The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1878-11-20

OF the coach which was coupled to my
engine. u,.
the switch-tender to help my fireman,
opened the throttle, and just as she
commenced moving, looked at my watch
it was Just eleven o'clock, so that l
had one hour to make my seventy-tVe
miles in.
"From y to c. there were
few curves on the road !; but there were
several heavy grades. 1 was perfectiy
acquainted with every rod OF 1t 3; so tnat
knew exactly what I had to encounter;
and when 7 saw how the engine moved,
I felt very little feaAof the result.
"The road for the first five miles, was
an airline, and so flew along with scarce
" a perceptible jar. I was so busy.
hosting myself up, as to the amount OF
wood and water aboard, etc, that we
danced by the first station almost before
7 was aware of it, having been five MIN
utes out, and having five miles accom-
plished. ~
"sYou are losing time! yelled a
voice from the coech. I looked around,
and there stood Roberts with his watch
in his hand.
IT knew very we'll we would have to
increase u speed by come means. II
We carried out our plans OF reaching u
by midnight, and looked anx'ously
around to see what I could do to accom-
plish that purpose. She was blowing
off steam f~iercely at one hundred and
ten pounds {; so I turned down the valve
to two hundred, for I knew We should
need it all to make some OF the heavy
! grades which lay between us and ".
cit was three miles to the next sta
ton. With the exception of a few curves
the track was as good as the last.
As we darted around what commonly
seemed to be q rather long curve, at the
station. but which was, at u high
speed. short enough, I looked at my
watch: and we had done it in two minutes
and q half.
"tGainipe.' I shouted back to Ro-
berts, who was yet standing on me plat
form of the coach. , ,
"sLook out for the heavy grades, ne
replied, and went inside the u. .
"The next six miles rose gradually
from a level the first, to ten and a halt
feet era.le the last, which lay between
rs and the next station. Ny fireman
kept her full; and now she began to get
hot. The furnace door was red, and the
steam raised continually; 80 that sne
kept her speed, and passed the station,
like a streak of light, in Ave minutes.
"Now camo nine miles like the last;
over which she kept pace with her time,
and passed the station in seven M q
half minutes.
"Here, for ten miles, we had q twenty.
foot grade to encounter; but the worst
of it all was, at that place we would be
obliged to stop for wood. l was Just
Going to speak to Roberts about it, when
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.
ct believe we would have made this
ten miles at the same speed as before;
but, through the carelessness of the fire
man, the fo~untain-valve, on the left
hand side Of the engine, got opened.
and the water rose in the boiler 80 fast
az to run the steam down to one hun.
dred pounds before I discovered where
the difficulty lay.
cat first, Roberts didn't appear to
notice the decrease OF speed, and kept
at work at the wood as if 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 I was, he said I:
WHY. here We have been ten minutes
on the last ten miles, and I believe we
will come to a dead stand if something
is not done. The speed is continually
slackingl What is the matter
"I explained the cause. he was ap-
~parently satisfied with my explanation,
and after having ted 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-
getherP
e just then we passed the next sta.
ton, having taken nine minutes for
eight miles. We were now o 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.
81 had shut the wa'er off from both
nv pumps, a little distance back, when
discovered what was the matter, and
she was now now making steam finely
down a slight grade. From less than
one hundred, with which we started
over that ten.mile stretch, she had two
hundred ponds before we finished it;
aud, as the gauge indicated no higher
that that and the valve was tied down,
I 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 we'll might she carry such
an enormous head of steam; for, after
passing over that ten miles in eight
minutes, there lay ten miles of fve-feet
upgrade, and fourteen miles of twenty.
ftet-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
20 fly on as if the very evil n 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 60 and
my time showed eleven o'clock and fifty.
three minutes.
"sIf live said I to myself, Il 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 fame 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-
CINE 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
flew along; and although the track was
as true as it was possible for it to be,
she swayed f~earfuliy, and sometimes
made such prodigious jolts that it re-
auired considerable skill for one to keep
" -