St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 53

AM i 85 1 by tDQll NEWTON. 7" i 1 mm 5 mm -JOHN LUTHER His Nickname Slow VamptMVoice. s-. 4- Was "Cayce," His Home Was Jackson, and the Admira Hon of an Old Darky Locomotive Oiler Was the Foundation Which Has Made Everywhere ZEWING FZOM LETT TOftfflT JOHN LLOYD JDNET HOEN V. JONES CHARLES' BRATV JC! Jones want to hear a shovel in your coal put your Re no hill ne fore he died theres 1 "r-5 Casey Jones i.

OME all you rounders. If you want to hear A story about a brave engineer; Casey Jones was the rounder's name. On a six-eight wheeler he won his fame. The caller called Casey at half-past four, Kissed his wife at the station door. Mounted to the cabin with his orders in his hand.

And he took his farewell trip to that promised land. Chorus. Casey Jones! Mounted to the cabin-Casey Jones! with his orders in Casey Jones! Mounted to the f'v And took his farewell trip tot ised land. 1 i II. it "Pu.t in your water and sb.of0 0 ii i ruryour neaa out me wmw drivers roll; r.

I'll run her till she lejf- 'i 5. Cause I'm eight hour ri ern mall." .5 -He looked at his watcha 'o slow, He looked at the water and tf low, He turned to the fireman and he "We're going to reach Frisco, but we'll all be dead!" Chorus. III. Casey pulley up that Reno hill. He tootefor the crossing with an awful shrill, The switchman knew.by the engine' moan That the man at the throttle was Casey Jones.

He pulled up within two miles of the place. Number Four stared him right In the face, Turned to the fireman, said: "Box, you'd better Jump, Cause there's two locomotives that's a-going to bump." Chorus. IV. Casey said, Just before he died: "There's two more roads that I'd like to ride." Fireman saW: "What could they be?" "The Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe." Mrs. Jones sat on her bed a-sighing, Ju.st received a message that Casey was dying.

Said: "Go to bed, children, and hush your crying, 'Cause your papa's now driving on the Heavenly line." Chorus. Each chorus utilizes the two last lines of the preceding stanza. Dispatch Sunday Magazine, give the following account of the genesis of the ong: "We wrote 'Casey Jone' from an old neto song, which had nobody knows how verses. As far as we can trace it back, it btatteu about au engineer by the name of John Luther Jones, better known -as 'Casey Jones. "We have searched back, and as.

near as can learn, an old darkey named Wallace launders, working In a roundhouse, started the lt the 'Casey Jones' song. We took the old ou made a new one from It." Therefore, unlike most popular iont. "Ca.e Jones' is based upon real facts and even bal CASEY iONES. Musc EiBERT. 'Come all you rounders if you Put in your water Ca sey pulled up that Ca scy said just be mm 7-4? MES.

JOHN LUTHEfc JONES ing her children. The slang of any trade Is racy and interesting to others, as Balzac knew when he entertained the fine ladies of Paris in one of his novels with the argot of the criminal classes, who, after all, have a trade. The authors of "Casey Jones" filled the song with railroadisms. "Casey Jones was the rounder's name," goes one line. "Rounder" here.

does not have its common meaning in slang, but denotes a railroad man, from the roundhouse. In the verse, "The caller called Casey at half-past four," an institution is represented that probably does not exist outside of railroad systems. This is the callboy, whose business it is to go with a lantern to the homes of the train crews and wake them up an hour before their time to go on duty. At the boy's summons, the wife usually awakes first, arouses her husband, tells him the orders and sets about getting breakfast and filling his dinner pail. This is hinted in the fact that "Casey's" wife was up to kiss him good-by.

"Put in your water and shovel in your coal; put your head out the window, watch them drivers roll!" is the engineer's technical instruction to his fireman. "He tooted for the crossing with an awful shrill," so that all who heard knew "Casey" was in the cabin. Mrs Jones, who Is in easy circumstances, is devoted to the memory of her husband and to her children. The eldest, now 22 years old, is a coppersmith in the Mobile Ohio shops at Jackson. Miss Helen is 19, and is a stenographer.

She has refused several offers from vaude- ville companies to pose on the tage as "Casey" Jones' daughter while the song was being sung. Her shrinking from the spotlight Is not shared by her brother John, who, ilthough only 15 years old, has appeared frequently in vaudeville, and is ambitious to make the stage his vocation. Siebert and Newton, in a letter to the Post- dustry, and kept up such a row all day and uiost of th- night that tue poor sribe was almost driven mad. At lart by a stroke of craftiness he buttonholed acn -jignbn- separately and luru iuujiuss, wmcn tney Qia wim one anotner. This tale has kept the world amused for fiv.

thousand years we often meet with It nowana it never seems to have occurred to anybody to wonder why the scribe uid not change his own lodgings; but perhaps his rent was in such arrears, as sometimes happens to other literary gentlemen, that it was cheaper to bribe the two workmen. of and i n- tiii The song traveled from one roundhouse to another and after several years reached California. There two young song writers, Eddie Newton and T. J. Siebert, recognized its popular possibilities.

