Connecticut western news., 1876-02-04
A BRAVE ENGINEER.
George Ellis Obeying Orders to Wreck his Locomotive, A Night Ride Through Fog and Rain to Bound Brook.

George Ellis Obeying Orders to Wreck hi'
 Locomotives A Night Ride Through Eos
 and Rain to Bound Brook.
 It is late at night in the little depot oi East Millstope, on the Pennsylvania railroad, and the telegraph operator, al most the only occupant, is taking dis patches. Clicketty- click sings the electrical instrument, and all the mes. sages tell of excitement all along the front at tho Bound Brook crossing. Both sides are face to face in hostile attitude.
 Clicketty-click still ticks the instru. ment, and it says that there are one hun. dred Italians at the crossing, armed to the teeth with knives and revolvers, and that the road is thronged with Irishmen, who carry stones and shillalahs. Then there is another dispatch, and this calls for instant action, for it says that the Bound Brook men are tearing up the rails. and that they have partially fixed the frog in position. In 8 few hours they will be running their trains right across the track of Pennsylvania's road, unless something is done at once. "That something will be done, am thinking" said the operator, and ere he
 
 clicking is heard again and the m ,s- sage that it brings has the sharp and decisive ring of authority. The words are from the superintendent of the Penn sylvania company, and they are
 "Send George Ellis at once with 1886, and tell him to break down Instructions on the road, and drive his engine into the frog"
 George Ellis, stout, swarthy, and dark eyed and black bearded is pacing up and down the dusky room. His en- zine is at the door. Outside the rain is falling drearily and tho night is pitchy dark. He is one of the oldest and most trusted drivers on the road, and to him has been assigned 8 desperate and perilous undertaking but he does not finch. He buttons his smutty blouse to his chin, steps upon the platform of the engine, and pulls the lever. The steam goes hissing and whizzing through the iron limbs, the wheels begin to move, and then with shriek the great thirty ton monster springs forward, snorting, into the darkness. The road is all clear thirteen miles to Hopewell, and tl.e locomotive thunders On, burn ing and flaming across the Jersey plains and meadows. By the side of Ellis stands his fireman, Sam Granger, and both peer ahead upon the uncertain patF, dimly illumined by the headlight. Everywhere is impenetrable darkness, save the gray vista ahead, over which dance spectral and bewildering shapes. Still the two men in the flying monster look silently ahead, and still the engine thunders on. The rain drops plash and sig upon the heated boiler and stand in beads upon the panes of the windows. The wet rails glisten ill the light, and seem long, gleaming serpents of steel that curve and trail away into the dark. But Ellis and Granger do not mind them or the beating rain, for they are looking out for breakers and for Italians armed to the teeth
 At length the speed is gradually re- duced, for the neighborhood of the enemy is nearly reached, and there is a light shining ahead. At the depot of the little hamlet of Hopewell, not three quarters of mile from the frog, Ellis checks the locomotive, for it is time to be cautious and wakeful. A man run ming to him through the fog says, ex- citedly "There are Instructions just below, and the enemy are guarding the switches" The man gets upon the en zine box and again they are off into the rain and fog. Not so fast as before, however, for there are men with clubs on either side, and what they have done to the track can only be guessed at. First, glowing red light, tossing and whirling in the air, is seen, and the headlight gleams upon the dark outlines of man; but there is no stop tonight for the signal of warning, for 1t is in the hands of foes as ruse. Then another light red and glowing gleams from the track. It is silent command for an instant halt. But Ellis knows what 1t means, and with dash the engine is upon it. and the lantern is sent whirling in thousand pieces in every direction. Slower and slower the engine runs, for the Instructions are near. The engineer and fremen watch intently. Suddenly glimmering and fickering that is not the reflection upon the road, a dark wall rises up as the light flashes down the rails, there is crash, tho noise of cracking timbers, and then the air is full of flying ties and rails. Old 336 losses them off her prov as though they were wheat straws, and onward rushes straight for the frog and the expected crash.
 In an instant almost another black pile grows out of the road bed; the en- zine is upon them; there is another cracking of wood, and the hissing en- zine, blowing showers of flame from her stack, uprears in the air. There is a grinding noise, horrid swaying, beams and iron rails fall all around. and then Ellis, throwing wide open the valves, strives to pass the sixty feet of interven- ing space between the obstructions and the frog, from which the rails have been removed. The engine strains and tugs sand and gravel and mud fly in showers; the machine rolls and pitches, and at last, with. roar, plunges into a pit, and falls upon the timbers of the frog, blowing deep into the ground. She has reached her goal, and Ellis and Granger have obeyed their orders.
 MT. George Ellis sat in the little depot at Somerset Junction, on the Delaware, and laughedsderisively at the thought that any one should think that he had done anything unusual. "Those fel- lows, you know" said he, "after they had piled up the first ties and rails at 9 distance of 160 yards from the frog, con- structed another obstruction few rods off, and against this they placed iron rails so that the engine would run ,.p on them. These were crushed as we mount ed them, and then things flew pretty lively, till we went into the pit. We were going about twenty-five miles an hour, and as the prov went down the rear went up, and the hind wheels were revolving about a million times a second for few minutes. Fire flew out the smokestack, and one old farmer who had come down to see the fun, cried out I knew she d burst l! and he made live ly time over the hills home. -NeaU York Sun.