INTO THE SLOUGH OF DESPOND
The enthusiasm which Mr. Marcellus Massey showed over the extension of his
railroad into Suspension Bridge was surface enthusiasm, indeed. In his
heart he felt that it had taken a very dangerous step. His mind was full
of forebodings. Some of these he confessed to his intimates in Watertown.
He felt that a mistake--if you please, an irrevocable mistake--had been
made. And there was no turning back.
These forebodings were realized. As we have just seen, the Lake Ontario
Shore defaulted upon its bonds in 1876 and again in 1877. The reflection
of this disastrous step came directly upon the R. W. & O. It ceased paying
dividends. The North Country folk, who had come to regard its securities
as something hardly inferior to government bonds, were depressed and then
alarmed. Yet worse was to come. On August 1, 1878, the R. W. & O.
defaulted in its interest on its great mass of consolidated bonds.
The blow had fallen! Failure impended! And receivership! Yet, in the long
run, both were avoided. Into the directorate of the railroad, up to that
time a fairly close Northern New York affair, a new man had come. He was a
smallish man, with a reputation for keenness and sagacity in railroad
affairs, second only to that of Jay Gould or Daniel Drew. There were more
ways than one in which Samuel Sloan, known far and wide as plain "Sam
Sloan," resembled both of these men.
His touch with the R. W. & O. came physically, by way of the contact of
the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western with it at three points; at Oswego,
at Syracuse, and at Rome--this last, at that time through its leased
operation of the Rome & Clinton Railroad, which ceased July 1, 1883. He
had looked upon the development and the despair of the Rome road with
increasing interest. His careful and conservative mind must have stood
aghast at the foolhardiness of the Lake Ontario Shore venture. Sam Sloan
would have done nothing of that sort. The railroad that he dominated so
forcefully for many years--Lackawanna--would have taken no step of that
sort. Trust Sam Sloan for that.
And yet, despite his evident dislike for the property, the R. W. & O. had
its fascinations for him. He must have seen certain opportunities in it.
The fact that it touched his own road at so many points, and, therefore,
was capable of becoming so large a potential feeder for it--despite the
malign influence of those Vanderbilts with their important New York
Central--must have appealed to the old man's heart. At any rate he took
direct steps to gain control of the Rome road.
* * * * *
The precise motives that impelled Samuel Sloan to gain a control of the R.
W. & O., and having once gained a control of it, to conduct it in the
remarkable manner that he did, in all probability, never will be known.
One may only indulge in surmises. But just why he should seek, apparently
with deliberateness and carefully preconceived plan, to wreck what had
been so recently the finest of all railroads in the state of New York is
not clearly apparent even to-day.
Sloan was a man of many moods. Receptive and interested to-day, he was
cold and bitter to-morrow. One might never count upon him. He flattered
Marcellus Massey, raised his salary as the President of the Rome road from
$7500 to $10,000 a year, and then induced him to purchase large holdings
of Lackawanna stock, putting up as collateral his large holdings of the
shares of the R. W. & O., just beginning their long drop towards a
pitifully low figure--all the time holding the bait to the old President
of the amazing property that he was about to upbuild in Northern New York.
So, eventually Sloan ruined Massey, financially and physically, and a
broken hearted man went out from the old President's office of the R. W. &
O. in Watertown.
In 1877, the year before the Rome road all but created financial disaster
in Northern New York, Sloan had bought enough of its bargain-sale stock to
have himself elected as its President. The official roster of the road
then became:
_President_, SAMUEL SLOAN, New York
_Vice-President_, MARCELLUS MASSEY, Watertown
_Treasurer_, J. A. LAWYER, Watertown
_General Freight Agent_, E. M. MOORE, Watertown
_General Ticket Agent_, H. T. FRARY, Watertown
_Supt. R. W. & O. Division_, J. W. MOAK, Watertown
_Supt. L. O. & S. N. Division_, E. A. VAN HORNE, Oswego
_Directors_
Marcellus Massey, Watertown
Samuel Sloan, New York
William E. Dodge, New York
John S. Farlow, Boston
Percy R. Pyne, New York
Talcott H. Camp, Watertown
Moses Taylor, Scranton
C. Zabriskie, New York
John S. Barnes, New York
S. D. Hungerford, Adams
Gardner R. Colby, New York
William M. White, Utica
Theodore Irwin, Oswego
The North Country complexion of the directorate had all but disappeared.
