and,
after he got to running express, would go through a town, where other
trains were sidetracked for him, looking at the track ahead, and at the
trains, but never seeming to care that they were there, never nodding or
waving a hand. Once in a while he would blink his eyes,--that was all.
The wind tossed his mane and hair and made him look for all the world
like a lion, who looks at, but appears to care nothing for the crowds
around his den. Someone noticed the comparison, and dubbed him "The
Lion," and the name clung to him. He was spoken of as "Old 'Lige, the
Lion." Just why he was called old, I don't know--he was little more than
forty then.

When the men on the road had any grievances, they always asked 'Lige to
"go and see the old man." 'Lige always went to lodge and to meetings of
the men, but was never known to speak. When the demands were drawn up
and presented to him, he always got up and said: "Them air declarations
ain't right, an' I wouldn't ask any railroad to grant 'em;" or, "The
declarations are right. Of course I'll be glad to take 'em."

When old 'Lige declined to bear a grievance it was modified or
abandoned; and he never took a request to headquarters that was not
granted--until the strike of '77.

When the war broke out, 'Lige was asked to go, and the railroad boys
wanted him to be captain of a company of them; but he declined, saying
that slavery was wrong and should be crushed, but that he had a sickly
wife and four small children depending on his daily toil for bread, and
it wouldn't be right to leave 'em unprovided for. They drafted him
later, but he still said it "wa'n't right" for him to go, and paid for a
substitute. But three months later his father-in-law died, up in the
country somewhere, and left his wife some three thousand dollars, and
'Lige enlisted the next, day, saying "'Tain't right for any man to stay
that can be spared; slavery ain't right; it must be stopped." He served
as a private until it was stopped.

Shortly after the war 'Lige was pulling the superintendent over the
road, when he struck a wagon, killing the driver, who was a farmer, and
hurting his wife. The woman afterward sued the road, and 'Lige was
called as a witness for the company. He surprised everybody by stating
that the accident was caused by mismanagement of the road, and explained
as follows: "I pull the regular Atlantic express, and should have been
at the crossing where the accident occurred, an hour late