Fred Warrington's Cows

The Pennsylvania Railroad's 9:35 a.m. train from Harrington, Del. to Franklin City, Va. isn't very impressive. It is made up of a locomotive, an ancient coach and a string of spavined baggage cars. But since nothing else runs on the 78 miles of grass-grown single track which wobbles its way between the two towns, the 9:35 is well known on the Eastern Shore. So is the 9:35-8 brakeman, Fred Warrington, of Harrington, who has worked for the Pennsy for 33 years. Last week Warrington's differences with . the Government made news of a sort.

Warrington, as hundreds of Marylanders know, has kept two cows for years. He kept a horse, too, and it followed him like a big dog. But it was the cows that stirred up the Government. The Bureau of Internal Revenue ruled that Warrington must pay income tax on his milk & butter money, but it wouldn't let him deduct the expense of feeding the cows.

"They said it was a hobby because both my wife and I worked," snorted Warrington. "I told that fellow, 'Why, I'm still up making butter when you folks in Washington are in bed, or gallivanting around. I've made butter at midnight. When I get out of my side of the bed in the morning, my wife gets out her side and she milks one cow and I milk the other.' " But the Government wouldn't give in. Neither would Warrington. He sold the cows.

It hurt him to do it. "I used to strain myself a quart of milk every night and put it in the refrigerator. Next morning I had it for breakfast. The first glass was pure cream. I ain't drunk any milk since."

Was Warrington going to vote Republican to get even? He didn't see how that would help at all. "This fellow we got now, he's got kind of radical and I hold that against him," he said. "In 1946 we had a strike and he stuck a sword in our back and there wasn't any need for it. But this other fellow is a kind of a radical too. I don't know as I'd go out of my way to vote at all."

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