As far back as 1871, Addison Day had ceased to be Superintendent of the
road, and had become Superintendent of the Utica & Black River. He had
been succeeded by J. W. Moak, a former roadmaster of the Rome road. Moak
was not only equally as efficient as Day, but he was much more popular,
both with the road's employees and its patrons. Yet one of Sloan's first
acts was to relieve him of a portion of his territory and responsibility.
He made the point, and it was not without force, that it was all but
impossible for an operating officer at Watertown to supervise properly the
western end of the now far-flung system. So, he took the former Syracuse
Northern, the Lake Ontario Shore and the branch from Richland to
Oswego--all the lines west of Richland, in fact--and made them into a new
division, with headquarters at Oswego. For this division he brought one of
his few favored officers from the Lackawanna, E. A. Van Horne, who had
been a Superintendent upon that property. Van Horne was a forceful man,
who, as he went upward, made a distinct impress upon the railroad history
of the North Country. He was quick tempered, decisive, yet possessing
certain very likable qualities that were of tremendous help to him there.
Another of Sloan's early acts--more easily understood than some
others--was to tear out the soft-coal grates of the fire boxes of the R.
W. & O. locomotives, and substitute for them hard-coal grates. Anthracite
then, as now, was a great specialty of the Lackawanna. And in the road to
the north of him Sloan possessed a customer of no mean dimensions.
* * * * *
For the next four or five years the R. W. & O. grubbed along--and barely
dodged receivership. Its service steadily went from bad to worse. It now
took the best passenger trains upon the line four hours to go from
Watertown to Rome, seventy-two miles (in the very beginnings of the road,
they had done it in an even three hours). No one knew when a freight car
would reach New York from Watertown. Confusion reigned. Chaos was at hand.
And when Watertown merchants and manufacturers would go to Oswego to
protest to Mr. Van Horne (Mr. Moak finally had been demoted, and Watertown
suffered the humiliation of having the operating headquarters of the
system moved away from it) they would hear from the General Superintendent
of the property his utter helplessness in the matter; the threats from
Sloan were that he might close down the road altogether, and Van Horne was
beside himself for explanations:
"Gentlemen, I cannot do better," he said, over and over again, "our track
is in deplorable condition. I dare not send a train over the road without
sending a man afoot, station to station, ahead of it to make sure that the
rails will hold."
So it was. The track inspectors' jobs were cut out for them these days.
They made some long-distance walking records. Yet, despite their
vigilance, train wrecks came with increasing frequency. Morale was gone.
The fine old R. W. & O. was at the bottom of the Slough of Despond. Added
to all this were the rigors of a North Country winter, which we are to see
in some detail in another chapter. According to the veracious diary of
Moses Eames, on January 2nd, 1879, the first train came into Watertown
since Christmas Day. The following day it snowed again, and fiercely and
the R. W. & O. went out of business for another ten days. That storm was
almost a record-breaker: more than a fortnight of continuous snow and
extreme low temperature.
* * * * *
In those days Samuel Sloan was busy occupying himself with an extension of
his beloved Lackawanna into Buffalo. That, in itself, was a real job. For
years the D. L. & W. had terminated at Great Bend, a few miles east of
Binghamton, and had used trackage rights upon the Erie from there West,
not only into the Buffalo gateway, but also to reach its branch-line
properties into Utica, Rome, Syracuse and Ithaca. Sloan finally had
quarreled with the Erie--it was a way he ofttimes had. And, for once at
least, had made a bold strategic move through to the far end of the Empire
State.
To build so many miles of railroad one must have rail. And rail costs much
money, unless one may borrow it from a friendly property. So Sloan went up
into the North Country and "borrowed" rail. He "borrowed" so much that
travel upon the R. W. & O. became fraught with many real dangers--and the
life of his General Superintendent at Oswego, Van Horne, a nightmare. Some
of the rails were, in his own words, not more than six feet long. Finally
in desperation he appealed to his chief competitor in the North Country,
the Utica & Black River, which rapidly was substituting steel for iron
upon its main line. In sheer pity, J. F. Maynard, General Superintendent
of the Utica & Black River, sent his discarded iron to his paralyzed
competitor.