Newton, a composer, wrote the melody down and improved upon it. Siebert brought order out of chaos in the array of verses and reduced them to four, but changed the scene of "Casey" Jones' activities from the Illinois Central and the Mississippi Delta to the Transcontinental Divide railroads. Two years ago they -published the songs and "Casey" Jones was launched upon his posthumous career of fame. Since that time more than one million copies are said to have been sold. In the song, as the scens of "Casey's death, is transferred to the far West, and Is represented as occurring near Reno, while he was flying towards San Francisco with the Western mail, eight hours late.

Story of the Famous Song. HE verses relate, in a style rich with "Casey" was awak-at 4:30 a. m. to He climbed into railroad argot, that ened by the caller take out the mail train. the cabin, orders in his hand, after kissing his wife.

"I'll run her till she leaves the rail," he said to the fireman. 'Cause I'm eight hour late with that Western mail." Disastrous omens gave him a foreboding of his fate. His watch was slow. The gauge showed that the water in the boiler was low. So, turning to his fireman, "Casey" remarked: "We're going to reach Frisco, but we'll all be dead." By the moaning of the whistle, the.

switchman an the grade approaching Reno knew that "Casey" Jones was at the throttle. But two miles out of Reno, the engineer suddenly seized he reversing lever. "No. 4," coming from the opposite direction, was "staring him right in the face" with its headlight. In a moment -Casey" knew that a collision was unavoidable.

Turning to the fireman, he said coolly: "Boy, you'd better jump, cause there's two locomotives that's a-going to bump." With the ethics of his profession, the engineer remained at the throttle. From this crisis the stanzas skip, with poetic license, to "Casey's" deathbed. His last words were of regret not that he was dying, but that he was dying without having first operated locomotives on the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe. The verses close with' "Mrs. Casey" comfort of the Sons Him Known iINGlXG "Casev Jones" to keep his courage up.

Perry Ritchie submitted to the knife of a Clayton, surgeon who was cutting a bullet out of the muscles of his back. It was this incident which led in the discovery by the Sunday Post-Dispatch Magazine that Casey Jones was a real 'character. Early in July Perry Jiicnie, a laa 14 years old, left home in Spring Avenue Heights to go bird-nesting with a com-' rade of about his own age. They took a cat rifle with them. During the morning a young owl fell out of its nest, and both boys made a rush to capture it.

Kichie reached It first, but his companion, who was carrying -the rifle, stumbled over a wild grape vine and the weapon was discharged. The bullet entered Richie's breast not far from the heart. Thus sorelr wounded the plucky lad walked to Clayton to seek medical aid and went to the office of Dr. O. V.

Snodgrass, who put him on the operating table and began to probe for the bullet. As the silver probe began to hurt him Perry lifted his voice in song. "Come all you rounders if you want to hear A story about a. brave engineer." The story of Perry's musical anesthetic, published in the Post-Dispatch, was read by Mrs. J.

L. Jones of Jackson, who wrote to Dr. Snodgrass to ask him if he knew the words of the song and could send her a copy of it. "My husband's name was Casey Jones," the lttter said, "but I never knew a song had been written about him." Evt ijbodij Singing It. A COPY of the song was sent to Mrs.

Jonea by the Sunday. Post-Dispatch, and it was learned for the first time that the hero of th most popular song of the year was known in his lifet fue as a good railroad man who could die as bravely as the "Casey Jones" of the song. Recently a St. Ixnrisan somewhat addicted to music of the clasical mode was in a small town in Sou'heastern Missouri. For his entertain-rrent the daughter of a hotel keeper and her two younger brothers assembled at the piano, and in a minute the atmosphere was staggering tinder a rollicking melody in ragtime, which combined, titer the American style of humor, the most hilarious music with words which related a tragedy.

As the vishor walked the town, the Fame melody pursued him. Men whistled it lestfully as they passed. Its stiains clattered from tht keys of automatic piano in a moving picture show. Negro bootblacks hummed it as they wielded their brushes. A phonograph blared It from a music store window.

It shrilled from the parlors of homes in which iron-fingered daughters made its refrain thunder from the piano. In the afternoon a young woma from Memphis arrived at the hotel, and after some ques- KM turning, blushingly admitted that she "had taken," which is a Southwestern abbreviation for taking music lessons. With the usual simpers that she had no music with her and that she hadn't touched a key for ten months, she consented to be led to the piano for a display of her accomplishments. Instantly the instrument was palpitant with a muscular performance of the Smniliar frolicksome tune, in the chorus of wbirh all present united their more or less melodious shouts. In the evening a second young woman, from Paragould, arrived, confessed that she "took," and submitted "to be escorted to the piano.

Again the instrument roared with the same syncopated composition. Casey Died in a Collision. the next morning the St. Louisan, despite his lack of sympathy with ragtime music, surprised himself by whistling the popular air. He resisted, but the insistent melody entered his blood.

At last he yielded unconditionally, and found a half-barbarous pleasure in humming its ludicrous-pathetic words. In Memphis he found the tuae even more popular. He heard it whistled on the streets of New Orleans. It followed him from town to town across the State of Texas. It accompanied him through Oklahoma and Arkansas.

