Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1870-02-02
THE JAWS OF DEATH.

THE JAWS OF DEATH.
Tn an engine driver on the Great West
bv-North Railway. We don't chase light
ming over the prairies on our line, for were
slow and pretty sure. Ours is a new line
very new one-ru running through miles of
unsettled country, where it's no wonderful
thing to make out in the far distance halfa
dozen Injuns galloping along with their
hair and blankets 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. Pom my word. it's about as sensa-
tional a feeling as can come over you. Talk
about your hair standing on end! why,
there's a perceptible creeping, for all the
world as if some one was pouring canary
seeds through the roots. And mind you,
tons lawk and scalping- knife are not things
only 20 be heard Of in Cooper's novels, for
they are in use to this very day, so that
more than one Sioux or Pawnee warrior
can display his greens and bloody scalps
torn from the heads of the hated whites by
his treacherous hands. Seems very hor-
rible, 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 coun-
| try that our line runs, and for years past,
Hive drove on that line. drove there when
it only ran twenty miles; and I saw and ran
along that line as it stretched out farther
and farther into the great region westward
TIL it went its hundreds.
We've cow-catchers on our engines, and
nothing to laugh at neither. On your few
mile-long lines you can fence. But when
your line happened to get over a thousand
miles, fencing comes expensive, and would
make hole in the profits; SO that it was
soon found necessary to have something in
front that would throw off a COW or bull
ock if it had stayed on to the line; or else,
Ebaing an obstinate sort of beast, it might
! throw off the train For they will stay,
and there's no mistake about them, and
when YOU see them there, and sound the
horn for we use that as wellas the whistle
Instead Of the stupid things getting off
land into safety they'll go galloping off in
their cumsey, cocktail, one-two- three
amble, till We catch up to them, and then
we'll, ] should say that in my time have
made beef ofqa score of COWS, though I
never made an end of fellow creature, yet
l was very near it, though, once.
| You've laughed about the stokers going
out IN front on to the cow-catcher to heave
billets of wood at the brutes, but it's
fact and I've done it before now and a
good crack from a cornerish piece of wood
has saved EN-, making them give a kick
and plunge off the single line, and give
US room to 60 by.
But there are things that will not get
out of the way, do what you WILL believe
you might sound the holn or whistle, or
whatever you'd got, at any old woman who
was crossing the line, and she d only stand
still and stare, while, if you only had bill
let of wood she d only shake her umbrella
at you, and call you a villain. They re
dreadful creatures, are old women, and if
it warn't for the thought that they were
once young, don't know how we should
bear them. They don't seem to understand
railroads at all; they never have heir tick
cts ready; they're always too soon or too
late, and when once they are in the car,
| they bother every one to death, and drive
the guard mad by expecting that folks have
entered into a conspiracy to carry them past
their destination. Why, friend of mine,
and guard On the line between New York
and Chicago, once told me of an old lady
going to the last place and wanting to get
off at the first station.
/ Well, putting cows first and old women
tsecond, the next on the list, to my way of
thinking, and stand children, bless 'em. I
love children, got half a score of them N.Y.
self, but they always give me the cold shiv-
ers when I see them near a railway. For
you see, I suppose for company's sake, be-
ing an out Of the way lonely spot there.
was chap built himss If log shanty close
to the line, where he had made bit of a
clearing and perhaps he thought it would
be a bit of company for his wife and little
ones to see the trains go by with people in,
besides being bit of protection from the
wandering tribes about; fer you see where
man sets up his tent, as you may say. out
IN the wilderness, he's obliged to run risks;
so any chance, however small, of making it
| less risky is snatehed at.
l got quite to know these people. and
nice, hard working folks they were. Why,
before they had been there six months that
bit Of wilderness began to look like gar
den of Eden, and two more people came
and pitched in the next bits. I quite knew
those first folks, theugh we never spoke;
for [ always " nt by them at twelve miles
an hour; but the little ones used to stand
at the shanty door and cheer, and as time
went on I'd wave my hat to the wife and
the husband too, so that they generally
used to come out when they heard me COM
ing up or down, and more than once mine
has been an anxious journey when I've
passed there and all has been quiet, for, I've
thought that perhaps the Injuns would be
down, which would have meant murder and
fire; but somehow I never had that to
trouble me, for the next time I'd pass there
would be some one at the door or in the
strawberry patch in front.
We got to be such friends at last that I
used to buy candy and doughnuts and
heave them into the garden as I went by
for the children to scramble after, and that's
what 1t was that did it, and this is how it
was.
We were going comfortably along one
af ernoon, till, as we got near the clearing
where my friends, as [ call them, were
located, I began to furridge about in my
pockets tor couple of papers ofsomething
that I'd got, when my stoker says, ''Hallo
what's that on the liner"
'.CowI" says L
Cow; no, Z" he says. ''Why-why- it's
three chiIdren!'
Sound the" I did not stop to finish
but opened the valve myself, making the
still afternoon air culver with the hollow
booming roar 1t sent far and wide.
That's moved EN-" said my stoker
laughing to see the little distant figures
scamper away.
81 thought it would" I says; and then
with my hand on the valve I made the thing
scream and Ioar again, for there was one
Of them still in the middle Of the track
. In q moment I'd forgotten all about the
stuff in the papers, for a curious sort of
feeling came over me, one that for few mo-
ments took all the nerves from my limbs so
chat [ could not move; and then, instead of
reversing the engine, | began to creep for
ward, while, as iffrom the same feeling, my
stoker staring with all his might, right at
the poor child.
We were too near it to have done our
parts, and it was with a groan seeming to
force itself out otmy breast that told my
self it was through my encouraging the
poor children with presents that this was
going to happen, for there, seeing no dam
ger, was little bright-eyed, long-haired
thing dancing about and waving its hands
as we came swiftly on.
1t takes me some time to tell, but it only
took few moments; and there it all is now
like y picture that having once seen can
never forget. It was glorious, golden sun
shiny afternoon with all looking bright |