The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1878-01-29
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3: TI1EsD Il , I. AIsY %, 1878 y,
IA Close shave.
Il now AIN sga1NEER sArEr, ms TRAIN.
tFrom the chicago Times:


reckon you've hearn tel 81 Jam w GU,
what was Fascinated down az bioomlng,o y
che other night . remarked JACK M! neynoius
acknowledged that he had heard Q good deal
iateiy about the man referred to. Jack Rey-
nolds does the stocking on one Of the largest
locomotives on the Chicago and Alton rail-
road. 81 d
g Just walt TIT toss in couple OF
shoyeltuls, cause times nearly up, and
we'll be of soon, and I'LL tell you some
thin' shout JIM" said the fireman, as ne
pitched some chunks OF coal into the roar
ing furnace. y They don't make better en-
gineers," he continued, than what jim
O'Neil was. You see, you folks what ride
back there i'm them fine coaches, and play
poker, and read the newspapers, and only
lock out when 8 halt is made, and COM
nence readin' and plaYin' agin when the
train darts away with sbrick, roar, ana
a rattle; you folks, I say, don't know what
danger is. No, sir. just you come ahead
here and stand where Jim O'Neil stood Tor
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 braYest man what ever see
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 bis engine Just
like man would talk TO q womanR He
would pet her, and say sweet, sympathizin'
things to her. When she was leanin' out
her level best, runnin' maybe forty miles an
hour, Jim would look her all over kind oil
aifectionately, and. say to himself, with a
shake OF the head: She amt we'll to-day
/ don't know what ails her, but she amt
feelin' Just right
Jack opened the furnace-door again and
dropped in some fresh fuel on the glowing
Goals.
"You see," he continued, s'Jim and me
run an engine together five years, just as
me and my boss here (rointing to the engi.
neer, who had that moment stepped into the
cab) are doing now. He took me on when
was green hand, and IN all the years we
stuck together he never spoke cross wore
to me. and il he'd been mind to he nigh,
have pitched me out Of the cab-window any
time, Tor he was powerful man. Pm goi
used to runnin' now, and l don't ever
bother my head what Is going to happen ;
but when Jim O'Neil first took me on / was
awful scary, and often wished was one OF
them farmers what we saw holdin' the pillow
in the fields as we passed."
"O'Niel bad q great many narrow escapes,
did he not ?" interrupted the reporter.
:.You are right he had," replied Jack,
tsand the half OF them amt been told about
in the newspapers. Jim always knewed
when anything was goin' to happen. Once
we had nine cars and big lot OF people, and
we was runnin' to make up for lost time.
It was Just little afore dark, and, takin'
his eye from off the track, Jim turned to me,
and says he, tThere's trouble ahead; feel
it In nv bones.' At first kinder suspected
that he was tryin' to brighten me; but after
bit he said to me, g - - it; wish
could look round the big curve and see if the
bridge is all right. That scared me MORN
ever. noticed that Jim had his eye set
right down the rails, but it was gettin' go
dark that he couldn't see fur. The old To-
connective was just putin in her best ticks,
and presently we shot through the deep cut
and out on to the high film that ran to the
bridge. As wemade the curve at the mouth
OF the cut, right there in front OF us, and
not more'n 200 feet away, was four horses,
what was runnin' their best down the grade
towards the bridge. felt my heart Jump
agin the roof OF my mouth. If Jim hadn't
looked so cool / guess I'd have tossed my
self right through the window; but l
thought I'd stay as long as Jim did. He
took in the chances at q glance. He
know,d IL. them horses ever got to that
~
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 anybody of them hundreds Of peo-
pie would have lived to tell what Pm telling
now. So, quick as a fash-for with loco
motive runnin' forty miles an hour you
must do your figurin' in hurry-Jim
slapped on all the steam. My Godi how
she shot. She nearly jumped out from
under me. In three seconds the old loco
motive just picked up that bunch OF beasts
and tossed 'em down the banks. They
didn't any Of 'em live to see the hind car
pass by 'em.
'sWhen my heart dropped back to its
place." added Jack, 81 yentured to say to
Jim, THAT was close shave, wasn't 1T ,
but Jim never took bis 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"