The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1881-01-18

The Conductors Story Of . Night
Train on the Union Pacific.

Interesting oOO exciting IN the twenty
years that I've been twisting brakes
and slamming doors for q living.
"Pve seen all kinds Of SORROW and
all kinds OF jey-seeu the happy
bridal couple starting out on their
bridal tour with the bright and hope
full future before them. and the
black -robed mouruer ON her way to q
new-made grave, wherein she must
bury The itlsl Of her lonely old heart.
wealth and Punching poverty
ride on the same train. and the merry
laugh OF the joyous, healthy child is
m;agled with the despairiog sigh Of
the aged. The great aniipodes Of life
a,e familiar 10 the conductor, for every
dav the extremes of the world are
meeting beneath his eve.
"lve mutilated the ticket OF
many a blackleg, and handled the
passess of all our most eminent dead
heats. / doa't know what walk Of
life is more crowded with thrilling ill.,
cidents :han Niue"
Ever have any smashupsT
"Smashups? Oh, yes, several Of
them, None, however, that couldn't
have beea good deal worse.
There is one incident 10 my rail-
road l;ie," continued the conductor,
running bis tongue carefully over a
broken place 10 the wrapper of his
cigar, '.hat i never spoke Of before
to any one. 1t has csused 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
nigh. maze Lpon me with its terrible
Surroundings as plain as on the men,
orable night il occurred.
III vas running extra on the Union
Pacific for conducror who was an old
friend Of mine, and who had gone
south ON Vacation for his health.
"At about 1880, rs near as / can
remember. We were sailing along all
comfortable one evening with q
straight stretch of track ahead for ten
or fifteen miles, running on time and
everybody feeling ,iptop. as over
land travellers do who get acquainted
with each other and feel cODgenial.
Once the train suddenly slowed up,
ran in on an old siding and stopped.
"Of course | got out aud ran ahead
To the engine to see what the matter
was. Old Antifat, the engineer, had
got dO.n and was ON the maintrsck
looking ahead to where, twinkling
along about six or seven miles down
the road. apparently, was the head
light Of an approaching train. 1t WI.
evidently wild for nothing was due
that we knew Of that hour.
"However. We had been almost
miiacalously saved from q frishtful
wreck BY the engineers watchtulness,
and everybody went forward and
shook old Antifat by the hand and
cried and thanked him till it was the
most affecting scene for q while
that / ever witnessed. 1t Was as
though we had stopped upon the very
verge of q bOttOmlcss chasm, and
everybody was laughing and crying a.
once, till it was q kind Of cross
between a revival and picnic.
"After We had waited about hall
an hour. I should say, for the blasted
train to come up aud pass Us, and Ap-
parently she was no nearer, a cold,
clammy suspicion began to bore itself
into the adamantine shell of my in
tellect. The moro i thought Of it the
more unhappy I felt. l almost wished
that was dead. Cold streaks ran up
nv back, followed by hot ones. 1
wanted to 60 home. / wanted to be
where the hungry, pvying eyes Of the
great. tbrubbiug wcrk-day world
could not see me.
IL calledAntifat to one side and said
something 10 him. He swore softly
to himself and kicked the ground, and
looked at the headlight still giimmer-
ing in the distance. Then be got on
his engine sud I yelled. All
aboard" In . few moments We
were moving again, and the general
impression was that the train ahead
was sidc-trackcd and waiting for Us,
although there wasn't q side-track
within twenty miles. except The one
We had just left.
ut wss never exactly clear to the
passengers where We passed that wild
train, but l didn't explain it to them.
I was too much eugrossed with my
surging thoughts.
81 never felt my own inferiority 50
much as / did that night. I never
30 fully realized what . mere speck
man il upon the bosom Of the
universe.
"When I surveyed the starry vault
of heaven and considered its illimi-
table space, where. beyond and stretch
ing Oh and on forever, countless suns
are placed as centre, around which
solar systems are revolving 10 their
regular orbits, each little world
peOpl~d perhaps with lis tcemiog mil
lions of struggling humaoitv.s"d then
other and miyhtier sysle@s. I'LL the
mind is dag / add giddy with the
mighty thought; and then when
compared al this universal magni-
6cence. this brilliant aggregation Of
worlds and systems Of worlds with
one poor, grovelling worm of the
. poor, weak, errting, |
worthless. fallible, blind, cropping |
railroad conductor, with my train
sidetracked in the gather. |