The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1869-04-23
SELECT STORY.
THE ENGINEDRIVER'S STORY.

You see I'm an engine driver on the
Great Vest by North Railwa,y. We
don't chase lightning over tue prai-
ries on our line, for we're 81 ow and
pretty sure. I've been hat as fast
again on the London and J,Irming-
ham and Great Western - faster
than Iiiked too, thongh il was my
trade, SO you see don't mean To
raise your hair that way. - . ~
Ours is q new line-a very new
one-runniDg through miles of un-
settled country, where it's no won
derful thing TO make out in the far
distance half n dozen Injuns gallop-
ing along with their hair aud blanket
streaming ent behind; and more
than once I'ye wondered how 1t
would he If one of those painted
beauties was to collect his friends,
and pull up the line. 'Pon my word,
it's about as sensational feeling as
can come over you. Talk about
your hair standing on end. why,
there's q perceptiBle creeping, for
all the world as if some one was
pouring canary. seed through the
roots. And, mind you, tOmakawk
and scalping knife are not things
only to be heard OF in Coopers
novels, for they are in use TO this
very day, SO that mere THAI one
Sioux or Pawnee warrior can display
his green and bloody scalps torn
from the heads of the hated whites
by his treacherous hand. Seems
very horrible, no doubt, and TO be-
long to the past, but for all that,
such things are rtking place every
day in the Far w est.
Now, it's through this part OF the
country that Op.r line runs, and Tor
years past I've drove on that line. L
drove there when 1t only ran twenty
miles and l ssw and ran along that
line. as it stretched out farther and
farther into The great region west
ward, till it went its hundreds
4 We've cow -eatchers or our engines,
and nothing to laugh at neither. ion
few mile-long lines, you can ience; /;
but when your line happens To get
over a thousand miles, fencing comes
expensive, and would make hole In
the profits; so that 1t was soon found
necessary to have something in front
that would throw off cow or q bull
lock if it had strayed ON to the line ;
or else, being an on stiEate sort OF
beast, it might throw Oft the tram.
Fer they will stray, and there's no
, mlstake about them, and wien you
) see them there, and sound the born
for we use that as well as a whistle
instead OF the stupid things getting OF
and into safety, they I'll go galloping
on in their clumsy cocktail one-two-
three smble, till We catch up to them,
and then-well, l should say that In
my time I've made beef of score OF
cows, though 1 never made an end
of a aiellow- creature yet l was very
near it, though, once.
You've laughed about the stokers
gong out in froIit on to the COW
: catcher, to heave billets of wood at
the brutes but it's fact, and Pve
5 done 1t before now; and good crack
from a cornt:rish piece OF wood has
saved 'em, making them give kick
and plunge off the single line, and
giving US room to 60 by
But there are things that will moi
get cat of the way, do what you will
/ believe you might sound the horr
or whistle, whatever you'd got, a
ary old woman who was crossing thu
lime. and she'd only stand still anG
stare !; while, if You SHE'D billet o
}. wood. she'd only shake her um
brella at you, and call you villain
THEY'RE dreadful creatures are OF
women, and if it waren't for tn
thought that they were once young
don't know how we should bea
!, them. They don't seem to under
ar stand railways at all they neye
y have their tickets ready; they're a
4 wsys either too soon or too late; AM
"A when once they are in the ear, the
bother every one to death, and driv
the guard mad by expecting ths
folks have entered INTO eoaspirac
y to carry them right past their dessi
q nation. Why, friend of mine,
guard on the line between N.w 1or
= md Chicago. sopoe told me of an oil
J. tfady going to the last place an
ly wanting to get out at the first st:
- ton.
as Wall uniting COWS first, and oil