The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1871-11-30
Che Url1),lue.
ON A LOCOMOTIVE.

Whiie JoufneyIng III the Rocky Noun
tains. He says:
MAY | get on with you?'' I asked al
engineer on the Pacific Railroad. at a sta
ton six or seven thousand feet above the
level of the sea. Certainly" he said
''but hold fast tight, or you may fall off. y
''Toot toot T. went the whistle and
the long anaconda Of a railroad train frs,
went crawling along the rocks, but soon
took on fearful momentum Sitting in
Pullman 5 Palace car, looking out Of
the window, the passenger gets no idea Of
the speed of the train; but close to the
engineer, aid feeling the nervous culver
and jump Of the iron courser, you see the
mountains skip like rams. and the hills
like lambs
The door of the locomotive furnace
clangs open, and the flames rave as if
they would leap out to devour, and the
fireman jars the coal into the raging jaws
of the monster. The engineer has his
hand on the iron bit that controls the
speed, and seems to use no exertion more
than doctor feeling the pulse of a child
Indeed, the locomotive to the engineer,
is not mere machine; but an animate
lie talks to it. seems to pat it lovingly on
the neck. He is proud of it. There is
u warm understanding between the two,
and in occasional spurts Of steam the To-
connective seems to take voice and answer
its rider. An engine never hurts its mas
ter. save in the effort 20 throw the pas
sengers.
But the engineer, though sitting so
placid is wide awake. He is kept on duty
only four hours in the day, and all the
energies of body and soul cluster in his
vigilant eye and quick thumb. Two hun
dred lives hang GA his wrist.
We plunge into a snow-shed with inf
nitc clatter, every board and beam beat
ing back the deafcning roar of the Paci.
fc Express. As we rush on, the prairie
dogs skulk into their holes, on their hind
quarters, with fore lifted, as to say,
wv hat next 2" The antelopes scamper
on the plains. We ride unimpeded,
where less than two years ago the buffa-
loes stopped the train as the herds STAN
peded across the track and along here
the savages cantered OF their ponies
You see here and there groups of red
men, with long hair, and cheeks dashed
with war paint, ringed ears, and super
fluffy of dirt, that buries your last ro-
mantle notion about ''the noble red en-
of the forest" The air is laden with the
breath Of cedar, madrona manzanita and
buckeye. Here we are passing through
what seems the ruins Of castles and tenn
pies and cities, and calling up to mind
P,tra, Pompeii, and Ninevah and Thebes;
but these ruins on either side Of our track
mi st have been vaster abodes, where
giants might have lived till the Titans
b. an to play leaplrog and to turn somer-
sa . is Now the whistle lets off wild
scream a COW and calf on the track
Tie COW we cut in halves, and the calf
with broken legs tumbles over into the
ditch. | wonder if that man just ahead
vii ge. of in time. Perhaps he is deaf,
per APPS he is crazy, and wants to be run
Or. Neither. In time to save himsel..s
he switches off and robS the coroner.
Hold your breath Ravine a thousand
feet deep on this SIDE Embankment
thousand feet up the other. As we turn
the curve the engineer pulls the steam
valve and the silence that chiefly reigned
here for six thousand years lets slip all
its sounds of echo and reverbcratiCn.
TLew! how we fly. Ie bolt break
or truck fall, or rock dislodge, we are
In eternity. Inuumeraale varieties of
fower- break their alabaster at the feet
of the cliffs bat yonder the mountain
tops a e blooming into the white lily of
cverl. ting snow. Bridges, high, narrow,
tremendous, that creak and tremble un-
der the pressure of the train. A tunnel !
Ink hi; ok, midnight doubled, dampness
that never saw the sun; while far ahead
is a Isn't Of sunlight peering through a
hole that looks about the seize of TIE
arch of mouse trap, but which wldens
till at sst it Is large enough to let a whole
train escape iuto the golden day.
Out there IS the old emigi ant road with
occasionally skeleton Of COW or horse
or the wreck of wagon that hopeiessly
broke down on the way and here small
mound and rough hewn stone at the head
Of it. that shows where scmc worn travel
er finished his journey, in those tin es
when in orc year across these nights went
five thousand wagons, pulled 10y seven
thousand mules, and thirty thousand yoke
of oxen.
And now the night begins to fall, ant
the train goes blowing through the dark
ness. The great burning eye Of the loco
motive peers through aud flashes far
ahead upon the wild scene.
The grizzly bear, the panther. the night
hawk, the crrmorant, the pelican, the
gro>beck, the eagle, that kept aloof while
the day shone, may venture nearer now
if they dare Oh! how we fly ! TIL,
rush of the wind, the jamaaing of the ca
coupling, the Changing OF the wheels, The
steam hiss, the fierce shower of spark
that set the night on fire. the shooting
past Of rocks 500 feet high followed l.
a nrecipiaa \ thousand faat dean max,
the breath short, and the heart thump
and the very scalp lift.
Hnp the shntlnHS ShufTa HOY tn.