Virginian in 1912--Engine failure

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
Sun., April 28, 1912

SPEND NIGHT UNWILLINGLY ON WINDING GULF
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Engine Hauling Bankers' Special Over the Virginian Refuses to Pull Train
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REAL ESTATE BOOMS IN SECTION PUNCTURED
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Pullman Cars With Bankers, Brokers, Railroad Experts and Good Fellows Stood Throughout Night at Devil's Fork, Unable to Move
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CARS WELL STOCKED AND PASTEBOARDS* NOT LACKING
     Surrounded by all the comforts that seven all-steel Pullman cars, two well stocked dining cars, a privately stocked private car, a buffet observation car, a score of porters and officials of the Virginian Railway could provide, the excursion party of over a hundred New York bankers, brokers, railroad experts, and good fellows, who have been looking over the Virginian Railway with a view to becoming uncles to the road to the extent of $75,000,000 in bonds, spent the night on Winding Gulf Friday.
    The stay was not a willing one, but was made because one of the engines which was hauling the train balked and refused to move, apparently because the Winding Gulf coal operators, anxious to make a good showing before the New York bankers, had refused to let their men off to visit Mullins [sic] and attend the first railroad show Wyoming county had ever been given a chance to see. From late in the afternoon until 5 o'clock yesterday morning the train stood at the mouth of Devil's Fork, six miles up on the branch and finally the trip was given up; and real estate booms at the head of the hollow will undoubtedly take a drop because the bankers did not get a chance to look over prospective town sites.  Of course such a little thing as failing to see the Winding Gulf did not hurt the feelings of the majority of the party who only went along because some of the more prominent bankers thought the investor should be given a chance to look over the real value of the property.  What counted most with the majority of the party was that the cars were well stocked and that the round edged paste boards will still slick and wary.
    About 5 o'clock yesterday morning an engine was coupled on the train and started towards Charleston, from which point it is supposed the more religious members of the party took trains for New York so as to attend church there today.  New York on Saturday night was much more preferable than scaling the heights of the Mahoning sign stone, or testing the watered stock of Hotchkiss.
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*A dictionary definition of "pasteboards" is "playing cards."

Gordon Hamilton
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