Middletown transcript., 1881-04-01
A HEADLIGHT IN VIEW.
BY BILL NYE.

. d HldlCh Ou HIS leS, I've seen a gOOt
0 deal of railroad life that's interestin.
s and exciting in the twenty years tha
f I've been twisting brakes and slammin.
s doors for living.''
y ''I've seen all kinds of sorrow and al
q kinds of joy-seen the happy brida
g couple starting out on their wedding
: tour with the bright and hopeful fu
ture before them, and the black robet
4 mourner on her way to a new made
| grave wherein she must bury the lido
, of her lonely old heart
l "Wealth and pinching poverty ride
S on the same train, and the merry laugl
of the joyous, healthy child is mingled
with the despairing sigh of the aged.
The great antidotesof life are familiar
: to the conductor, for every day the ex-
tremes of the work are meeting beneath
his eye.
''I've mutilated the ticket of many a
black leg and handled the passes of all
our most eminent dead heads. I don't
know what walk of life is more crowded
with thrilling incidents than mine. y
''Ever had any smash ups ?''
''Smash ups? Oh, yes, several OF
them. None, however, that couldn' t
have been a good deal worse. y
"There is one incident of my railroad
life, !" continued the conductor, running
his tongue carefully over broken place
in the wrapper of his cigar, ''that l
never before spoke of before to any one
1t has caused me more misery and
wretchedness than any one thing that
ever happened to me in my official
career.
sometimes even now, after the lapse
of many years, 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.
II was running extra on the Union
Pacific for conductor who was an old
friend of mine, and who had gone south
on vacation for his health.
At about 7:3O, as near as l can re-
member, we were sailing along all
comfortable one evening with a straight
stretch of track ahead for ten or fifteen
miles, running on time and everybody
feeling tip top, as overland travellers do
who get acquainted and feel congenial.
All at once the train suddenly slowed
down, ran on an old siding and stopped.
"Of course 1 got out and ran ahead
to the engine to see what the matter
was. Old Anti-fat, the engineer, got
down and was on the main track look
ing ahead to where, twinkling along
about six or seven miles down the road,
apparently, was the headlight of an ap-
preaching train. 1t was evidently
''wild, " for nothing was due that we
knew of at that hour.
However, we had been almost mi
raculously saved from frightful wreck
by the engineers watchfulness, and
everybody went forward and shook old
Anti-fat by the hand, and cried and
thanked him until it was the most af-
fecting scene for a while that I ever
witnessed. It was as though we had
stepped upon the very verge of a
bottomless chasm, and everybody was
laughing and crying at once, till it was
kind of a cross between a revival and
a picnic.
'tAfter we had waited about half an
hour, should say, for the blasted train
to come up and pass us, and apparently |
she was no nearer, cold, clammy sus-
picion began to bore itself into the ada
mantine shell of my intellect. The
more thought of it the more unhappy
I felt. I almost wished that I was
dead. Cold streaks ran up my back
followed by hot ones. l wanted to go
home. wanted to go where the hun
CRY, prying eyes of the great, throbbing
work day world could not see me.
II called Anti-fat one side and said
something to him. He swore softly to
himself and kicked the ground, and
looked at the headlight still glimmering
in the distance. Then he got on his
engine and yelled all aboard. In a
few moments we were moving again,
and the general impression was that
the train ahead was side-tracked and
waiting for us, although there wasn't
side-track within twenty miles, ex-
cept the one we had just left.
'It was never exactly clear to the
passengers where we passed that wild
train, but didn't explain it to them. I
was too much engrossed with my surg
ing thoughts.
II never felt my own inferiority so
much as did that night. 1 never so
fully realized what mere speck man
is upon the bosom of the universe.
"When surveyed the starry vault of
heaven and considered its illimitable
space, where, beyond and stretching on
and on forever, countless suns are
placed as centres, around which solar
systems are revolving in their regular :
orbits, each little world peopled per- :
haps with its millions of struggling hui
and then other and mightier
systems of worlds revolving about these
systems till the mind is dazed and
giddy with the mighty thought, and n
hen when / compared all this univer- a
'al magnifeence with one poor worm of 6
he dust, only little, Insignificant u
tom, only poor, weak, erring, worth a
ess, fallible, blind, cropping railroad b
conductor, with my train peacefully fl
in the gathering gloom Il
md patiently waiting for the planet :
Venus to pass on the main track, there
vas something about the whole sombre