Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-08-29
Continued from FRS; Page

tif Ouuts 10 tilt sumo iiliil-.
\ story was told of Hudson river en-
queer who killed man that sudden y
stepped in front of the engine. He
been watching the man and saw his fac,
as he crossed over the track and walked
into the engine. The man was blind
The engineer caught glimpse of the vic
TINS face as he was struck. His expires
sion was one of terror. His scream was
heard above tho pounding of the engine
The sight haunted the engineer until he
quit the business. Every night at thai
spot the scene was re-enacted. He took
a day train, but at noon the apparation
haunted the spot. He even went into the
employ of another company. yet at uneX-
pected moments the spectre of the blind
man seemed to start up in the track. to
throw his arm over his head wildly, TO
scream, and TO be crushed uuder the loco
motive. Ii was more than the engineer
could bear.
Then there was narrated weird story
that | had heard once before. 1t was
about an apparation OF train on the Hud-
son river railroad. II was told with an
effort at sincerity that did not deceive the
listener, but | am told that there are many
trackman and laborers along the Hudson
river railroad who pretend to have seen
the spectacle. The tale was about the
mystic counterpart of the funeral train that
bore Abraham l.incoln's remains from this
city to the West. The actual and substan-
tial train passed over the road on certain
day in April: 1868. The car that con
tanned the Presidents remains was heavily
draped, believe. 1t is said that on that
night, every year. all the train men who
on the road during certain hour Chat
vary in different subdivisions of the road
hear and see and feel the spectre train rush
by them. 1t sounds hollow and awful.
Its lights are yellow. pale and funeral.
Its train hands and passengers and sepul-
chral figures 1t looks like the outline Of
train, yet every detail is perfect. Those
who have seen il say though they felt that
il was only vision. that a man could walk
through it if he dared, or throw Il stone
through it; yet it seems perfect in every
thing but substantialness. II even carries
with whirl of wind as fast trains do. but
it is as cold, clammy, gravelike almost
phere, all its own. As it passes another
train the shrek of its whistle aud clang Of
its bell strike terror to hearts of those that
hear them.
1t was reserved for the conductor to tel
the least plausible of the really remarha
BILE yarns. He pointed out some corrobo |
rative evidence as we passed Tuliytown
the scene where the narrative was laid. |
He said: ''Do you see those telegraph |
poles?" They were ordinary poles, per- |
haps twenty feet high. well" he con-
tinued, "a good part of train was lifted |
rs high as a tops of those poles. and one
Or two Of the cars were blown clear over
the wires into the field yonder" NV as
constituent was unconceaed. The other
railroad men fastened to corroborate the
story that was TO come.
"Well," the conductor continued, ''this |
accident that I'm going to tell you of will |
probably never have its parallel. because
the combination of circumstances that led |
to it was most peculiar. That little stream
we passed minute ago was covered by a
thick fog one morning. dense belt of
log twenty feet wide and as long rs the
stream, although elsewhere the air was
clear. One of our freights.
long train pulled by a whopping big six
driver engine, was noising along close be-
hind slow passenger train. They both |
started from Tullytown together, and
weren't many feet apart ut the brook. The
engineer of the freight was kee ing a |
close watch on the tail of the passenger
when he suddenly found himself in Il dense |
fog, unable to see three feet ahead. He is |
usually clear-headed, cool man, but he |
lost his head at that moment, and slammed
on the steam brake so had that it ground
fire from the tires of the drivers and
brought the train to all standing. The |
funny thing was that the train was made
up of empties, except the last two or three
cars and they were loaded with heavy
stuff. Now, what tell YOU I'll swear to,
and so can any man along the road. When
that big fifty five-ton engine stopped those
heavy box cars on the further end of the
train pushed the empties so that the mid
dies ones left the track and went up and
up until the train was arched like IL bow,
and more than one car at the top OF the
arch was higher than the tops of telegraph
poles.
The conductor-he lived in that house by
the depot, and his father stood on the plat
form as we passed-the conductor, say,
was breaking in the middle of the train.
He was squeezed to death and his body
and one of the ears were thrown over a
telegraph pole into that field alongside of
his house
The only man in the baggage car beside
myself who had not told a story was a
Western railroad man, who had exhibited
as card of introduction an annual pass
over the railroad. When he cleared his
throat no one spoke. One could see by
the expression Of his face that he had a
good story and knew how to tell it.
eve have not had much that's worth
recollecting down my way" said he. add
ing in parenthesis, "Im from Kentucky,
but perhaps you never heard of Captain
Phillips experience in a railroad wreck.
1t was little singular. Capt Phillips is
a conductor on the Louisville q Cincinnati
Shortline road, and at the time ! speak of
was running freight A heavy storm
had followed his train from Cincinnati-a
severe winter storm, that was accompanied
by fearful wind and rain, and had RACED a
considerable time. His train was lust be-
yond Walton, 80 miles the other side of
Cincinnati, and was approaching bridge
that spanned a little creek that empties into
the Licking river. Usually the stream is
low. but on that night (this was some four
years ago. it had become swollen. roar
ing torrent. a passenger train had crossed
tha h,.H La, (.