Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1877-08-17
Story Of the ENGINEER.

Story of the Engineer.
| 'Let' me put my name down first-I cam
stay long p s....
It was red ribbon meeting, and the
man was locomotive engineer, bronzed
and strong, and having eyes full OF deer
determination. He signed his name in a
bold, plain hand. tied a red ribbon in his
bntton hole, and as he left the hall he said
GAS the Lord looks down upon me, Ill
never touch liquor again -
s'Have you been hard drinker % quer-
| led man who walked beside the engineer.
"No. Fact is, was never drunk i'll my
life. I've swallowed considerable whiskey
but never went far enough to get drunk.
l shouldn't miss it or be the worse off for
an hour if all the intoxicating drink in the
world was drained into the ocean.
"But you seemed eager sto sign the
pledge
$50 | was, and III keep it through thick
and thin, and talk temperance to every
! man on the read" a
ssYou must have strong reasons ?''
"Well, if you'll walk down to the depot
I'll tell you a story on the way. 1t hasn't
been in the paper. and only a few Of US
know the facts. You know run the night
express on the B Road. We always
have two sleepers and coach, and some
times we have as many as two hundred pas
sengers. It's good road, level as a floor
and pretty straight, though there is bad
spot or two. The night express has the
right o'way. and we make fast time. It's
no rare thing for us to skim along at the
rate Of fifty miles an hour for thirty or for
ty niles, and we rarely go below thirty.
One night pulled out of Detroit with two
sleepers, two coaches, and the baggage and
mail cars. Nearly all the births in both
sleepers were full, and most OF the seats III
the coaches were occupied. It was dark
night, threatening all the time to rain, and
lonesome wind whistled around the cab
as we left the city behind. We were sew
enteen minutes late, and that meant fast
time all the way through.
"Well,'' he continued after moment,
everything ran along all right UP to mid
night. The main track was kept clear for
us, the engine was in good spirits, and we
ran into D. as smooth as you please. The
express coming east should meet us fifteen
miles west of D., but the operator at
the ST alton had failed to receive his usual
report from below. That was strange, and
yet it was not, and after little consulta-
ton the conductor sent me ahead. We
were to keep the maiu track, while the
other train would run in on the side-track.
Night after night our time had been so
close that we did not keep them waiting
over two minutes, and were generally in
sight when they switched in"
"When we left D. we went ahead at a
rafting rpeed, fully believing that the 9TH
er train would be on time. Nine miles
from D. is the little village of Parto.
There is telegraph station there, but the
operator has no night work. He closed his
Office and went home about 9 O'Clock, and
any messages on the wires for him were
held above or below until next morning.
When I sighted this station I saw red
lantern swinging between the rails. Great
ly astonished, pulled up the heavy train
and got a bit of news that almost lifted
me out of my boots. It was Gods mercy,
as plain as this big depot. It was the ope-
rator who was swinging the lantern. He
had been reused from sleep by the whistles
of a locomotive, when there wasn't one
within ten miles of him. He heard the
foot foot foot while he was dressing,
and all the way as he ran to the station,
thinking he had been signaled. Lo! there
was no train Their. Everything was as qui-
ct as the grave. The man heard his in
strument clicking away. and leaning his
ear against the window he caught these
words as they went through to D.:
s'For Gods sake, switch the Eastern ex-
press off quick Engineer on the Western
express crazy drunk, and running mile a
minute!''
s'The operator signaled us at once. We
had left D., nine miles away, and the
message couldn't have caught US anywhere
except at Parto. Six miles further down
was the long switch. It was time we were
there, lacking one minute. We lost two
OF three minutes in understanding the sit
uation and in consulting, and had just got
ready to switch in where we were, when
the headlight of the other train came into
view. Great Heavens! but how that train
was flying. The bell was ringing, Sparks
flying and the whistle screaming, and not
a man of us could raise hand. We stood
there on the main track, spell-bound as it
were. There wouldn't haye been time,
anyhow, either to have switched in or got
the passengers out. 1t wasn't over sixty
seconds before that train was upon us. I
prayed to God for a breath or two, and
then shut my eyes and waited for death,
for hadn't the strength to get out of the
cab"
''Well, sir, Gods mercy was revealed
again. Forty rods above us that locomo-
tive jumped the track, and was piled into
the ditch in an awful mass. Some of the
coaches were considerably smashed, and
some of the people badly bruised, but no
one was killed. and of course our train es
capped entirely. Satan must have cared for
Big Tom, the other engineer. He didn't
get bruise, but was up and across the
fields like deer, screaming and shrleking
like a mad tiger. 1t took five men to bind
him after he was run down, and to-day he
is the worst lunatic in the State.
''Tom was a good fellow" continued the
engineer, after pause, ''and he used to
take his glass pretty regularly. 1 never
saw him drunk, but liquor kept working
away on his nerves till at last the tremens
caught him-when he had one hundred and
fifty lives behind his engine. He broke out