The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1878-02-13
A CLOSE SHAVE.
How Engineer O'Neil Tossed -Four Horses
Down the Banks and Saved His Train.

How Engineer O'Neil Tossed -Four Horses
Down the Banks and Saved His Train.
"I reckon you've hearn tell of Jim
O'Neil, what was Fascinated down at
Bloomington the other night" remarked
Jack Reynolds to q reporter. The latter
acknowledged that he had heard a good
deal lately about the man referred to.
Jack Reynolds does the stocking on one
of the largest locomotives on the Chica-
go and Alton railroad.
"Just wait till I toss in a couple of
shoZelfuls, cause times nearly up, and
we'll be off soon, and I'll tell you some
thin about Jim," said the fireman, as
he pitched some chunks of coal into the
roaring furnace. "They don't make
better engineers" he continued, ethan
what Jim O'Niel was. You see, you
folks what ride back there in them fine
coaches, and play poker, and read the
newspapers, and only look ont when q
halt is made, and commence readin' and
playin' agin when the train darts away
with a shrek, a roar, and a rattle; you
folks, I say, don't know what danger is.
No, sir. Just you come ahead here, and
stand where Jim O'Niel stood for
eighteen years, and I'll bet your back
will raise up sometimes. But Jim didn't
mind it much. He was the coolest and
the most bravest man what I ever saw in
my life. He acted all the while just like
he was ready to die any minute. And,
do you know, he would talk to his en-
CINE lust like q man would talk to a wo-
man. He would pet her, and say sweet,
sympathizing things to her. When she
was leanin' out her level best, runnin'
maybe forty miles an hour, Jim would
look her all wei kind Of a%fectionately,
and say to himself, with q shake of the
head: 'She amt we'll to-day; I don't
know what ais her, but she amt feelin'
just right"
Jack opened the furnace door again
and dropped in some fresh fuel on the
"You see" he continued, Jim and
me run an engine together five years,
Just as me and my boss here (pointlng
to the engineer who had that moment
stepped into the cab) are doing now. He
took me on when I was a green hand,
and in all the years we stuck together he
never spoke a cross word to me, and if
he'd been q mind to he might have
pitched me out Of the CAB window any
time. for he was q powerful man. I'd
got used>to runnin' now, and I don't
ever bother my head about what's goin'
to happen: but when Jim O'Niel first
took me on I was awful scary, and often
wished I was one of them farmers what
we saw holdin' the pillow in the fields as
We passed."
"O'Niel had a great many narrow es-
capes, did he not?" interrupted the re-
porter.
"You are right he had," replied
Jack, " and the half of them amt been
told about in the newspapers. Jim al.
ways knowed when anything was goin'
to happen. Once we had nine cars and
a big lot of people, and we was runnin'
to make up lost time. It was just a
little afore dark, and, takin' his eye from
off the track, Jim turned to me, and
says he There's trouble ahead I feel
it in my bones.' At first T kinder sus-
pected that he was tryin' to brighten me,
but after a bit he said to me: Il wish
I could look round the big curve and see
if the bridge is all right. That scared
me more than ever. I noticed that Jim
had his eye set right down the rails, but
it was gettin' 30 dark that he couldn't
see fur. The old locomotive was just
putin in her best ticks, and presently
we shot through the deepest cut and out
On the high film that ran to the bridge.
As we made the curve at the mouth of
the cut, right there in front of us, and
not more'n two hundred feet away, was
four horses what was runnin' their best
down the grade toward the bridge. l
felt my heart thump agin the roof of my
mouth. If Jim hadn't looked so cool l
guess I'd have tossed myself right
through the window; but I thought I'd
stay as long as Jim did. he took in the
chances at a glance. He know'd if them
horses ever got to that bridge they'd
tumble 'twixt the ~stringers, and that
when we struck 'em we'd Jump the track
and go through the bridge into the
river, and God only knows whether any
body of them hundreds of people would
have lived to tell what I'm tellin' now.
So, quick as q fash-for with a locomo-
tive runnin' forty miles an hour you must
do your fgurin'in a ~hurry-Jim slapped
on all the steam. Ny, how she shot.
She nearly jumped out from under me.
In three seconds the old locomotive just
picked up that bunch of beasts and
tossed EN- down the banks. They didn't
any of 'em live to see the hind car pass
by 'em.
"When my heart dropped back to it's
place." added Jack, 81 ventured to say
to Jim, sThat was a close shave, wasn't
it?' but Jim never took his eye from
the track, and never said yes or no ;
and, though him and me run together
for years and years, he never once spoke
of how he scooped them critters into the
ditch, and saved God only knows how
many lives."-6icago Times.