There was little steel upon the Rome road in 1883--less than sixty miles
of its 417 miles of main line track was so equipped. Neither were there
sufficient locomotives; but fifty-two of them all-told, in addition to two
or three that the Lackawanna had had the extreme kindness to "loan" the
property--upon a perfectly adequate rental basis. Long since it had ceased
to operate such frills as sleeping-cars or parlor-cars. It had only
fifty-four passenger-coaches; not nearly enough to meet the needs of so
far-flung a line. And many of these were in extreme disrepair. An elderly
citizen of Ogdensburgh says that it was a nightly occasion for the R. W. &
O. train to come in from DeKalb with more than half of its journals
ablaze.
* * * * *
Yet, despite these bitter years, the road had managed to avoid
receivership and in 1882 it succeeded in effecting a reorganization; under
which it dropped the interest on its bonds to five per cent and assessed
its stockholders ten dollars a share for a cash working fund to keep it
alive. They were given income bonds for the amount so contributed by them.
There were a few grumbles at this arrangement, but not many. The huge
potential possibilities of the property--or rather of the rich and still
undeveloped territory that it served--were too generally recognized.
It began to be rumored that new outside interests were buying into the
stock in Wall Street. These rumors were brought to Sloan's attention.
"Look out," he was warned, "some one will get that old heap of junk away
from you yet."
He laughed. At the best you could tell Samuel Sloan but little. Gradually,
he proceeded with his reorganization, and in 1883 we find the official
roster of the reorganized R. W. & O. reading in this fashion:
_President_, SAMUEL SLOAN, New York
_Secretary and Treasurer_, J. A. LAWYER, Watertown
_General Superintendent_, E. A. VAN HORNE, Oswego
_Master Mechanic_, G. H. HASELTON, Oswego
_General Ticket Agent_, H. T. FRARY, Watertown
_General Freight Agent_, E. M. MOORE, Oswego
_Directors_
Talcott H. Camp, Watertown
S. D. Hungerford, Adams
William M. White, Utica
Theodore Irwin, Oswego
William E. Dodge, New York
Roswell G. Ralston, New York
Charles Parsons, New York
Clarence S. Day, New York
Percy R. Pyne, New York
John S. Barnes, New York
John S. Farlow, Boston
Gardner R. Colby, New York
The rumor-mongers were not without fact to support them, for a new name
will be noticed upon this list; that of Charles Parsons, of New York, who
had been carefully garnering in R. W. & O. stock, at from ten to fifteen
cents on the dollar. Two names had disappeared, those of Marcellus Massey
and of J. W. Moak. But we focus our attention upon the name of Parsons,
and then step forward in our narrative until the sixth day of June, 1883,
when the Directors of the R. W. & O. held a meeting in the back room of
the Jefferson County Bank in Watertown.
There was an unusually full attendance of the Board. Mr. Sloan, as was his
prerogative through his office as President of the road, sat at the head
of the long table. Near its foot sat Mr. Parsons, a cadaverous man, with
prematurely white hair, given to much thought but little speech. The
business of the meeting, the election of officers for the ensuing year,
was perfunctory and quickly accomplished. The Secretary arose and
announced that Mr. Parsons had been elected President of the R. W. & O.
Sloan flushed, and then prepared to spring a _coup d'etat_. He brought a
packet of papers from out of an inside pocket.
"What do you propose to do with these?" he snarled.
"What are they?" asked Parsons.
"Notes of the road for $300,000 that I've advanced it, to keep it out of
bankruptcy," was the reply.
"Let me see them," said its new President.... He glanced at the papers for
a moment, then reached for his check-book and wrote his check to Sloan for
a clean $300,000. He handed it across the table. The retiring President
scrutinized it sharply, placed it within his wallet and left the room.
His connection with the road was terminated. At the best it was a sinister
connection. There were few to regret his going.
