True stories of old Houston and Houstonians: historical and personal sketches / by S. O. Young. Page: 164
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164 TRUE STORIES OF OLD
papers sent to his office, and had a clerk who did nothing but
read those papers and clip out every line that made reference
to the railroad and paste it in a big scrap-book he kept for that
purpose. This book was properly indexed, so the captain had
no trouble to turn to the record of any particular paper at once.
When an editor applied for a pass the captain looked over what
he had said about his road during the year, and if there was anything
against the road in the book, the pass was refused and
the editor was referred to his own paper, such and such a date,
for the reasons.
Captain Faulkner and Colonel Bill Sterrett were warm personal
friends to the day of the captain's death, but professedly
they were at daggers' points and if Colonel Sterrett wanted to
reach any point on the Houston and Texas Central road he. had
either to dig up his cold cash for a ticket or walk. The colonel
had so far forgotten himself as to refer to the captain's road
as "the angel maker," because of the frequent and fatal wrecks
that were taking place on it. That settled him. Captain Faulkner
placed him on his black list in box car letters and kept him
there. Colonel Sterretj got no more favors, nor did he ask
for any. He practically kept his reference to the Houston and
Texas Central as "the angel makers" as standing matter and
raf it in nearly ever' issue of the paper.
One or two papers were silly enough to copy Colonel Sterrett's
remarks and make some of their own. They also went
on the black-list. Colonel Nat Q. Henderson was among the
erring ones. He was living in Georgetown, but happened to be
in Austin and wanted to come to Houston, so he wrote to
Captain Faulkner asking for a pass. The captain looked up
his record and found that it was generally good and that he
had sinned but slightly. But he wanted to punish him, so he
sent him a pass "good from Austin to Hempstead and return."
Colonel Henderson glanced at the pass and without reading it
boarded the train for Houston. He did not discover'the trick
until he got to Hempstead and the conductor refused to let
him come farther without a ticket or pass. They had to wait
some time at Hempstead for the main line train, so Colonel
Henderson persuaded the conductor that Captain Faulkner had
made an error and had written Hempstead instead of Houston,
as he should have done. He got the conductor to telegraph to
the captain for instructions what to do. The answer came back:
"Make Henderson pay fare or put him off." He paid and came
to 'Houston, in no good humor, however.
But I did not start to tell of Captain Faulkner as a railroad
man. What I wanted to speak of was his remarkable gift as a
story-teller. He had a fine sense of humor, and was one of
the best talkers I ever knew. In 1883 nearly every Sunday night
Tobe Mitchell, Colonel 0. T. Holt, Colonel Sye Oberly and I
would sit out in front of the Capitol Hotel, now the Rice. and
listen to Captain Faulkner talk for hours. He was-always full
of good, clean, healthy stories and told them in the most charm-
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Young, Samuel Oliver. True stories of old Houston and Houstonians: historical and personal sketches / by S. O. Young., book, 1913; Galveston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth24646/m1/164/?rotate=270: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.