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0 |H^3SB /I liMilii lItIMISIIf ■ ’ OF KENNESAW r\OVNTAIN- X>. g< ' P'ASSEN^CpEP 0 !,"- TL^Ta ' Vol. I. “Exchanging Civilities.” Our cut is one which is emi nently proper at the present time and suitable to the state of feeling which has taken possession of the American people. Here we have an “Old Reb” and an “Old Yank,” declaring a truce for a while, and one “giv ing the other a light.” The Yank has a cigar, the Reb, —— ' f hardly so fortunate, has had to put up with an old-fashioned pipe. The grizzled face of each shows that they have fought many battles; but each one evidently hopes that he has fought the last one —certainly the last one against the other. W e congratulate the American peo ple on the good sense which is their characteristic, and which is so well typ ified in the homely cut which is here shown. The “Racine.” Our article in the October number of the Kennesaw Gazette, about the sleeping car, “Racine,” evoked consid erable amusement, and was copied by some of our best and livest cotempo raries. We have since then heard several more stories of the ‘ ‘ Racine ” and her adventures which are fully as as racy as those already given. For instance, it is stated that at an ac cident at Reed’s creek, on the Norfolk & Western Railroad, several years ago, a bridge gave way, and almost the whole train went in, one car after the other. The engineer, as soon as the catas trophe was discovered, began blowing for brakes; but it seemed that nothing could be done. The current was de stroyed and the air brake would not work on the “Racine;” but the train men sprang to the hand-brakes on her platforms and began turning these for all they were worth. She had her customary fortune, for, almost on the brink of the collapsed trestle, the “Racine” stopped. The car ahead of her was coupled tightly to her, but hung slantingly over the abyss, which was about seventy feet deep. The strain was so great’that the “ Ra cine” was almost tilted up; but, as one A. humorous dare-devil —tlie very man to suit my purpose. Bulwer. OUR HOLIDAY NUMBER. . _ _ - - « .1 i m i of the men said, “she humped herself < and held on with a grip which did not < let the forward car pull her over.” The conductor called to the passen- ; gers in that car to climb upward and < get out on the platform and into the < ‘ ‘Racine.” They did this, pulling them selves up a slant of about forty-five de- < grees, and catching from seat to seat, until they all were safely landed on the platform of the “Racine,” and walked i back through her and soon reached ter ra-firma. A number of the people, ; however, in the other cars were hurt. Her good luck still attends her. For instance, a few nights ago one of the passenger agents said to us: “Oh, say, i you ought to have been here and seen No. 11 off last night. The train was almost full. The ‘Racine’ was along.” ; “Oh, well,” we remarked, “that ex- i plains it then ; no wonder about it.” Conductor Bob Wylie stated that that night he had an unusually large number of passengers, and that he was equally as well favored the next night on his return trip. He said that be fore the train started he saw two par ties, who seemed to be laboring men, walking down, looking at the car, and overheard one of them say, “I can’t very well see the name of this car. It is almost beaten off by the weather.” The other one remarked, “Well, I have just made it out, and it is the ‘Ra cine.’ That’s the first sleeping car I ever rode in, about twelve or fifteen years ago; and if she’s along the train’s going to get to Atlanta on time without any doubt. She’ll find the way, if the rest of them lose it.” “And” said Bob, “of course we came into Atlanta exactly on time.” Bob continued: ‘‘lf the ‘Racine’ had the Miller platform and coupling I would gs soog fraye her as any other sleeping ATLANTA, CA., DECEMBER 15, 1886. car that runs over the road. She runs ; easier than almost any other car we < have. Some how or other, her trucks ! are adjusted better than most any other one. But we always have a big time 1 coupling on to her. When we get ready to start we go back, and instead 1 of making the coupling, the ‘Racine’ bounces away from us; then we have ’ to try it again, and she bounces off the second time. Then I have to swing , my lamp and get the engineer to try it 1 again, and again she bounces. Some- ( times it looks like we’ve got to back ( ’way down to Augusta before we can get hold of her; but whenever we do she’s all right, and no mistake about it.” It is thought that on account of the 1 good luck which always attends her, ] some of the other railroads leading into ( Atlanta may attempt to get the Pull- ( man Company to assign the “Racine” ( to them instead of to the W. & A. They think that having her along would < help their trains to make their sched ules as regularly as the W. &A. trains ] make theirs. Since the Western & Atlantic Rail road and its connections have estab- ; lished their through sleeping car lines ! for the winter the increase in passen- 1 ger business is becoming very marked. 1 No line leading from the west to Flor ida offers as many or as good sleeping car lines to Florida as the Western & Atlantic. Its schedules are remarka bly good. The Western & Atlantic folks are happy over the way their passenger business has increased. The magnifi cent advertising which is being done by that line is bearing its certain re ward. It is capturing a great majori ty of the travel done by the old soldier boys of 1861—’64. “The Elephant Line.” In our extra edition of Nov. 15, we leferred to the fact that it took two roads to bring Barn um’s big circus to Atlanta; that the lighter parts of is were brought by the E. T., V. & G., whereas, the elephants, it was considered best, should be brought by the Western & Atlantic. During the month of November Doris’ grand combination show also exhibited in Atlanta and went thence to Rome. Following the example of Barnum, the Doris people found it best to ship their elephants via the W. & A. and Rome R. R., on account of the superior safety, convenience, etc., which the W. & A. possessed for hand ling these big monsters of nature. If this thing goes on, the Western & Atlantic will get to be termed the “Elephant Line,” and all the circuses, etc., will be coming down into this country in order to get a chance to travel over the Western & Atlantic. The Western & Atlantic, however, has a circus on hand every once and a while. We do not necessarily mean that it has elephants, trained dogs and horses, and clowns with spangled tights on; but we also include the railroad circuses which they occasionally have down in this country, in which the Western & Atlantic generally figures as ringmaster and some of its neigh bors gallop ’round the ring or jump high, in order to keep from being hit by the whip. These are rare times that they have, and there is lots of fun in them for boys; and when they open the box to divide the money they find that it has nearly all dropped into the W. & A. side of it. Hurrah for the Elephant Line!” Holiday Number. It will be observed that we name this “Our Holiday Number.” We do not do this because the Kennesaw Ga zette, this number, has much of Christmas tide, but because it will be distributed from now to the holidays, and read by tens of thousands while merry-making and peace on earth and good will toward all prevail. JThe Kennesaw Gazette wishes all its readers a merry Christmas, NO. 13.