The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1869-06-03
THE ENGINE DRIVERS STORY.

THE ENGINE DRIVERS STORY.
You see I'm an engine driver on the
eat-West-by-north Railway. We
don't chase lightning over the prairies
on our line, for we're slow and pretty
sure. I've been halfa as fast again ON
the London and Birmingham and
Great Western-faster than I liked,
too, though il. was my trade, so you
see don't mean to raise your hair in
that way.
Ours is new line-a very new one
running through miles of unsettled
country, where it is no wonderful
thing to make out in the far distance
half dozen Injuns gallopping along
with their hair and blanket streaming
out behind and more than once i've
wondered how it would be if one of
those painted beauties was to collect
his friends and pull up the line. 'Pon
my word, its about as sensational a
feeling as can come over you. Talk
about your hair standing on end, why
there's perceptible creeping for all
the world as if some one.was pouring
canary seed through the roots. And,
mind You, tomahawk and scalping-
knife are not things only to be heard
of in Cooper's novels, for they are in
use to this day, SO that more than one
Sioux OF Pawnee warrior can display
his green and bloody scalps torn from
the heads of the hated whites by his
treacherous hand. Seems very horri-
BILE. no doubt, and to belong to the
past but for all that, such things are
taking place every day in the Far
West.
Now, it's through this part of the
country that our line runs, and for
years past I've drove ON that line. 1
drove there when it only ran 20 miles ;
and saw and ran along that line as
it stretched out farther and farther
into the great region westward, till it
went its hundreds.
We've cow-catchers on our engines,
and nothing to laugh at neither. On
few miles-long lines, you can fence, but
when your line happens to get over a
thousand miles, fenceing becomes ex-
pensive, and would make hole in the
profits $50 that it was soon found nee
essay to have something in front that
would throw off COW or bullock if
it had strayed on to the line, or else,
being an obstinate sort of beast, it
might throw off the train. For they
stray, and there's no mistake about
them, and when you see them there,
and sound the horn-for we use that
as well as the whistle-instead of the
stupid things getting off and into safe
ty, they'll go gallopping on in their
clumsy cocktail one-two-three amble,
till we catch up to them, and then
well, 1 should say that in my time I've
made beef of score of cows, though 1
never made an end of fellow creature
yet. / was very near it, though, once.
You've laughed about the stokers
going out in front on the COW catcher,
to heave billets of wood at the brutes,
but it's fact, and I've done it before
now, und govd crack from corner
ish piece of wood has saved 'em, MAX
ing them give kick and a plunge off
the single line and giving us room to
go by.
But there are things that will not
get out of the way, do what you will ;
1 believe you might sound the horn OF
whistle, whatever you'd got, at any
old woman who was crosaing the line,
and she'd only stand still and stare,
while, if you had billet of wood,
she'd only shake her umbrella at you,
and call you villain. They're dread
full creatures, are old women, and if it
| wasn't for the thought that they were
once young, don't know how we
should bear them. They don't seem
to understand railways at all; they
never have their tickets ready they're
always either too soon or too late
and when once they are in the car
they bother everyone to death, and
drive the guard mad by expecting tha
folks have entered into conspiracy t.
carry them right past their destina
ton. Why, a friend of mine, guard
on the line between New York an6
Chicago, once told me of an old lady
going to the last place and wanting tt
get out at the first station.
Well, putting cows first, and ole
women second, the next on the list, tt
my way of thinking, stand children
bless 'em! 1 love children, got half {
score of them myself, but they Away
give me the cold shivers when / see
them near. railway.-For you see,