The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1860-12-27

A full and rich reward
From the Experiences of Locomo-
tive Engineer" published by Fo!let. Fos-
ter q Co., we make the following selec~
tion
Bravery Of All Engineer,
The presence Of mind shown By Rail
road men is great deal talked about;
but few, l think, know the trying cir
cumstanccs under which it must be exer~
cised, because they have never thought
of, and are not familiar enough with the
details of the business, and the common on,
everyday incidents of tie lives of rail-
road men. If anything does happen to
train of cars, or an engine, it comes so
suddenly, and is all over so suddenly,
that the impulse, and effort, to DO some
thing to prevent it, must be instantane-
Gus, or they are Of no avail. The mind
mus: devise, and the hands spring to ex-
ecute at once, for the man is on a ma
chine that moves Ike wind blast, and
will snap bands aud braces OF iron or
steel as easily as the wild horse would
break halter of thread
The engine, while under the control
Of its master, moves along regularly and
with the beauty of a dream; its wheels
revo}ve, glancing in the sun; its exhaus
ted steam coughs as regularly As the
strong mans heart beats, and trail back
over the train, wreathing itself into the
most f. ntaslic cow olutions; now sweep
ing away towards the sky IN a grand,
white pillar, anon twinng and twisting
among the gnar!ed limbs of the trees
beside the track, and the train moves on
SO fast that the scared bird in vain tries
to get out of lis way by flying ahead of
it. Still the engineer sits there cool and
calm; but let him have care,-let not
the .xhilera,ion OF his wild ride over
come his prudence, for the elements he
controls are, while under bis rule, use,
ful, and easily managed, but broken
loose, they have the power of thous-
and giants, and do the work of legion
of devils in almost a single beat OF the
pulse.
A man can easily retain bis presence
of mind where the danger depends en>
tireIy upon him; that is, where his main
laini one position. or doing one thing
resolu.ely will avert the catastrophe; but
under circuEst stances such as frequently
bese! an engineer, where, to do his ut
most, he can only partially avert the ca
amity, then it is that the natural bravery
and acquired courage of man is tried
to the utmost extent. l remember sew
eral instances of this kind, where engi-
neers, in full view offthe awful danger
which threatened them, knowing too well
the terrible chances OF death that were
against them and the passengers under
their charge, ever. if they did maintain
their positions, and, by using all their
exertions; succeed in slightly reducing
the sh ock of the collision, which could
only be modifed--not averted-stll
stuck to their posts, dil their utmost, and
rode into the other train and met their
death, amid the appalling scenes of the
chaotic ruin which followed.
George D-was running the night
Express on the - road. l was
then running the freight train, which laid
over at station for George to pass
One night-it was dark and dismal-the
rain had been pouring down in torrents
all night long; arrived with my train,
went in upon the switch and waited for
George, who passed on the main track
without stopping. Owing to the storm
and the failure of western connections,
George was some thirty minutes behind,
and of course came on, intending to rue
through the station pretty fast-a pretty
safe proceeding, apparently, for the
switches could not be turned wrong with
out changing the lights, and these being
"bnlls-eye'' lanterns elevated SO that
they could be seen at great distance on
the straight track which was there, no
change could be made without the
watchful eye Of the engineer seeing it at
once. So George came on, at about thir-
ty FIVE miles an hour, as near as l could
judge. and | was watching him all the