Litchfield enquirer., 1874-06-25
A RAILWAY ADVENTURE.

1 III five minutes of the time at which the l Dllmoath train was to start. Most of the passengers had taken their seats, but some two or three were standing on iii, | platform near the carriages, bent on hay, | ing a last word with those they we're aiont to leave behind them. There WAS the us | uaI hustle and excitement iiici;iei.t to tili starting of train. Reckless pnrt,.rs rush Ing aboutwith those ahomIIahl. lit 1 tie trucks, the first Hutit:a of whose approach is an ugly shove. accompanied 1 by By your leave" from the he:irtless porter. 4 distressed lady i'll the midst oi a heap of boxes and parcels, waiting foi some one to put her and her precious ac. compartments safely into the train. Lost passengers. looking vainiy about for tie train, which is all the time staring them out of countenance. 4 newsboy with g 1 'tLon-mon peps," and the ''New nim- merponch." These, with the usual lot of idlers come to see the train off; and the 1 ticket examiners and other busy satellites | of the train itself made mp a scene of un- | paralleled life and activity.
 It was Wednesday night, and Wednes- l day was market day at Middlesham. The train was therefore heavy one, and near 1 ly every compartment was full of passen- gers. It was usually five or ten minutes late in starting on Wednesday nights, ow- ing to the extra traffic; so that I and the other occupants of the compartment in | which had taken my seat were rather as- tOnlshed when, the pointer having barely marked nine minutes past on the dial. the train, without any preparatory whistle, l moved off. 1 was under the impression that we were shunting for another car 1 riage, for such a thing as starting before time was never kuown to have happened at Middlesham; but when we moved past the long platform, past the entrance sig nal, and through the bridge beyond, it be- came apparent to us all that We really were "off
 There was simultaneous pulling out of watches, and surprised looks passed from ono to the other, and to the still open door of the carriage, as the conviction was grad ually forced upon us
 "Well, if this isn't a queer move. I should like somebody to tell me what is, !" was the exclamation of a stout cattle-iob- Der, who sat in the corner opposite to me. As we were all pretty much of his opinion as to the queerness of the ''move," mo- body offered to tell him what it was; so he sat there staring, as if he were really quite overawed by the circumstance.
 Once convinced by the increasing speed of the train that we were fairly on our journey, rose from my seat, drew in the door, which was flying back against the side of tho carriage, and closed it firmly. In doing so put my head out of the win dow, and looking down the train, saw the light streaming through three or four other doors which had like my own been left open. There had evidently been some mismanagemenG at the starting of the train, but as I saw two arms put to catch as many of the doors, and the others would take no harm before We came to Ackridge, which was the name of the first station we would come to, I sat down again ln my corner, made myself as com fortable as possible, and prepared myself us was my habit, to listen to the remarks of my fellow travellers. These wrru s----- in number. The cattle-jobber have al- ready mentioned, his partner. and two Mlddlesham merchants, who lived some twelve miles or whereabouts down the line.
 conversation, the part of which that most interested me being the following:-
 First Merchant Awkward thing, th1s
 
 Second M.-"Well, yes. But I must confess to knowing very little about it. | merely saw the short paragraph alluding to it in this mornings news. Have you heard anything fresh about it?"
 First M.-''The last have heard of it is that these men have sent in their months notice. They demand consid- erable advance in the rate of wages, and an alteration in the system on which their earnings are calculated, A deputa- tion of them waited upon old Rasper, the superintendent, yesterday. They stated their grievances, and the terms on which they would continue to work, and said that if those terms were not acceded to by the company, they would strike At this old Rasper jumped mp from his chair, and told them that they were lot of ungrate- full dogs; that they were better paid than the drivers of almost any other line in the kingdom; that if he could possibly do without them he would discharge every mothers son ef them at once; that he would settle with them when the time came, and that they might be off and get "n with their work in the shops at once; and he forthwith turned them everyone out of his office. He'll settle with them. Ha! Ina! Rasper by name. and Rasper by nature, Ina! Ina!
 Second M-s'But this Is a very alarm ing state of things. Is it not dreadful to think that we poor passengers are at the mercy of those malcontents. and that they have it in their bower to do something horrible.with us. merely to spite their em- ployers9'
 No; I don't think there is any fear of that, for the passenger men have taken no part in the strike whatever. It is only the drivers of goods-englnes who have become dlsaffected. The others have given the movement the cold shoulder from the first"
 Second M.-"Still, these goods-drivers. with their intimate knowledge of the line, must have it in their power to do aa in calculable injury to their employers, and tho public as well. Why, the mere plac- ing of sleeper. or chair, or a piece of old iron on the rails, would be enough to send us all off to the other world express, without any return ticketsr'
 They were both laughing over this dreamy old joke of No. 2, when my atten- tion was attracted to the cattle-iobber. He was leaning half out of the window, and shouting ''Stop! Stop!" at the very tip-top of his very loud volce. On our in quiring what was the matter, he replied excitedly, ''Why, dang it! If we hain't been and passed Yeckridge station. and me and my mate had to get out there. Here, hi! stop here, hip The last ex- clamation was in a sort of prolonged shriek, which woke the echoes as we shot into and roared through tunnel. ''My good man, I ventured to remark, ''you must be mistaken. They would never think of passing a station like Ack- ridge without stopping, and certainly not when they have passengers booked for it."
 whether they sud or they sudn't, they hev dun it; why, look! there's Bowit's | smelt works, and we must be two miles at least on tn wrong side O Yeckridger and here he relapsed into another indefinite ''hi! at the open window.
 The matter all at once became very se- rious indeed. We were bowling along at terrible rate, much quicker than any of us had ever experienced on any previous occasion on that line of curves and ugly gradients, and a dreadful fear began to