The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1854-09-20

me that if should hear the story told by
another, as you are now doing,in quiet room
with a firm floor beneath my feet, cheerful
fire before me, and friends around should dc
the same thing; but, believe me- dropping his
voice so low that could hardly hear him, tits
a different thing in a wild night, alone, and with
sudden and awful death, impending over you
<Keep moving, stranger said the man II
the red shirt, cracking hickory-nut, it's as
good as a sermon. Pass on to the second head.
1T could, of course, pursued the ugly man
without needing the untimely jest, BE but a
few minutes, OF perhaps seconds, before this
terrible drama must conclude, butn prisoner
ever longed for freedom as l did for the final
crash, which l knew would end my life and
torment together. made no further efforts to
stop the locomotive. was hardly aware that
it was still tearing madly on, as though fright
ened, like myself, at its ghastly. burden. The
lightning still flashed at intervals, and ilumina-
ted the clayey face, but did not need its
CLEANS to see the horrid thing. For through
the pitchy darkness and the binding rain it
glared upon me as had beheld it at first. Nor
do I consider this imagination. l think that
terror had SO sharpened my vision that, though
all else was wrapped in impenetrable gloom, l
could see its CLASSY eyeb balls its pallid checks,
and its bloody, grInning mouth.
1 have since learned-I do not think that /
knew it at the time-that all this while, the fire.
wood in the tender behind me was blazing tu-
riously. It had caught either by spark from
the engine or, which is more probable, from
the burning stick which / had so hastily tossed
away. But, as said, l do not know that l was
aware of it, if had been, it could not have
added another pang of terror to my heart, and
| only mentionit now as an, accidental element
in the horror of my situation, and also from the
fact that the unusual light alarmed the watch
ers at the station, and, putting them upon their
guard, prevented any destruction of life on my
arrival
Il can never bring myself to believe that 50
short time elapsed, as | know must have
passed, before this awful vision ceased. 1t
seems to me now, and always when | recall
that dreadful night,as though must have spent
hours braced back against the tender, not daring
to take my eyes from the spectral face, para
lyzed and crazy with fright, my hair like reeds,
and the cold sweat bursting from every pore.
During all this time, know that | never re-
garded the incident as any other than super"
natural If it had occurred to me that it was
nothing but what it seemed, dead head stony
gaze, alone visible through the murky night,
that earth and earthly accidents were alike for
gotten by me. Heavens! thought l, is this to
last for evers Am dead, and are these the
torments of the damned? Will this torture never
have an end?
The end was even then at0hand. l. shot past
brilliantly olighted streets, whose brightness
made the corpse glare still more hideousl y upon
me- l heard shouts of fear and warning but
they could not distract my attention. lcaught
glimpses at the station of groups of agonlzed
and horror stricken faces, what were they to
the distorted features of the head before me?
A crash, feeling of death-like sickness, and
when I awoke, my midnight ride had been the
rounds of all the newspapers, and been forgot
ten.
The ugly man arose and adjusted his cruteh,
as if to leave.
Pray, sir, said a little, silent man from the
corner in an excited manner, and speaking for
the first time, was that of the engineers head?'
oh! no. answered the narrator, with an air
Of relief, as though he was glad his tale was
ended, I learned, when got we'll enough to
talk and ask questions, that the engineer crawled
into the town about dawn of the following day;
weary, torn, anu Olctul!Sa ouI "itlOul any per
manent injuries. The head belonged to a poor
maniac, who had often attempted the strangest
forms Of suicide, and that evening, escaping
from his confinement, had lowered himself
down into cattle ditch, keeping his head some
six inches above the surface of the road. The
COW catcher, as he probably intended it should
do, had cut Ills head cleanly and smoothly off, |
and had thrown it so high that it lodged and
stuck where | first saw it, His body was after |
wards found unmangled in the ditch beneath. |
And that, neighbors, is the way came to be
the wreck you see me-
o''That's right smart yarn, now, stranger
said the man IN the red shirt, and suppose
likely enough to, happen on some of them
hio rails. but On the Little River road-I stop
down to Little River when I'm to home-thsy |
don't allow no deadheads.'