The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1879-08-08
lamb that was seen to run between the
wheels of a rapidly moving locono-

lamb that was seen to run between the
wheels of a rapidly moving lOcomo-
tive near Sunbury. Tho engineer suf-
fered pang of regret, for he was ten
der-hearted, and wouldn't run over
snake if he could help 1t. He looked
back over the road for the corpse of
the unfortunate lamb. To his aston
track behind the last Car and run OH
wagging its tail. It had passed under
all the cars, and was uninjurcd.
Many persons are killed on double
track roads by stepping from one track
to the other, avoiding train they see
and hear, and being killed by one that
they do not think to look out for.
Almost every engineer of ordinary ex-
perience has killed his man, and some
have killed many. Railroad men never
speak of sskilling" men or animals on
the road, but of ''striktng" them
which, however, generally amounts to
the same thing.
A story was told Of Hudson river
engineer who killed man that sud
denly stepped in front of his engine.
He had been watching the man and
saw his face as he crossed over the
track and walked into the engine. The
man was blind. The engineer caught
q glimpse of the victims face as he was
struck. His expression 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 that spot
that scene was re-enacted. He took
day train, but at noon the apparation
haunted the spot. He even went into
the service of another company, yet at
unexpected moments the spectre of the
blind man seemed to start up in the
track, to throw his arms over his head
wildly, to scream, and to be crushed
under the locomotive. It was more
than the engineer could bear.
Then there was narrated a weird
story that I had heard once before. 1t
was about an apparation of a train on
told with an effort at sincerity that did
not deceive the listener, but am told
| that there are many trackmen and
laborers along the line of the Hudson
River Railroad who pretend to have
seen the spectacle. The tale was about
mystic counterpart of the funeral
train that bore Abraham Lincoln's re-
mains from this city to the West. The
actual and substantial train passed
over the road on a certain day in April,
1865. The car that contained the Pres
ident's remains was heavily draped I
believe. It is said that ON that night,
every year, all the train men who are
on the road during a certain hour
{that varies 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 yel-
low, pale, and funeral. Its train hands
and passengers are sepulchral figures,
1t looks like the outline of a train, yet
every detail is perfect. Those who
have seen it say, though they felt that
it was only a vision, that a man could
walk through it if he dared, or throw
a stone through it; yet it seems per-
feet in everything but substantialness.
1t even carries with it a whirI of wind
as fast trains do, but it is a cold, clammy
gravelike atmosphere, all its own. AS
! it passes another train the shrek of its
| whistle and clang Of it's bell strike ter
ror to the hearts of those that hear
! them.
It was reserved for the conductor to
tell the least plausible OF the really re-
| markable yarns. He pointed out some
| corroborative evidence AS we passed
Tullytown-thes scene where the mar
rative was laid. He said: "Do you see
those telegraph poles?" They were
ordinary poles, perhaps twenty-three
feet high. HWell," he continued, "a
good part of train was lifted as high
as the tops of those poles, and one or
two cars were thrown clear over the
wires into that field yonder." My as
tonishment was unconcealed. The other
railroad men hastened to corroborate
the story that was to come.
! "Well," the conductor continued,
ssthis accident that Pm 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
a minute ago was covered by a thick
fog one morning-a dense belt of fog
twenty feet wide and as long as the
stream, although elsewhere the air
was reasonably clear. One of our
freights, long train pulled by whop-
ping big six-driver engine, was nosing
along close behind a slow passenger
train. They both started from Tully-
town together, and weren't many feet
apart at the brook. The engineer of
tho freight was keeping close watch
on the tail of the passenger when he
suddenly found himself in a dense fog,
unable to see three feet ahead. He is
usually a clear-headed, cool man, but