The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1877-08-09
CHASED nv a THAN or FInE.

H
+ ty year I've run q locomotive, ba, ibe
closest call ever bad was The time was
chased from MAyyilie 70 Bfociou Juue-
7 lon by an oil train al aare. kn 81.
most foel my hAIr iurn white now when
I think O. that.
lie was ono Of the oldcs, engineers on
the Lake Shore road, aud was riding me
on his engine from Brookton to Duukirk.
I was on tbe Buffalo, Cory aud Erie
road then. II was In iS6g-August the
seventeenth. The BIZ o track twixt
1 Mayyille and Brocton is &bout the crook
cdlst sn' sieepest stretch there is in the
country. It's ten mile from one place to
tother, but the twists in the road makes
II fourteen.
! The grades bout eighty foot L th'
mile. The road q 50 crooked that It's a
standIn' joke 'mong TIA boys that they
dasn't pat more'n ten cars in a train or
the engine'lI bat the csbos certain. The
road runs down into the oil country, an
heaps O. petroleum is run over il. That
night, bout . O'Clock, was geitin' ready
\ Z leave the summit with box car, six
oil cara an two passenger cars. Th' lat
| ter was full. Th' box car had two yalu-
able irottin horses in 1t. got tn signal
from th' conductor to 90 ahead, aud
started her up. We was under toPble
/ headway when see flames burst oupn
one o. the oil cars. | whistled down
brakes. The passenger car was cut loose
an the brakes on. We cut tn engine
and box car off from the burnin' cars, an
thinkiu' the brakeman d stop them, /
pulled on slowly down the hill, But
pretty soon | see was 10 q fix. The oil
cars wasn't stopped, an they came a
tarin' down the grade after US, an fore
could give my engine speed 'nough to git
outn the way, HEIRLOOM, they came 'ginst
the box car, smashiu in one end, and
knockin' tn horses an their keepers fiat
on th' floor. It's mighty wonder tn
shock didn't knock tn engine off the
track, am it did give her an awful husse-
lin. But she settled down Z her work
as If she know'd we was bound TO have a
race for life.
Lord, how the flames roared Every
Internal car was Afire now, an th' heat
was tar'ble. i could hear them hosses
fairly scream with terror. Both th' keep
ers clumb up Z th' end o. tn car next TO
th' engine. could see by tn back.light
OF the furnace their faces was g white as
chalk, an they hollered Z me: For
Heavens sake Jack, give her more steam
They didn't know't had her pulled wide
open, an was tearin' down eighty foot
grade at nearly eighty mile an hour. She
went so fast, SO help me God, that she
qoit pumpin'. We shot them curves
like q streak o. lightnin', an ev'ry time
we'd strike one I seemed t we must go
over. When the oil cars struck us, we
made a gap OF about ton foot tween them
and us, an couldn't increase it to save
our souls.
Poor Jimmy keenan, was my fireman.
lie was crazed for bout . minute, when
the burnin' cars hit us and KEEP so close
in our wake. He tried to jump of, but
grabbed him and held him till he cum
to himself, an he stuck to the old gal
like man. Jimmy got killed in pickin'
young one Off the track ahead OF an
express train near Cory, year or two
afterw'd. lie saved the young one,
though.
1t was dark night, an though | felt
t the chances was we'd never git 10
Drocton alive, couldn't help but be
struck with th' scene. Here was us thun-
derin' along faster'n any engine ever
went in this country afore or since,
through woods an on tn edge o. high
rocks, expectin' every minute TO be hurl-
ed off th' track an' be carried home TO
our wives crushed aud mangled out o.
all knowin' Of us. The hosses was stam-
pin about In the box car, neighin' in a
way that sounds in my ears yit when
| git thinkin' o. this. The keepers told
me Afterw'd 'ds that they crouched down iu
I fur corner Of the car, almos' sweltered
with heat, expectin' gran crash every
second, an in danger o. being trampled
to death by tn horses. Through the bro
ken end O. the car they could see th' bla-
zin' oil tanks roarin' down after us,
I ant IL seemed 10 them, they said, . II
they was gainiu' on us every seeoEd.
Oh, Heavens, what a sight them oil
cars was. Thousands and thousands o.
gallons of oil, with all the combustiblest
parts of Il still In ii, bnrnin' all st once,
an rushin' down the mountain the noun
tain like iremenjis meteor, on a nights
dark as pitch! The blaze was more'n
sixty feet high, and lii up the crooked
road aud the woods aud mountains for
miles around, The whole heavens was
illuminated, and from Brocton they said
the sight Of this great blaze, a tearing
along like demon, now hid for second
by Gu, or a piece OF woods, aud then
leaping out again aud jumping up to-
wards the sky like huge fountain Of
fire--why they said twas jest grand and
gorgeous. The light was 50 great that
The boys see us swooping along Ahesd Of
the mass Of flying flames, before they
know'd what Was up. They kuowed
there was race for life sgoing on down
that mountain, and the kuow'd the chan
ces was agin the ones what was chased.
OF course the whole thing commenced
SDd was over 10 3 good deal less lime
than I've been atelllng OF H. When