Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1870-03-04
THE JAWS OF DEATH.

THE JAWS OF DEATIE.
I'm an engine driver on the Great West
by-North Railway. We don't chase light
ning over The prairie on our line, for we re
slow and pretty sure. Ours il n new line
"a very new one-running through miles
Of unsettled country, where lis no wonder
tul thing to make out in the far distance
half dozen i'juns galloping along with
their hair and blankets streaming out be
h2d and more than once I've wondered
how it would be if one Of these PAINTED
beauties was to collect his friends and pull
up the line. Pom my word. its about as
sensational feeling as can come over you.
Talk about your hair standing on end
why, there's a pcrccptible creeping, for all
tie world as if some one was pouring can
airy seeds through the roots. And mind
you, tomahawk and scalping knife are not
things only to be heard Of in G oper's nov
els, for they are in use to this very day, 50
that more than one Sioux or Pawnee war
rior can display his green and bloody
scalps torn from tie heads o the hatel
Whites by bis treachcrous hands. Seems
very horrible, no doubt, and to bel)ne to
| the past; but for AL that. such things are
taking place every day in the Far Wesr.
Now its through his part Of The countrs
that lie runs, and for years past. I've
drove on that line. drove there when ii
ohly ran twenty miles; and saw and ran
along hat line rs it stretched oul flrtier
! ;,Ed farther into the great I. gion westward,
till it went its hundreds.
We've cow-ca tChcrs on our engines. and
nothing to langh ct either. Oa your few
milt-loug lines you can fence. But when
your line happens TO get over thousand
miles, fencing come expensive and would
make a h.le IN the profits; so that il Was
found necessary to have something in font
that would throw Off a COW or bullock if it
had sirayed on tie line; or else, being an
obstinate sort Of a beast, it might throw off
the train. For they will stay, and there's
no mistake about them, and when yon see
them there, and sound the horn--for we use
that as well as the whiste-ins;ead Of The
stupid ihiDgS getting off and into safety
they 90 galloling Of their clumsy. cock
tail, on, two-tLroc amble, till we catch mp
to them, and lhen--well, should say that
in my time had made beet Of score Of
! COWS though | never made an end of fe
low creature, yet was very near it, though,
| once.
You've laughed about the stohers going
out in front on the ccw-catcherto to hcave ii-
lets of wood at the brutes, but its fact
AID I've done that before now; and good
crack from cornerjsh piece of woed has
saved cm, making them give kick and a
| plunge of the single line, and give us room
to 20 by.
But there are things that viii not get out
Of the way, Do what you will; | believe you
might sound the horn or whistle. or what
ever you'd got, at any ola woman who was
| crossing the line, and she'd only stand still
and stare, while, il yon had a billet Of WOOD
she'd only shake her umbrella at vou, and
call you a villain. They re dreadful crea-
lures are old women, and if it W mt for
! 'he 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 their tickets ready:
they re always too soon or too late. and
When they are once in the car, they bother
every one to death, ana drive the euarl
mad by expecting that folks have entered
into a conspiracy 10 cary them past their
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i''','>'E' ,sEl'l.a,' 1'ir = :, 80
self, but always give me the Id shivers
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rn't - 'i''''e' III =" '-"n'S rios1 - 'ie
my 49, - n,'l ,II' 'l'e . ~ y eIeaii"-,
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''.e i''''.' - " "''H peoP'e ~ pesiaeS a
w .. 'io''l' ''u'' ''oNi "ie ""Haefl' : 'tiaeS
apV"'i 'oi 20" see "here IL man se's UP MS
ten'' as 20" may say our IN Inc Wilderness
ne oo''seu 10 run I'3hS 50 any chance'
Ho"' ''H''' VI '''"N'"5 ~ 'oN' i'shy -
aNa'cheu al.
s"' q"''e 20 "''o" 'n'sc V'oi''', IN"
n'Ce' ha'u "ofN'nS lo'Ns 'ney were F." ny
before '"eS "'Ie '"e'e SIN iion'nS' mat %"
o. M'oe'"es5 ", n's"n 10 iouN 'I"e /" Saf9en
OF L'e'' ana Two more People came ana
pitched IN ,he next o'S' cutie knew
nose iiFs' 'o'hs, 'nouSh we never spoke, iof
| always went ~ 'nem AZ Twelve niles IN
houf; oHl we ii''e one used 10 S'aha al
the shH"'y door ana cheer' ana rs ',me went
on ! wave ny n"I y 'hc W''e ma 'he h''s.
ba"d 'oo, - 'Aa' 'ney Sehcraiiy used %
come oU' "leh WY heNru ne coming ~ of
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NV S.""lII "e ,"Ju"' ',n5n "V"l" - *" ca =
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o"' t;,,,o 1.j ,'.., a., ,,,.ll
~ 'o' wy ',>' ,,'', H. ia .,aI.
p, parch in front.
Ne cot to be such friends at last that |
sad to buv candy and d0uuhuutS and
hs,ve Them into thc rarle, rs went Ir len,
the children to scran bic after. and tha,'S
what il was that did il, and this is how il
was
We were roiuo comfortable o,one one nc
ternoon, til. as we got near the clearing
where my friends. as call them, were luca-
ted. | began to iurlilge about in my poek
cts for compile Of papers OF something
| had cot, when my stoker says, Halo |
what's hat on Tie line"
Govt" says /.
StN l. -