Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1854-01-13

| tuS uoASS HouS Va Ste4W QZZl0g, tl
shrek of the whistle, which never seem
to be over on a fast train. as it is tn
custom to whistle at every crossing. an
q general groaning of wheels, chains
axles, and the sound of the wind as i
draws through the engine. In fact, TAX
q quiet man out of his parler some storm,
evening, with an easterly breeze, from
comfortable confab with his better halt
and put him on the engine of a mai
train devouring the darkness" at tn
rate of forty-five miles an hour, and j
he RECEIVERS from the shock in six months
be will have considerably more iron il
his nervesthan most slow coaches / hay,
| known. 5,-l,r1 fs t.er IS
But in the evening in question, we bae
fair weather, and daylight sufficient t.
last us good way down, a first-rate en-
gine, and clear run to W, so far a.
we knew. e6'gr i'..fa e7 sis
:" A fair prospect for good trip" sait
l to the engineer, before starting.
6 1t looks well enough norc, . was hi:
reply. And little enough time to de
in. only wish the merchants of b
had to run these mail trains 70,
themselves, and to take the besgarly nav
| get for the business. I'll be bound they
wouldn't scrape their precious bones ovel
the road more than once, and then TWEEN.
ty-flve miles an hour would take the
breath out of their bodies" -.
Thompson, The engineer on this trip. ]
had ridden with before. He was a tall
black.haire Nlan, from the State of Con.
necticut, a great driver, and silent as
death on the road. He kept his eye fixed
steadily On the track. except when he was
timing his speed. That he possessed the
unscrupulous presence of mind, some per.
sons may call it recklessness, possible
demanded by the driver of fast train.
will be shown by the incident that fol.
lows:
We had come along very well, and were
some way past N W. think |
might have been going at the rate of thir-
ty-five miles an hour, common running
time. There was here slight curve in
the road, and on getting round it, heard
Thompson cry out at the utmost power
OF his lungs, mot of much account to be
sure in the din of the engine:) "
g There is something on the road: hold
on for your lives.
And as he said this, he put the whole
force on the engine, and Let off the full
power OF the whistle in shrek of such
concentrated agony, that it appeared as
II the entire chorus of Pandemonium had
been let loose, and then, in another sec
ond, there was tremendous crash,
mighty jar that threw me fat on the floor
of the engine. and an universal crashing
OF timber, rafting of wheels, and some
thing like the death-shriek of man or
beast. .f-
And in another second all this agony
was over, the engine was reversed, the
brakes put on, and Thompson exclaimed,
" We have ran down train, Mr.. Collins,
and though our time is short, l believe it
is but duty to run back and see if any
body is killed" Thompson and I there
upon jumped off and ran back about
twenty-five yards, when we saw in an
instant the terrific danger we had past,
and the nature of the accident. A party
of Irish laborers were now standing by
the side of the road, and the engineer OF
the train we had run down, a red. headed
Lowland Scott, by the name of McGillies,
told us how it had all happened. You
see, mon," said Mac, 81 had come
along down to back up into a gravel-p
with about thirty men on board the dirt
cars, and a car with two horses in it; L
knew you would be along and I believed
| had time enough to set the switch back
off my train, and put everything in order
before you would be here. But as true
as live at this moment, [ hadn't run
down more than far enough to get nv
last Car to The gravel track, and as for
the switch, l had not seen it before |
heard you. l believe l considered a
second about it, and I said to myself, if
this switch is set now both trains will be
broken up if leave the train.
my men will at least be safe, and he will
have some chance of running over or
through it. Jump men-jump for your
lives was all | said: and we did, and
cleared ourselves, and that is just it: and
What will the Governor be spanking
about it g"
The nature of the ground was all that
saved the mail train. A little plane on
one side had been cut down for gravel,
and the road laid siding, while on the
right hand n embankment went down a
considerable distance, and in a small
pond or pool at the bottom of this bank
were the victims of our speed and Thomp-
sons presence of mind, namely, the To-
comotive, the dirt cars, and the car in
which were the horses, the latter of
course, "kilt intirely." Ourengine struck
the hindmost of the dirt cars with the
most terrific force, and literally piled the
whole train one over the other upon the
engine, and the impetus still keeping up
with violent strain to the right, the To-
comotive, and in fact the whole concern,
had gone over in one mass off the road
and out Of the way. ''Come, Mr.. Col
lins," cried Thompson, 'swe have not
half a minute to lose; on board" :" and
springing on the machine, we were piling
down the road at an awful rate, to make
up for lost time.
On reaching the next station, we found
that everything movable in front of our
engine had been carried away, our lamp,
cow-killer, rails and wood work; but
the heavy, solid engine head had literally
acted like a cannon-ball, and swept the