West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1878-11-09
4 Terrible Disaster.
.Hurlington UawkOrl

/ "Wednesday morning the passenger
train south ON the Keokuk division wa.
lifting itself right of the rails. She
was running 81 fast the noise of the
/ wheels was rattling along about two
hundred yards behind the train, doing
lts level best to keep in sight but losing
/ ground every Jump. suddenly the train
/ stopped. Away out between stations.
no cattle on the track, mo- water tank i'm
/ sight, nothing apparently to stop for.
| She pulled up 20 close To- an orchard that
| the farmer came out and vat on the
/ fence with gun in hand and a couple
of bold, bad dogs, looking dcceitfullv
/ pleasant, tagging along at his heels. He
/ evidently didn't care about setting up
| the apples. The passengers were alarmed
not AT the determined neutrality of the
farmer, but at the sudden stoppare of
the train. They knew something sori-
ous had happened. Presently the fire
man came walking down along the side
of the track, looking carefully, as though
he had dropped his diamond out of the
cab window.
What is it," asked the first passon-
ger.
" What is the matter2' asked the sec
ond passenger.
" What has happened2' asked the
third passenger.
What broke 9" asked the fourth pa--
senger
why did we stop" asked the fifth
passenger
"Whatsur? asked tac sixth passen-
ger.
What broke loose" asked the sev-
enth passenger.
What done it?" asked the eighth
passenger.
Broke a spring hanger" gravely re-
pllcd the fireman, and passed on, and all
the questioning passengers drew their
heads back and closed their windows.
and with great gravity was repeated the
hreman's 's statement TO the other passen-
gers who had not been able To yet Ia n
window IN time To- ask the fireman any
thing:
Broke a spring hammer"
Broke a sling haincr'
Broke screen hanger
Broke Il string hammer
Broke sting ander.'
Broke a scene hammer
Broke a steam hammer"
g Broke swing hanger"
And If Benjamin f. Franklin and
George w. Washington, and Christie.
pher c. Columbus had been i'm that
coach, they couldn't have looked wiser
nor been moro thoroughly ignorant of
the nature of the accident than the awe
struck passengers who impaired and re-
celved this information and tried to
look as though they weren't wandering
what IT was. There should he law
compelling railroad people to speak Uni
ted states when impaTting information
relative to the nature of accidents, to
inquiring passengers. There wasn't n
passenger in that coach that ever cx-
pected to sec the good Dave Blackburn
or the engineer alive again. We all
supposed that when spring hanger
broke, IT just tore the engine all TO pieces,
stood IL on end and rammed il into the
ground, and then ran on ahead, tore up
the track, set fire 10 a bridge, and blew
up culyert The average passenger
has an idea that a spring hanger owns
about the whole engine, that it is one
OF these things that can even swear at
brakeman and walk up to a baggageman
and call him a woOdenhcaded, fat
footed, trunk liftin' hurricane of wrath"
and consequently when y passenger il
told that the spring hanger il broke, he
has an impression that it will take every
last dollar there IL ON the train TO set
the old thing up again.