Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 173
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[Page 173]
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-ion of his female ones. Infuriated by the laughs of the crowd, Doyle would knock her down in the dust with a side-swipe of his open hand, but she would bounce up again spitting out more curses and insults at Doyle's retreating back. He tried jumping off the train before it got right into the depot and taking a short cut direct to his tent but, nothing daunted, Mrs Rooke would stand outside and scream out to the whole camp about the iniquities of Doyle and his connections. He was, however, a splendid ganger, and his gang held the record, amongst all the other railway construction sections, for the greatest number of pairs of rails spiked to the sleepers in a day. So despite the unrest his gambling proclivity aroused among the navvies, the Resident Engineer was loth to get rid of him. But one morning Doyle said goodbye to his gang and drove many miles in his sulky to the Timekeeper's office in rear of our staff-cottage. I overheard the surprised voice of the latter, "Well Mr Doyle, and what brings you here at this time of the day?" "I've come to draw me time" (get my wages) was the sullen reply. "What Mr Doyle and why?". "Arr I can't stand that b- woman any longer". And so Mrs Rooke triumphed in the end and drove him off the job.
It was the proud boast of Willie Wilson the Storekeeper, that he had "nearly everything you could think of" in the way of construction materials and tools in his stores. Nearly every day gangers sent in demands on printed requisition forms for materials they needed. But they took a delight in pulling Wilson's leg, and one day he received a requisition for three hundred sheets of fine sandpaper. Very puzzled, he went, hat-in-hand, to consult the Resident Engineer, who was very busy at his desk writing an irksome report. He looked up impatiently at Wilson standing meekly in front of his desk. "Well Wilson, what's the trouble now?". "Oh Mr Mahoney", whined Wilson, "I have here a requisition from Ganger Baker, in charge of the excavating gang near Alectown, for three hundred sheets of sandpaper". "What would he want that much for?". Mahoney was nonplussed for a moment, then the old joke dawned on him."To properly smooth down the slopes of that big cutting they've