Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1881-10-09

1 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 on the memorable night it oc-
Cured.
81 was running extra on the Union
Pacific for a conductor who was an
old friend of mine, and who had
gone South on vacation for his t
health.
cat about 1856, as near as I can re-
member, we were sailing along all
comfortable one evening, with
straight stretch of track ahead for
ten or fifteen miles, running on time, |
and everybody feeling tiptop, as
overland travellers do who get |
acquainted with each other and feel
congenial. ALI at once the train sud
denly 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 engi-
neer, 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 that hour.
"However, we had been almost
tremendously saved from frightful
wrech by the engineers watchful
ness, and every body went forward
: and shook old Antifat by one hand,
and cried, and thanked him, till it
was the most affecting scene for a
while that I 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 it was kind of a
cross between revival and a pic
mic.
"After we had waited about half
an hour, I should say, for the blasted
train to come up and pass US, and
apparently she was no nearer, a cold,
7 clammy suspicion began to bore it
@ self into the adamantine shell of my
intellect. The more I thought Of
it the more unhappy I felt. I al
u most wished that l was dead. Cold
Il streaks ran up my back, followed by
9 hot ones. I wanted to go home. I
!, wanted to be where the hungry,
~ prying eyes of the great, throbbing
work-day world could not see me.
Il called Antifat one side and said
II something to him. He swore softly
, to himself, and kicked the ground,
# and looked at the headlight still
! glimmering in the distance.
u Then he got on his engine, and ]
IS yelled, 'Ail aboard In a few mo-
IS ments we were moving again, and
the general impression was, that the
train ahead was side-tracked and
is waiting for us, although there wasn't
T a sidetrack within twenty miles, ex
q cept the one we had just left.
q "It was never exactly clear to the
# passengers where we passed that
h wild train, but / didn't explain it te
T them. was too much engrossee
a. with my surging thoughts.
n 81 never felt my own inferiority
= SO much as did that night. I neve1
nr SO fully realized what mere specl
IN man is upon the bosom of the uni
m verse.
to "When I surveyed the starr,
I vault of heaven, and considered it,
ae illimitable space, where, beyond ant
of stretching on and on forever, count
,h less suns are placed as centers
lie around which solar systems are re
rt volving in their regular orbits, eac
IS. little world. peopled perhaps with it
ks teeming millions of struggling hu
of mainly, and then other an
he mightier systems, till the mind i
re dazed and giddy with the might
de thought; and then, when I compare
- all this universal magniicence, thi
to brill ant aggregation of worlds an
he systems of worlds, with one poo
groveling worm of the dust-only
We little insignificant atom, only poo
he weak, erring, worthless, fallible, bline
I cropping railroad conductor, with m
a train peacefully side-tracked in th
he gathering gloom, and patiently wait
I ing for the planet Venus to pass O
n the main track, there was somethin
les about the whole sombre picture tbs
~, has overshadowed my whole life, an
I made me unhappy and wretche
u.s. while Others were gay.
len "Sometimes Antifat and myse
to meet at some liquid restaurant an
silently take something in memory
our great sorrow, but never mentio
it. We never tear open the OIL
ranking wound or laugh over IL
night we politely gave the main trae
In8 to Venus while we stood patiently {
wy the siding"
ATS Salt Rheum for seventeen years. Hell
The less for eight wears Unable to walk G