The Red Cloud chief., 1881-02-24

n match on his leg. 1--WE eel n good
deal of railroad life that's Interesting
and exciting in the twenty years that
I've been twisting brakes and slamming
doors for n living.
s.Tyc seen all kinds ot sorrow and
all kinds of joy-seen the happy bridal
couple starting out on the wedding
tour with the bright and hopeful future
before them, and the black-robed
mouiner on her way To n new-made
grave wherein she must bury the idol OF
her lonely old heart.
wealth and pinching poverty ride
on the same train. and the merry laugh
of the JOYOUS. healthy child is mingled
with the despairing sigh Of the aged
The great antipodes of life are familiar
TO the conductor. for every day the ex-
tremcs Of the world are meeting beneath
his eye.
1--WE mutilated the ticket Of many a
black leg aud handled the passes of all
our most eminent dead-hcais. ] don't
know what walk Of life is more
crowded with thrilling incidents than
mine
Ever have any smash-ups?'
..Smash-ups? Oh. yes, several Of
them. None, however, that couldn't
have been a good deal worse.
There is one incident OF my rail-
road life." continued the conductor,
running his tongue carefully over a
broken place in the wrapper OF his
cigar, THAT / never spoke Of before TO
any one. 1t has caused me more mis-
erv and Indebtedness than any n
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 IN with its terrible
| surroundings, rs plain as on the MEM
orable night i. occurred.
81 was running extra on the Union
| Pacific for a conductor who was an old
friend of mine, and who had gone South
on a vacation for his health. r
AT about 1880, rs near as l can re-
member, we were sailing along all COM
| Portable one evening with a straight
! stretch of track ahead for ten or fifteen
miles. running on time and everybody
feeling tip-top, rs overland travellers do
who get acquainted with each other
andfccl congenial. All at once the train
suddenly slowed down, ran on al old
siding and stopped. .
.sOf course. / got out and n 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
a,org about six or seven miles down
the road, apparently, vas the headlight
| of an approaching train. It vas evil
| IDENTITY wild for nothing was due that
we knew of a. that hour.
However, we had been almost
tremendously saved from a frightful
wreck by the engineers watchfu.ness,
aud everybody went forward and shook
old Antifat by the hand and cried and
thanked him till it was the most affect
inc scene for a while that | ever wit
messed. II was rs though we had
stopped upon the very verge of a bot
tom!ess chasm, and everybody was
Ian ching and CRYING at once, till it was
a kind of 4 cross between a revival and
a picnic.
'.After we had waited about half an
hour, | should say, for the blasted train
to como up and pass us, and apparent
~ 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 l was
dead. Cold strcaks ran up my back fol-
lowed by hot ones. | wanted to go
home. | wanted To be where the hun
CRY, prying eyes OF The great, %throbbing
wurG-dav world could not sec me.
Il called Antifat one side and said
something TO him. lie sworc softly TO
himself and kicked the ground, and
looked at the headlight still glimmer-
inc in the distance. Then he got on
his engine and l yelled All aboard In
a Few moments we were moving again,
AMI the general impression was that the
train ahead was sidc-tracked and wait
ing for us, although there wasn'ta side
track within twenty miles, except the
one we had just left.
ut was never exactly clear to the
passengers where we passed that wild
train, but l didn't explain it to them.
l was too much %engrossed with my
surging thoughts.
~ never iclt. my Own inferiority so
much as / did that night. | never so
fully realized what n mere speck man
is upon the bosom of the universe.
when I surveyed the starry vault of
Heaven and considered its illimitablc
space. where, beyond and stretching
on and on forever, countless suns are
placed as centers, around which solar
systems arc revolving in their regular
orbits, each little world pcopled perhaps
with its teeming millions of struggling
humanity, and then other and mightier
systems of worlds revolving about these
systems till the mind is dazcd and giddy
with the mighty thought; and then
when / compared all this universal mag
n~iiicence, this brilliant aggregation of
worlds and systems of worlds, with one
poor. groveling worm of the dust, only
a little Insignificant atom. only a poor,
weak, erring, worthless. fanible. blind,
cropping railroad conductor, with my
train peacefully sidetracked in the
gathering gloom and patiently waiting
Tor the planet Venus to pass on the
main track, there was something about
the whole somber picture that has over
Swallowed my whole life and made me
unhappy, and wretched, while others
were gay.
"Sometimes Antifat and myself meet
at some liquid restaurant and silently
take something in memory of a great
sorrow, but never msntiOn it. We nev-
er tear open the old ranking wound or
laugh over the night w politely gave
the main track to Venus while we stood
patiently on the siding."-"BM Nye,'
in the Detroit Free Press.
! 4 Jews Hereism.