The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1880-09-02
st. As we darted around what com.

last. As We dartod around what 0om-
monty soemcd to be rather png
curve, at the station, but which was. at
our high speed, short enough, 1 looked
at my watch, aud we had done it in
two minutes and half.
"Gaining,' I shouted back to
Roberts, who was yet standing on the
platform of the coach. EtEls
".Look out for the heavy grsdcs,
he replied, and went inside the car.
1.-The next six miles rose gradually
from level at tho first, to ten and shalt
feet grade at the last, which lay be-
tween us and the next station. Ny
fireman kept her full and now she be-
gan to get hot. Tho furnace door was
red and the steam raised continually,
so that she kept her speed and passed
the station like a streak Of light in five
minutes.
"Now came nine miles like the last;
over which she kept pace with her
time, and passed the station in seycn
Here, for ten miles, we hse a
twenty-foot grade to encounter; but
the worst of it all was at this place we
would be obliged to stop for wood. l
was Just going to speak to Roberts
saw him filing the tender from the
coach with wood which had been
placed there before starting, while he
was gone after me.
81 believe we would have made this
ten miles with the same speed as be-
foae, but through the carelessness d
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 one hun
dred pounds before discovered where
the difficulty was. ..
AT first Roberts didn't appear to
notice the decrease of speed, and kept
at work at the wood as il for dear life.
But presently he looked up, and, sec
ing that the speed had decreased, he
shouted: Harry, we are stopping" and
then, coming over to where 1 was. he
said: why, here we have been ten min
on the last ten miles, and believe we
will como to dead stand II something
Is not done. The speed is continually
Stacking. What is the matter?'
81 explained the cause. He was ap.
parently satisfied with my explanation,
and, after having tied down the safety
valve, he climbed back over the tender,
exhorting me to put her through,
for Gods sake, or we are all beggars 10
getherr'
"Just then we passed the next sta.
ton having taken nine minutes fol
eight miles. We were now more thar
\ half over the road, but we had los
nearly ten minutes time. and had lcf
only twenty-seven minutes to do thirty
four miles in.
81 had shut the water off from botf
my pumps little distance back, wher
i discovered what was The matter, ana
she was now making steam finely dowr
. slight grzsde. From less than ons
hundred with which we started ovel
that ten-mile stretch, she had two hun
dred pounds before we finished it; and
as the gauge indicated no higher thar
that, and the valve was tied down,
could not tell how much over two hud
dred pounds she carried, but she Ger.
tainly carried none less the rest of the
journey. And well might she carrJ
such an enormous head of steam, for
after passing over that ten miles in
eight minutes, there lay ten miles o.
five feet up grade and fourteen miles o.
twcnty-feet-to-the- depression be
tween us and c., and it was now thir
teen minutes to twelve o'clock.
"Now tho engine was hot in earnest
The furnace door, smoke arch anC
chimney all were rcdi while she seemed
to fly onward as if the very Evil One
himself operated her machinery.
"Six minutes carried us over tina
ten miles; and we darted by the las
station that had lain between us ant
c.. Now we had fourteen miles Il
go, and my time showed fifty-thre'
minutes past eleven o'clock. :
".H live,' said to myself, 1 viii
make it, And we plunged down tina
twenty-foot grade with all steam on
Persons who saw the train on that wilt
run said that it was so soon after the,
heard the first sound of her approach
when the strange object, which locke,
as If it was a flame of fire, darted by
and then the sound of its travelling die,
away in the distance, that they coui'
hardly convince themselves they ha,
really seen anything. 1t seemed NOR
like the creature of q wild dream thar
sober reality.
"And now let me tell you that n
engine ever beat the time we made ol
those fourteen miles. Those grea
wheels, seven feet in diameter, spul
around so swift that you couldn't begil
to count the revolutions. The engin
barely seemed to- touch the track a
she few along; and although the tracl
was as true as it was possible for it +
be she swayed fearfully, and some
times made such prodigious jolts tina
it required considerable skill for one T.
keep his feet No engine could hOl'
together if crowded to a greater speed
"Well, just as came to a standstil
in the depot at c. the big clocl
doomed out twelve, and the steambOa
was getting her steam on. Robert
got on board in time and nothing Z
spare. But hc saved the money. III
found it hid away in some old boxes, a
Aldrich had directed him."-M ]
Graphic