San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1882-10-26
THE RIGHT OF WAY.

a match on his leg; We seen good
soal Of railroad life that's interesting
u uod exciting in the twenty years that
a Tre been twisting brakes and slam
',,;no the doors for living.
i ave seen all kinds of sorrow and all
kinds of joy seen the happy bridal
s0unle starting out on their wedding
s tomr with the bright and hopeful flu
,uro before them, and the black robed
'mourner ON her way to new-made
arave wherein she must bury the idol
IF her lonely old heart.
aWealth 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
h the conductor, for every day the
eytremes of the world are meeting be-
meath his eye.
"Tve mutilated the ticket of many
backlog, and handled the passes of
all our most eminent dead-heads. 1
don't know what walk in life is more
crowded with thrilling incidents than
mine"
"Ever have any smash-ups?" Nv
"Smash-ups? Oh, yes, several.
None, however, that might not have
been 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 I never 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. 4.
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 it's terrible
surroundings, as plain as OH the memo
rible night it occurred.
81 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.
about 7:3O, as near as l can re-
member, we were sailing along all
comfortably one evening with
straight stretch of track ahead for ten
OF fifteen miles running on time and
everybody feeling tip-top, as overland
travellers do who are acquainted with
each other and feel congenial. ALI at
once the train suddenly slowed down,
ran in an old siding and stopped.
"Of course [ got out and ran ahead
of the engine to see what the matter
was. Old Antifat, the engineer, had
gone down and was on the main track
looking ahead to where, twinkling
along about six or seven miles down
the road, apparently, was the head
light of an approaching train. 1t was
evidently wild for nothing was due
that we knew of at that hour.
However, we had been almost mirac-
ulously saved from frightful wreck
by the engineers watchfulness, and
everybody went forward and shook old
Antifat by the hand and cried and
thanked him until it was the most af
fecting scene for a while that ever
Witnessed. 1t was as though we had
stopped at the very verge of a bottom
less chasm, and everybody was crying
at once, till it was kind of a cross
between a revival and picnic.
After we had waited about half an
hour, l should say, for the blasted
train to come up and pass us, and, APP
parenuy, she was no nearer, cold,
clammy suspicion began to bore itself
into the admantine shell of my intel
lect. The more 1 thought of it, the
more unhappy [ felt. Ialmost wished
that I was dead. Cold streaks ran up
my back, followed by hot ones. L
wanted to go home. l wanted to be
where the hungry, prying eyes of the
great, throbbing work-day world could
not see me.
Il called Antifat to one side and
SAID something to him. He swore
softly to himself and kicked the ground,
and looked at the headlight still glim-
me1ing in the distance. Then he got
on hisengine and yelled All aboard!
In 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.
1t was never exactly clear to the
passengers where we passed that Wild
traln, but L didn't explain it to them.