Its jo-'vial melody welcomed him to Kansas. A porter hummed 96 verses of it on the sleeping car which brought him back to St. Louis. Other travelers informed him that the song's popularity "extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Gulf, of Mexico to the great lakes. He was at last persuaded that the railroad chantey, "Casey Jones," had become for a time almost the national air of America.

The' song relates the death of Casey Jones, a locomotive engineer, in a collision while making up time with the Western mail. With the eccentricity of ragtime, which sets merry happenings to minor melodies and sad ones to major, the music In which this tragedy is couched Is most lighthearted and mirthful stirring the pulse to Its gayest beat and the toes to their lightest, most fantastic mood. The air of the comical extends even to the words, with their slangy railroadisms, uncouth phrases and outlandish assonances instead of rhymes, although the design seems to have been to apotheosize a hero. Probably few of the thousands who sing the song, know that there was a real "Casey" Jones, that his widow, three children and three brothers are alive, and that his death in a collision was the actual inspiration of the chantey. "Casey" himself sleeps in a little Catholic cemetery near Jackson, all unmindful of the widespread fame which an old roundhouse negro's genius beptowed upon him.

Even his wido did not know, until recently, that her husband was the hero cf a song sung wherever a railroad runs In the United States. To the musicians, professional and amateur, who are busy spreading his renown on the wings of melody, "Casey" Jones has become a sort of mythological figure, typifying the fidelity of railroad engineers. The song easily lends itself to the making of new verses, and In nearly every town stanzas with a local application have been added. There have arisen a "Chicago Casey Jones," a "Memphis Ccscy Jones" and a "New Orleans Casey Jones." all with the same music but with varying The original "Casey" Jones was John Luther Jones, who was born in 1863 at Cayce, Ky. The name of this town Is pronounced "kay-sey," and from this fact his famous nickname arose.

His Irish comrad promptly hibernlcized the name into "Casey," although the co mbination of two such cognomens as Casey and Jores was probably unknown before either in or out the Emerald Isle. The facts of his life axe prosaic, and his circumstances did not prophesy the celebrity which he was to achieve after death. His boyhood days were spent on his father's farm. At the age of 18 he became a telegrapn operator at Cayce, anjd the following year obtained employment as a fireman on the Mobile Ohio Railroad. Later he entered the service of the Illinois Central Railr in the same capacity.

In 1890 he was promoted to the position of engineer, which he held until his death. During most of the period in which he was employed by the Illinois Central he lived with his family at Jackson, Tenn. On Nov. 26, 1886, he was married to a daughter of the late C. T.

Brady of Jackson. Three children were born Charles Brady, Helen V. and John Lloyd Jones all of whom are now residing with their mother at 214 Shannon street, Jackson. Jones' three brothers Frank, Philip and Eugene Jones all locomotive engineers, also live in Jackson. "Casey" Jones, as- he was known all over the road for several years, ran a freight train in the Tennessee division of the Illinois Central.

Then, his steady habits and fidelity having attracted the notice of his superiors, he was transferred to the division of Water Valley, and promoted to be engineer of the Chicago-New Orleans Limited, a fast passenger train. It was on this run that he lost his life at midnight, April 30, 1900, in a rear-end collision with a freight train at Vaughn, Miss. Negro the Original Author ASEY'S" genial, sunny disposition caused his death to be lamented among all of his fellow-workers, high and low. in the system. With most of them their grief was inarticulate.

At the most they said: "What a pity!" or "'Casey' was a good man." But one. man, an old negro oiler named Wallace Saunders, in the roundhouse at Cayce, could not be dumb, for he had -loved "Casey" Jones. Sitting In a melancholy mood over his banjo, his sorrow found its way out in rude words, for which his fingers, rambling over the strings, plucked out, with no sense of inconsistency, a two-step in the merriest ragtime. The verses had many of the qualities of the old ballads, extemporized by the minstrels of Europe. They were crude and unfinished, they bristled with railroad slang, there were between one thought and the next, and the grammar would have made a mcWn Quintillan gas and stare.

Yet they had an eosential continuity, and told. In an unlettered way, a tale which went to the heart of every railroad man. Wallace Saunders, the black minstrel, like the artist in the poem, builded better than he knev. 4 i i 7 1 i 3 J. the Oldest joke: in the world HAT is the oldest jeke in the world? According to T.

Weekly it Is the following, which is related in one the Berlin papyri of the sixth Egyptain dynasty (about 3200 B. C), and it should not be overlooked that in the days when the world was young a tale enjoyed centuries of verbal currency before it was inscribed in permanent form. According to the papyrine. a certain scribe who worked for the Temple of Thoth occupied apartments where his neighbors on either side were a coppersmith and carpenter respectively. These honest artisans were execplary specimens in history of several years before It was wrlttoo down, having traveled by word of mouth, like an fcnclent from one railroad division another.

In Ur. composition several persons e-operated. The engineer from Cayce. supplied its Inspiration. An old negro was Its first creator.

Unknown poets built It up verse by verse. This Is perhaps the reason of its rollick ius vitality, its racy tang of real life. FIVE, W111 POST-DISPATCH- SEPTEMBER 10, 911. V-.