The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1880-11-05

Roberts with his watch in his hand.
l knew very well that we would have to
increase our speed by some means if we car
ried out our plans of reaching c. by mid
night, and looked anxiously around to see
what could do to accomplish that purpose.
She was blowing off steam fiercely at I1O
pounds so l turned down the valve to 200
for l knew we should need it all to make
some of the heavy grades which Law between
us and c..
1t was three miles to the next station
With the exception of few curves, the track
was as good as the last. As we darted around
what commonly seemed to pc rather long
curve, at the station, but which was, at our
high speed, short enough, 1 looked at my
watch, and we had done it in two minutes
and a half.
Gaining" l shouted back to Roberts,
who was yet standing on the platform of the
coach
''Look out for the heavy grades" he re-
piled, and went inside the coach.
The next six miles rose gradually from
level the first, to ten and half feet the last,
which lay between us and the next station.
My fireman kept her full, and now she began
to get hot The furnace door was red, and
the steam raised continually, so that she kept
her speed and passed the station like streak
of lightning in five minutes.
Now came nine miles like the last over
which she kept pace with her time and pass
ed the station il seven and half minutes.
Here for ten miles, we had a twenty-foot
grade to encounter; but the worst of it all
was, at this place we would he obliged to
stop for wood. l was just going to speak to
Roberts when looked around and saw him
filling the tender from the coach with wood,
which had been placed there before starting,
while he was gone after me.
/ believe we would have made this ter
miles with the same speed as before, but,
through the carelessness of the fireman, the
fountain valve on the left-hand side of the
engine got opened, and the water rose in the
boiler so fast as to run the steam down to 100
I pounds before | discovered where the diff
Guilty was.
At first Roberts didn't appear to notice the
/ decrease of speed, and kept at work at the
wood as if for dear life. But presently he
+ shouted Harry, we are stopping :" and
then, coming over to where l was, he said ::
! ''Why, here we have been ten minutes on the
/ last ten miles, and believe we will come to
! a dead stand if something is not done. The
/ speed is continually stacking. What is the
matter?"
| explained the cause. He was apparent
/ ly satisfied with my explanation, and, after
/ having tied down the safety-vaYe, he climb
+ ed back oyer the tender, exhorting me to
/ ''put her through, for Gods sake, or we are
all beggars together -
Just then we passed the next station, hav-
/ ing taken nine minutes for eight miles. We
were now more than hall over the road, but
we had lost nearly ten minutes time, and
had left twenty-seven minutes to do thirty
four miles in.
/ had shut the water off from both my
pumps q little distance back, when | discoy-
cred what was the matter, and she was now
making steam finely down a slight grade.
From less than 100, with which we started
over that ten-mile stretch, she had 200 before
we finished it and, as the gauge indicated
no higher than that, and the valve was tied
down, l could not tell how much over POO
pounds she carried, but she certainly carried
none less the rest of the journey. And well
might she carry such an enormous head of
steam, for, after passing over that ten miles
in eight minutes, there lay ten miles of five
feet upgrade, and fourteen miles of twenty
feet-to-the-mile depression between us and
c., and it was now thirteen minutes Il
y O'Clock.
Now the engine was hot in earnest. The
furnace door, smoke arch and chimney all
were red while she seemed to fly onward as
if the very Evil One himself operated hel
machinery.
Six minutes carried us over that ten mi eS
and we darted by the last station that had
lain between us and c.. Now we had
fourteen miles to go and NY time showed fif
ty-three minutes after IL O'Clock.
"If | live, said to myself, 81 will make
it." And we plunged down that twenty-foo
grade with al steam on. Persons who saw
the train on that wild run said it was so soor
after they heard the first sound of approach
when the strange object, which looked as i
it was a flame of fire darted by, and then the
sound of the travelling died away in the dis
tance, that they could hardly convince them
selves they had really seen anything. L
seemed more like creature of wild dream
than a sober reality.
And now let me tell you that no enGint
ever beat the time we made on those fourteen
miles. Those great wheels seven feet in di
not begin to count the revolutions. The en-
gine barely seemed to touch the track as SIN
flew along and although the track was a
true as it was possible for it to be, she sway
ed fearfully, and sometimes made such pro
, dgious jots that it required considerable
skill for one to keep his feet. No engine
could hold together if crowded to a create
speed.
Well, just asI came to a standstill in th
depot at c. the big clock doomed out l.
, and the steamboat was getting her steam on
Roberts got on board in time and nothing &
spare But he saved the money. He fount
it hid away in some old boxes as Aldrich ha'
directed him.
a sKEPTIC who was trying to confuse
Christian colored man by the aPparentl.
contradictory passages of the bible, aske
how it could be that we were in the Spiri
and the Spirit in us, received the reply: col
dar's no puzzle bout dat. Its like dat poker
, | puts it in de fire, till it gets red hot. Now
de poker's in de fire, an de fires IN de pc
ker." y profound theologian could not hav
made better reply.
\ BACKwooDs preacher once elucidate6 a
follows in connection with the parable OF til
virgins "In ancient times, my beiove
, hearers, ii was the custom, after couple Ina
been married, for ten virgins to go out wit
lighted lamps and meet 'em on the way hom
five of these virgins being males and five f