Villiard and the Northern Pacific

The President of the Northern Pacific Railroad, Henry Villard was an intelligent newspaper man who had covered the Civil War for the Cincinnati Examiner. 

The Northern Pacific, the 1st transcontinental railroad between Puget Sound and the Great Lakes, was badly financed and poorly built.  There were 4 trains with 45 Pullman cars, diners, club cars - all cheered on by great crowds as they traveled through towns across the US.

The early railroads had problems.  One was the rough travelers that rode the trains.  One report in Billings, Montana in 1888 says that "Conductor Clark was forced by ruffians to dance the can-can on the station platform." Ruffians were probably cowpunchers. When asked about this incident, President Villard said, "Confound it - this is no way to run a railroad".

Rudyard Kipling, the author, is said to have told a story of what he witnessed while riding a Northern Pacific train.  The encounter was between a belligerent passenger and the conductor who "really cross-buttocked him through a double plate glass window and off the train"...Wonder if the train was moving?!