* * * * *
With his hand firmly fixed upon its wheel, Parsons began the complete
reorganization of his newly acquired property. He had his long-time
associate, Clarence S. Day, elected as its Vice-President, and within a
very few weeks had brought to the operating headquarters in Oswego a fine
upstanding man, the late H. M. Britton, as General Manager of the road, a
newly created title and office. Mr. Britton at once chose two operating
lieutenants for himself; W. H. Chauncey, as Assistant Superintendent of
the Western Division (west of Richland) at Oswego, and the famous "Jud"
Remington, as Assistant Superintendent of the Eastern Division, at
Watertown.
Watertown had hoped that with the new management of the road--that
railroad which it had been prone to call "its road"--would reestablish the
operating headquarters of the property there, also new and enlarged shops.
In these hopes it was to be doomed to great disappointment. For not only
was a Sloan policy to consolidate shop facilities at Oswego continued and
enlarged--the shops both at Rome and at Watertown were reduced to
facilities for emergency repairs only--but the corporate executive
offices were removed from it to New York City, while the chief operating
headquarters of the company remained at Oswego.
Yet Watertown might easily enough take hope. The service upon the road was
improved--at once. In front of me I have a copy of the shortlived _Daily
Republican_, which once was printed there. It is dated, July 24, 1885, and
its rules are turned to black borders of mourning in tribute to General
Grant, who died upon the preceding day. In the lower corner of one of its
pages is an advertisement of the summer service upon the R. W. & O. It was
a real service, indeed--five trains a day over the main line in each
direction, and adequate schedules upon the branches. In that season of the
year there was through sleeping-car service between Watertown and New
York, upon the sleeping-cars that were operated in and out of Cape Vincent
to serve the steadily, increasing, tourist trade upon the St. Lawrence.
The Parsons' management, however, like the Sloan, steadfastly refused to
operate this sleeping-car service through the autumn, winter and spring
months of the year. There was a through sleeping-car service, also, to the
White Mountains, the car coming through from Niagara Falls, passing
Watertown at four o'clock in the morning and reaching Fabyan's, N. H., at
twenty-eight minutes after four in the afternoon; Portland, Me., by direct
connection, at 8:25 p. m. This advertisement is signed by W. F. Parsons,
as General Passenger Agent, and by Mr. Britton, as General Manager of the
line.
* * * * *
Britton was alert to suggestion and to complaint. To favored persons he
was apt to make an occasional suggestion upon the company's stock.
"Buy it now," he urged. "Buy it--and hold it."
Most folk shook their heads negatively at that suggestion. Watertown had
been burned once in a railroad experience. It now emulated the traditional
wise child. "Buy the stock," whispered Britton to a Watertown
manufacturer. It then was at twenty-five. The Watertownian demurred. A
year later it was forty. "Buy it now," Britton still whispered to him. And
still our cautious soul of the North Country hesitated. It touched fifty.
Britton still urged. Of course, the Watertown man would not buy it _then_.
He prided himself that he never bought anything at the top of the market.
Sixty, seventy, then R. W. & O. in the great market of Wall Street touched
seventy-five.
"How about it now?" said Britton over the wire.
The Watertown man laughed. He had made a mistake--one of the few financial
errors that he ever made--and he could afford to laugh at this one. Buy R.
W. & O. at seventy-five? Not he. Let the other man do it. Afterwards he
did not laugh as hard. He lived long enough to see R. W. & O. reach par
once again--and then cross it and keep upwards all the while. He saw it
reach 105, then 110 and then on a certain memorable March day in 1891,
123.
But this anticipates. We are riding too rapidly with our narrative. If old
"Jud" Remington were traveling with us upon this special he would do, as
sometimes was his wont, reach up and pull the bell-cord to slow the train.
He took no risks, did "Jud"--bless his fine, old heart.
We have anticipated--and perhaps we have neglected. All these years, of
which we have been writing, the R. W. & O. had a competitor--a very live
competitor, we must have you understand. So live, that to gain a permanent
position for itself, that competitor must needs be completely eliminated.
To that competitor--the Utica & Black River Railroad--we must now turn our
attention.