately, not knowing what to do.
 
Van Horne did.
 
He got up, strode over to the bully, grabbed him by the collar and pulled him into the aisle.
 
"Leave that child alone," he growled.
 
"Who the hell are you?" the bully growled back.
 
"Never mind," Van Horne replied.
 
"Be careful how you conduct yourself or I shall throw you off this train."
 
Van Horne was just 29, but he was big and very strong, and there was no mistaking the steel in his voice.
 
The bully shrugged and sat down.
 
At the next station the four toughs got up to disembark.
 
The man who had slapped the child, anxious to regain face, moved toward Van Horne but his companions intervened and dragged him off.
 
Suddenly the conductor appeared and, near panic, told Van Horne to duck down.
 
"Don't you know who they are?" he squawked.
 
"That's Jesse and Frank James and the Younger brothers. Stay down or they might take a shot at you through the window!"
 
It was early in the career of the James-Younger gang, but they were already notorious as bank and train robbers, and murderers.
 
As Van Horne later told the story, he kept his composure for another half-hour before beginning to tremble at what might have happened.
 
John Kalbfleisch.
 
Editor's Note:  Truth or fiction? Article abridged to remove un-related railway data.
 
Since we're telling stories about Van Horne here's one of my favourites:  The story goes that Van Horne was riding a CPR train enroute somewhere in Canada when he discovered, unbeknownst to them, members of the train crew playing cards in one of the cars. Now gambling has always been illegal on Canadian trains but I'm sure it was more the fact that employees were doing it while on duty that ticked off Van Horne. So at the next station stop that had a telegraph he strode into the agent's office taking over the telegraph key to send a telegram addressed to the train crew ahead of the train to its next stop. Van Horne started his career as a telegrapher in Illinois, if I recall correctly, so he was quite able to work the telegraph key. When the train reached its next stop the telegram was passed to the card playing crew who were totally amazed at to how the President found out they were goofing off while on duty. Van Horne's biography, "The Life and Work of Sir William Van Horne" by Walter Vaughan published by the Century Company of New York in 1920, is well worth reading if you can find a copy in your local library.

Vancouver Island
British Columbia
Canada