The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1878-07-18

awaits with certainty hlSYlctlms! we must
educate our people TO examine ana detecI
this bad plumbing before they rent or pur-
chase houses for their families, or we must
seek to punish this great crime. OF murder.
A Close Shave.
HOW ENGINEER o'NIEL TOSSED FOUR HORSES
DOWN THE BANK AND SAVED HIS TRAIN.
[Muscatine Tribane.l
"Ireckon you've hearn tell OF Jim O'Niel,
what was 'sassinated down at Bloomington.
the other night?' remarked Jack Reynolds
TO reporter on Saturday. The latter &C
knowledged that he had heard good deal
lately about the man referred to. Jack
REYNOLDS does the stoking Oh one OF the
largest locomotives on the Chicago and Al
ton railroad.
.Just wait till toss in q couple OF sho-
yelfuls. cause times nearly up, and We'll
be off soon, and III tell you something
about JIM said the fireman, as be pitched
some chunks OF coal into the roaring fur
mace. "They don't make better engineers,
he continued, ethan what jim O'Niel was.
You see, YOU folks that ride back there in
them. fine coaches, and play poker, and read
the newspapers, and only look out when a
halt is made, and commence readin' and
playin' aein when the train darts away
again with a shrek, roar, and 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'n bet Your back will raise up some
times. But Jim didn't mind it much. He
was the coolest and most brayest man what
ever see in my life. Heacted all the while
Just like he was ready to die any minute.
And do you know he would take to his en-
CINE just Ikea man would take to woman:
He would pet her, and say sweet, sympathl-
zin' things to her. When she was leaning
out her level best. runnin' maybe forty
miles an hour, Jim would look her all over
kind of afiectionately and say to himself,
with shake of the head, She amt well to-
dav: I don't know what ails her, but she
amt feelin' just right"
Jack opened the iurnacc-door again and
dropped in some fresh fuel on the glowing
Goals.
"You sce,' he continued, "Jim and me
run an engine together five years, Just as
me and my boss here pointing to the en-
gineer who had Just that moment stepped
into the cab) are doing now. He took me
on when was green hand, and in all the
wears we stuck together he never spoke a
cross word to me; and if he'd been mind
to he might have pitched me out OF the cab
window any time, for he was powerful
man. Pm got used to runnin' now, and
don't ever bother my head about what's
going to happen; but when Jim ONiel
first look me on was awful scary, and Of
ten wished was one Of them farmers. what
we saw holdin' the plow in the fields as we
passed
capes. did he not?" interrupted the re-
porter.
"You are right he had" replied Jack,
Sc and the half Of them amt been told about
in the newspapers. Jim always know'd
when anything was goin' to happen. Once
he had nine cars and a big lot OF people, and
he was runuin' to make up lost time. 1t
was just little afore dark, and, takin' his
eye from off the track, Jim turned to me, and
says he: sThere's trouble ahead; feel it
in my bones At first I kinder suspected
that he was tryin' to brighten me, but after
bit he said to me: sD-n it, wish could
look round the big curve and see ifthe bridge
is right. That scared me MORN ever. Ino-
ticed that Jim had his eye set right down on
couldn't see far. The old locomotive was
we shot throu, b the deep cut and out on the
high film that run 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 that
was runnin' their best down the grade to-
ward the bridge. / felt my heart thrump
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 /
thought I'd stay as long as Jim did. He
took in the chance at glance. He knowed
il them horses ever got to that bridge
they'd tumble down 'twiXt The stringers,
and 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 hundred Of people would
have lived to tell what Pm teatin' now. So,
quick as fiaSh-for with locomotive rum
min, forty miles an hour You must do your
fgurin, in hurry--Jim slapped on all the
steam. NY God, how she shotl She nearly
iunaped out from under me. In three Sc
conds the old locomotive 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 sem.
6 When my heart dropped back to it's
p3aee.n added Jack, ~ rentured to say to
Jim, That was close shave, wasn't it p
bur dim never took his eyes from the track,
and never said yes or no; and, though him
and me Eua together Cor years and years, he
never once spoke how he scooped them crit
ters into the ditch, and saved God only
knows bow many lives
Weare deeply obliged to the Graphic,
which remarks, Pronounce them Shoe
accent on the wab.'' We shall