Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1882-11-09
setisttllaueuns &eadina,
A HEADLIGHT IN VIEW.

~
eyes," said the conductor, biting off the
tip of cigar and slowly scratching match on
his leg; ''I've seen good deal of railroad life
that's interesting and exciting in the twenty
years I've been twisting brakes and slammng
doors for a living.
GIVE seen all kinds of sorrow and all kinds
of joy-seen the happy bridal couple starting
out on their wedding tour with the bright and
hopeful future before them, and the black
robed mOurner on her way to Il newmade
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 mingling with the despairing
sigh of the aged. The great antipodes Of life
are familiar to the conductor, for every day
the extremes of the world are meeting beneath
his eye.
1--WE mutilated the ticket of many black
leg and handled the passes of all our most emil
nent dead-heads. don't know what walk in
life is more crowded with thrilling incidents
than mine.''
''Ever have any smash-upS -
''SmaSh-ups? Oh, yes, several. None,
however, that might not have been worse.
''There is one incident Of my railroad life, y
continued the conductor, running his tongue
very carefully over broken place III the wrap
per of his cigar, "that never spoke of before
to any one. 1t has caused me more misery
and wretchedness than any one thing that ev-
er happened to me in my official career.
sSOmctimes 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 ter
rible surroundings, as plain as on the memor-
able night it occurred.
II .%r, an f1,n If,,in
for conductor who was an old friend OF mine,
and who had gone South Oh vacation fou4 his
health.
"At about 7.30. as near as | can remember,
we were sailing along all comfortable one even
ing with straight stretch Of track ahead for
ten or fifteen miles, running on time, and eV-
erybody feeling tip-top, as overland travellers
do who are acquainted with each other and
feel cOngenial. All at once the train sudden
ly slowed down, ran in an old siding and stop
ped.
''Of course got out and ran ahead of the
engine to see what the matter was. Old An
tifat, the engineer, had gone down and was on
the main track looking ahead to where, twink
ling 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 miraculous
ly saved from frightful wreck by the engin-
eer's watchfulness, and everybody went for
ward and shook old Antifat by the hand and
cried and thanked him till it was the most af-
fecting scene for awhile that ever witnessed.
1t was as though we had stopped at the very
verge of a bottOmleSS chasm, and everybody
was crying at once, till it was kind of a cross
between revival and picnic.
after we had waited about half an hour,
1 should say, for the blasted train to come up
pass us, and, apparently, she was no nearer,
cold, clammy suspicion began to bore itself
into the adamantine shell of my intellect.
The more thought of it, the more unhappy
l felt. / almost wished that l was dead.
Cold streaks ran up my back, followed by hot
ones. wanted to 90 home. I wanted to be
where. the hungry, pryng eyes of the great
throbbing work-day world could not see me.
''I called Antifat to one side and said some
thing to him. lie swore softly to himself and
kicked the ground, and looked at tie head
light 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, except 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. was too much engrOssed
with my Surging thoughts.
II never felt my own inferiOrity so much as
I did that night. l 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, be.
yond and stretching on and on forever, count
less suns are placed as centres, around which
solar systems are revolving in their regular
orbits, each little world peoplet, perhaps, with
its teeming millions of struggling humanity,
and then otherand mightier systems of worlds
revolving about these systems till the mind is
dazed and giddy with the mighty thought ;
and then when compared all this universal
magnifcence, this brilliant aggregation of
worlds and systems of worlds, with one poor.
groveling worm of the dust, only Il little inSig-
nificant atom only a poor, weak, erring,
worthless, fallible, blind, cropping railroad con-
ductor, with my train peacefully e-tracEe ed
in the gathering gloom and patiently waiting
for the planet Venus to pass on the main track,
there was something about the whole sombre
picture that has overshadowed 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 some
thing 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 over the main track to Venus
while we stood patiently Oh the Siding''-
From "forty Liars," by Bill Ny.
YOUR CoMPANIoNs.--"By what rule do you
choose your associates 7" said a merchant to
hn
hesitated. Finally he said 81 don't know
that choose my companions by rule; it is just
as it happens. am thrown in with certain
people at my boarding house or in the store :;
l like some young men the moment see them;
others repel me. A man has to do the best he
can.' eff you wish to succeed, you will take
pains to have for friends only the honorable,
the intelligent, and the straightforward. 1t
is a mistake not to have standard Of judg-
ment." Young people do not understand,
when they set gaily forth on the journey Of
life, that they will be made or marred by the
company they keep. Far more than We imag-
inc, we are all modified by our companions.
HOURS FOR SLEEP.--There is not one man
in ten thousand that can preserve his health
with less than seven or eight hours sleep. All
that has been written about great men who
slept only three or four hours at night is apoc-
ryphal. They have been put upon such small
allowance occasionally and prospered but no
man ever kept healthy in body and mind for
number of years with less than seven hours
sleep. If you can get to bed early, then rise
early. If you cannot 60 to bed until late,
then rise late. 1t may be as proper for one
man to rise at eight as it is for another to
rise at five. Let the rising bell be rung
at least thirty minutes before the public ap-
pearance. Physicians say that a sudden jump
out of bed gives irregular motion to the pulse.