Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1854-01-13

you are at the engineers window, and you
sit swaying about after the engine, Tor ma
chine, as it is inrdriably called by the en-
ploycs) which seems every moment as if it
would fling itself off the TRACK as it continu-
ally says and leans from one side to the other.
In the passenger cars no idea ichotercr Of the
speed, or the momentum, can be obtained :;
this can only he got by standing near the
track as the train whizzcs by, or bcing upon
the engine or tender. There is in addition to
the jerks and motion ahead, universal com
pound hidcous noise. made of steam igzing,
the shrek Of the whistle, which never seems
TO be over on Il fast train. as it is the custom
to whistle at every crossing, and general
groanng of wheels, chains, axlcs, and the
sough of the wind as it draws through the
engine. In fact, take a quiet man out Of his
parlor some stormy evening, with an casterly
breeze, from n comfortable confab with his
better half, and put him on the engine of
mail-train " dcyouring the darkness - at the
rate of forty.fye miles an hour, and if he re-
covers from the shock in six months, he will
have considerable more iron in his nerves
than most slow coaches have known
But on the evening in question, we had fair
weather, and daylight sufficient to last us
good way down, a frst-ratc engine, and a
clear run to W, so far as we knew.
" fair prospect for good trip said |
to the engineer before starting
alt looks well enough now," was his re-
ply. I" And little enough time to do it in
| only wish the merchants Of B had to
run these - mail trains tor themselves, and
take the bcggarly wages get fer the bus
mess. IN be bou.d ,hcy you'd not scrare
their precious bones over the road more than
once. and then twenty miles an hour would
take the breath out Of their bodcs.''
Thompson. the engineer on this trip, had
ridden with before. lie was tall, black
haired man from the State of Connecticut. a
great driver, and silent as death on the road
lie kept his eye fixed steadily on the track
except when he was timing his speed That
he possessed the INSCRIPTIONS presence Of
mind, (somc persons may call it recklessncss.)
positively demanded ~ the driver of fast
train. will be shown by the incident that
follows.
We had come along very we'll, and were
some way past N W. ! think we
might have been going at the rate of thirty
five miles an hour common running time
! Thcre WAC hG.e slight curyc in the read, and
on getting around it, heard Thompson cry
out at the utmost power of his lungs (not Of
much account to be sure in the din of the
cnginc)-' There is something on the road
Hold on for your lives And us lie said this
Ht I'uI lux LH'ht ljTct tDc eng ne, ana let
off the full power Of the whistle in shrek
Of concentrated agony, that it appeared as if
the entire chorus Of pandcmonium had been
let loose, and then, in another second, there
was y tremendous crarh, mighty jar that
threw me flat on the floor of the engine, and
Il universal crashing Of timbcrs, rattling of
wheels, and something like the death Shrek
of Il man or beast. And in another second all
this agony was Cvc.. the eng inc was reversed.
the brakes put on, and Thompson exclaimed.
: We have run down u train Mr.. Collins, and
it is but duty to run back md ocr
lifanybody is killo1.' Thompson and there
gpCn ,jampcd off and ran back about twenty
yards, when we SAW in an instant the terrific
danger we had passed, and the nature of the
accident. party of Irish laborcrs were
now standing hy the side of the road. and
the engineer Of the train We had run down, II
rcd-haircd Lowand Scot by the name of
McGilles, told us how it had all happened
' You see mon. said Mac, had come along
down to back up into the gravel-pit, with
about thirty men on board the dirt cars. and
car with two horses, in it; knew you
would be along, and believed | had time
enough to set the switch, back of my train
and put every thing in order before you
would be here. But as true as | live at this
moment, J hadn't run down more than far
enough to get my asi car on to the gravel
track, and as for the switch, | had not seen
it, before | heard you. ] believe | cons-
dered second about it, and said to myself,
il this switch is set now, both trains will be
altogether broke up; if | leave the train, my
men will at least be safe, and he will have
some chance qf running over or through it.
Jump men jump for your lives !! was all |
said and we did, and clea,ed ourselves, and
that is just it and What will the Governor
be spaking about = as the Irishman says
The nature of the ground was all that saved
the mail train. a little plane on one side
!, had been put down for gravel, and the road
laid siding, while on the right hand an en-
bankment went down a considerable distance
and in small pond Or pool at the bottom OF
this bank were the victims of our speed and
, Thompson's presence of mind, namely, the
locomutiyc, the dirt-cars, and the cars in
which were the hCrses, the latter, of course
| kilt intirely.' Our engine struck the him
dermost of the dirt-cars with the most ter
rifle force, and literally piled the whole train
one over the other upon the engine and the
r impetus still keeping up, with II violent strain
5 to the right, the locomotive, and in fact the
whole concern, had gone over in one mass of
' the road and out OF our way Come, Mr.
$ Collins, cried Thompson, we have not hal
, a minute to lose f.; ON board, on board y anC
springing ON the machine, we were agar
9 piling down the road at an awful rate, tc
4 make up for the lost time. On reaching Tho
: next sttt,on, We found that everything move
= able in the front Of our engine had been car
< ried clean away, our lamp, cow-killer, raill
S and woodwork, but the heavy, solid engine
f head had literally acted like cannon ball
J and swept the whole gravel train off the track
i, as if it had been 80 many bundles of straw.
f You look pale man, said Thompson, Al
/ we got down from the engine in the station a
= "
= i feel pale, said l.. By the gay, it ap
=, pears to me you raised your steam when yol
: saw that train ahead. Did you know it wa
a I, trainl'
= : cannot say much about that he rcple,
e with strange look about his eyes. 'Th
d fact is, knew there was something ahead
n that we were going thirty-fve mile an hour
and that to bring up was totally out of tn
: question, The only chance was in running
!. the thing down. | have played the sam
& game before, and | should again if my lii
t VIZ hanging on it. You must do something
A ,,I IL, -. H.. d.. I,