The Lamoille news. (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1877-1881, 1878-10-30

"Now came nine miles like the last;
over which she kept pace with her time,
and passed the station in seven and a
half minutes.
Here, for ten miles, we had twenty
foot grade to encounter; but the worst
of it all was, at that place we would be
obliged to stop for wood. / was Just
going TO speak to Roberts about it, when
I looked around, and saw him filling the
tender from the coach with wood which
had been placed there before starting,
while he was gone after me.
"I believe we would have made this
ten miles at the same speed as before;
but, through the carelessness of the fire.
man, the fountain-valve, on the left
hand side Of the engine, got opened,
and the water rose in the boiler so fast
as to run the steam down to one hun
dred pounds before / discovered where
the difficulty lay.
I" AT first, Roberts didn't appear to
notice the decrease of speed, and kept
at work at the wood as il for dear life.
Put presently he looked up, and seeing
that the speed had decreased, he shouted:
Harry, We are stopping !" and then,
coming over to where was, he said !:
why, here we have been ten minutes
on the last ten miles, and believe we
will come to dead stand if something
is not done. The speed is continually
stacking What is the matter 2
&C. explained the cause. He was ap-
parently satisfied with my explanation,
and after having tied down the safety
valve he climbed back over the tender,
exhorting me to put her through, for
Gods sake, or we are all beggars to-
gether?'
" Just then we passed the next sta.
tion, having taken nine minutes for
eight miles. We were now more than
half over the road; but we had lost
nearly ten minutes time, and had left
only twenty-seven minutes to do thirty
four miles in.
"I had shut the water off from both
my pumps, little distance back, when
discovered what was the matter, and
she was now now making steam finely
down slight grade. From less than
one hundred, with which we started
over that ten-mile stretch, she had two
hundred ponnds before we finished it.;
and, as the gauge indicated no higher
that that and the valve was tied down,
could not tell how much over two hun
dred pounds she carried, but she GER
tainly carried none less the rest of the
journey. And well might she carry such
an enormous head of steam; for, after
passing over that ten miles in eight
minutes, there lay ten miles of tive-feet
up grade, and fourteen miles of twenty
feet-to-the-mile depression between us
and C., and it was now eleven o'clock
and forty-seven minutes.
"Now the engine was hot in earnest.
The furnace door, smoke arch and
chimney, all were red; while she seemed
to fly on as if the very evil one himself
operated her machinery.
"Six minutes carried us over that ten
miles and we darted by the last station
that had lain between us and c..
Now we had fourteen miles to go and
my time showed eleven o'clock and fifty
three minutes.
" If live, said I to myself, will
make it. And we plunged down that
twenty-foot grade with all the steam on.
Persons who saw the train on that wild
run, said that it was SO soon after they
heard the first sound of her approach,
when the strange object, which looked
as if it was a flame Of fire, darted by,
and then the sound of its travelling died
away in the distance, that they could
hardly convince themselves they had
really seen anything. 1t seemed more
like the creature of a wild dream than a
sober reality.
"And now let me tell you, that no en-
gine ever beat the time we made on
those fourteen miles. Those great
wheels, seven feet in diameter, spun
around SO swift that you couldn't begin
to count the revolutions. The engine
barely seemed to touch the track as she
few along; and although the track was
as true as it was possible for it to be,
|
she swayed fearfully, and sometimes
made such prodigious jolts that it re-
quired considerable skill for one to keep
his feet. No engine could hold together
if crowded to greater speed.
"Well, just as I came to standstill
in the depot at G., the big clock
doomed out twelve, and the steamboat
was getting her steam on. Roberts got
on board in time and nothing to spare. u
"And he saved the money, did he ? y
I asked, when saw that my friend had
finished his story.
eyes he found it hid away in some
old boxes, as Aldrich had directed him. >
eff you are the passenger for c.
said waiter, " the bus is ready"
So I thanked my friend for his story
and bade him good-by."