Sacramento daily record-union., 1881-03-11
! nnIaoAp coNpucToR,s gfoEY.

A RAILROAD CONDUCTORS sfoEf.
Eyes said the conductor, biting off
the tip Of cigar and slowly scratching
match on his leg, "I'ye seen GOOD aeai
of railroad life that's interesting and exclt-
ing in the twenty years that I've been
twisting brakes and slamming doors Tor
living.
kinds of ioy-seen the happy bridal couple
starting out on their welding tour, with
The bright and hopeful future before them,
and the black-robed mourner on her way
TO e new. made grave, wherein she must
bury the idol OF her lonely old heart.
"Wealth aud pinching poverty ride on
the same train, and the merry laugh of the
iovous. healthy child is mingled with the
despairiug sigh of the aged. The great an
tinodes of life are familiar to the conductor,
for every day the extremes OF the world
are meeting beneath his eye.
"Tve mutilated the ticket of many
blackleQ and handled the passes OF all our
most eminent dead-heads. l don't know
what walk of life is more crowded with
thrilling incidents than mine"
Ever had any smash-ups?"
'tSmash. ups !? Oh, yes, several Of them.
None, however, that couldn't have been a
good deal worse.
'sThere is one incident OF my railroad
life" continued the conductor, runnin ng his
tongue carefully over broken place in the
wrapper of his cigar, THAT never spoke
of before TO any one. 1t has caused me
more misery aud wretchedness than any
one thing that ever happened to me in my
official career.
Sometimes even now, after the lapse OF
many years, l awake in the night with the
cold drops OF agony standing on my face
and the horrible nightmare upon me with
its terrible surroundings, as plain as on the
memorable night it occurred.
al was running extra on the Union Pa.
cific for conductor who was an old friend
of mine, and who had gone south on va
cation for his health.
"At about 7:30, as near as can remem-
Der, we were sailing along all comfortable
one evening, with straight stretch OF
track ahead for ten or fifteen miles, run
ming on time and everybody feeling tip
top, as overland travellers do who get ac-
uuainted with each other and feel con-
genial All at once the train suddenly
slowed down, ran in on an old siding and
stopped.
"Of course / got out and ran ahead to
the engine to see what the matter was.
Old Antifat, the engineer, had got down
and was on the main track looking ahead
to where, twinkling along about six or
seven miles down the road, apparently,
was the headlight of an approaching train
1t was evidently wild, for nothing was
due that we knew of at that hour.
"However, we had been almost miracu-
lously saved from frightful wreck by the
enqineer's watchfulness, and everybody
went forward and shook old Antifat by the
hand, and cried and thanked him till it
was the most affecting scene for while
that ever witnessed. 1t was as though
we had stopped upon the very verge of
bottomless chasm, and everybody was
laughing and crying at once, till 1t was
kind of cross between a revival and
picnic.
"After we had waited about half an
hour, l should say, for the blasted train to
come up and pass US. and apparently she
was no nearer, a cold, clammy suspicion
began to bore itself into the adamantine
shell of my intellect. The more thought
of it, the more unhappy / felt. almost
wished that / was dead. Cold streaks ran
up my back followed by hot ones. WANTED
to go home. I wanted to be where the
hungry, prying eyes of the great, throb-
bing work-day world could NOT see me.
81 called Antifat one side and said some
thing to him. He swore softly to himself
and kicked the ground, and looked at the
headlight still glinmering in the distance.
Then he got on his engine and l yelled
all aboard In few minutes we were
kba rranarol ipnn
was that the train ahead was side-tracked
and waiting for us, although there wasn't
a side track within twenty miles, except
the one we had just left.
at was never exactly clear to the pas
sengers where we passed that wild train,
but didn't explain it to them. l was too
much engrossed with my surging thoughts.
II never felt my own inferiority so
much as 1 did that night. l never so
fully realized what mere speck man is
upon the bosom of'the universe,
t'When surveyed the starry vault of
heaven and considered its illimltable space,
where, beyond and stretching on and for
ever. countless Guns are placed as centers,
around which solar systems are revolving IN
their regular orbits, each little world peo-
pied perhaps with the teeming millions of
struggling humanity, and the other and
mightier systems of worlds revolving
about these systems till the mind is dazed
and giddy with the mighty thought !;
and then when l compared all this uni
versal magnifcence. this brilliant aggre.
CATION of worlds and systems OF
worlds, with one poor, groveling worm
of the dust, only little Insignificant atom,
only poor, weak, errring worthless, falli-
BILE, blind, cropping railroad conductor.
with my train peacefully side
tracked in the gathering gloom and pa
tiently waiting for the planet Venus to
pass on the main track, there was some
thing about the whole somber picture that
has overshadowed my whole life and made
me unhappy and wretched while Others
were gay.
Sometimes Antifat and myself meet al
some liquid restaurant and silently take
something in memory of our great sorrow.
but never mention it. We never tear open
the old ranking wound or laugh over the
night we politely gave the main track tc
Venus while we stood patiently on the
siding"