The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1879-09-25
MY MURDER.

orators are not without our little romance
occasionally, and I think can show that
we are not certainly without certain
amount of responsibility; but it is sell
dom if ever recognized, unless some of
our number by carelessness suddenly
plunges train into destruction by fail
ing to understand orders.
The time Of which / write was one
pleasant afternoon in early Autumn, on
the 22nd day of September, 1876, and as
the occurrence has made a deep and
vivid impression on my mind, I cannot
forget the day which was Friday.
AT the time had been an agent and
operator on the-railroad little while
over two months. The line was directly
through parts of Indiana and Illinois,
and some of the distance had ID tele-
graph Office, consequently the o, .er dis
tance was somewhat lengthy, and there
was but one Office between mine and
Cowans, twelve miles west.
On this day I was quietly putting my
meerschaum in the large bay window of
my Office, and wishing for something to
relieve the monotony, VIXEN tie operator
at Cowans called the train dispatcher
and said an engine had sprung her throt-
tie with 40 pounds of steam, and had
gone east. while the fireman had gone to
lunch, and the engineer who was oiling
round, had no time to get on.
All was still as death for minute,
when the dispatcher began to call G.,
the only Office between mine and Cowans
for fully five minutes he called him,
using the signal '23," which means
death, but still no answer, and still the
monotonous click of the armature; pres.
emily he answered in a dozed, hurried
manner, and when asked about the en-
gine, said It had passed there at a fearful
rate of speed at fourteen minutes past
four, with no person visible.
1t was only six miles more to me, and
an excursion was On it's way west with a
heavy load of picnickers, and had actual
ly left station only eight miles east of
me, the first telegraph office, at two min
utes past 4.
The dispatcher called me furiously,
and being at hand and expectant, ] an
swered him Immediately. Then he said;
''Turn your switch and wreck engine No.
II, going east wild" 1 replied quickly:
81 cannot without an indemnity order;"
and after hasty conversation with the
uperintendent, as 1 afterward learned,
he went ahead with an order, whose
usual form and wording. reused many
lazy sbrass sounder" from q dose. It
read like this:
To OrERAToR. Wreck wild engine
No. IL at your eastern switch gate to
save collision. Company will defend
and uphold you. d. R. B.
! Immediately returned my "13," or
understanding" received my "correot
at :18 P. NJ. and turned to look for the
engine, when although the conversation
between myself and the dispatcher had
consumed but four minutes, saw her
coming at the grandest rate OF speed I
ever witnessed, and snatching my order,
| ran to the switch gate, about $50 feet,
and when L had unlocked and thrown
the rail, the roaring monster was only
about 100 feet away. L had my watch
in my hand, and stepped quickly back
out of harms way, when, at exactly
twenty minutes past four, she went over,
and such an unearthly crash L hope L
may never hear or see again.
The dirt and stone flew fifty feet into
the air, the engine turned clear over and
stopped on her side, pushing a splinter
Of the cab on the whistle valve, and
there she lay, seething, kissing, ,screach-
ing mass of rubbish.
But above the din and rattle, 1 heard
one wild, despairing shrek for help, and
when I could get close enough to see
found what, had it not been
for the face, would never have been rec
ognized as a man. in the crushed and
bleeding mass of flesh that lay under
one huge driver: and by what was rec
ognized as an escaped mailman, who, it
seems had climbed on the engine at
Cowans unobserved, and, pulling the
throttle open, had started off on wild
awful ride to the gate of death.
When the excursion train came up ten
minutes later. they said they found me
standing by the engine, gazing alternate
ly at the bloody driver and my written
order still tightly elapsed in my hand.
l was unconscious of everything save
the fact that had obeyed orders and
had thereby taken a life. They say 1
tainted, but I knew nothing from the
time / discovered that white bloodless
face until four days after when I awak-
ened apparently out Of dream. My
first question was, "Did the excursion
get in safely?"
The coroner held an inquest as soon as
| could be examined, and the ve1 6ct
was: eve, the jury, find that Albert
Long came to his death by being crush
ed beneath locomotive which was
wrecked by j. L. B., by an operator on
the-R. r., according to the order of D.
E. b., his superintendent and superior
officer. And We find further that no
blame can be attached to the said J. L.
b., d. r. B., or the railroad company,
as the engine was wrecked to save O
heavy loaded excursion, and ssid Albert
Long, being a madn1sn, was on the en-
gine II direct opposion to the compa-
ny's ORDERS"