The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1883-06-22

ot II the 7foadas 81 III fis6 sx
good deal more uncomfo rtable. The
machine ayiyers and bounces mn and
down, but holds the track. When the
rails are steel and the grades not too
heavy you can pail the throttle wide
open, and people on the train riding
won't guess how quickly they are rush-,
ing through space. There is good deal
of fast running on all the roads around
Chicago. Even the suburbans are swift.
On the Illinois Central the evening sub
urbans make q thirty miles an hour rate
between stations. In fact, every train
is fast. "A schedule time Of forty miles
an hour is, Of course, exceptional, but
every engine IN service does that and
more in places" 4l.
"But fast or slow, 1t is a business Of
chances, this railroading," he went on.
mo engine however we'll built, nor
engineer, but some day comes to grief.
I never heard of one who had escaped
disaster in some FORM"
thereporter, ofthese very practical men
charms to guard against accident.
"When I first began to run a passenger
it was on branch of road in Pennsyl-
vania. For Eve years was the only
engineer out of twenty-five who never
met with a mishap. They called me the
lucky man, and attributed my good for
tune to q certain anchor locket that L
wore. was so confident in my luck
that I boosted I would never have a
smash-up. But my time Games One
night, on rounding curve that was al
ways very cautious in doing, it was so
sharp, saw two men hurrying away in
to the bushes, and felt nv hair stand up
as beheld their work-an obstruction
piled on the track. 1t was too late to
stop. whistled down brakes and
jumped. The engine and tender were
ditched, and was laid up with brok-
en- leg and fractured rits for three
months. 1t was my first accident and
the only attempt at the Missouri bust
ness that had ever been made in that
part of the country. Since then I have
met with every kind ofsmashes. l have
run down and misplaced switches,
through an open draw. collided with an
oil train, been ditched by spreading rails
and landslides. I am made to see by
my experience every time that I pull
ont that no matter how perfect the
mechanical and human machinery of a
road may be in theory, in practice faults
OCCuI "ucT0 lSdSL 0AU6CG6O, anu men
sleep or are unfaithful."
!, IF people knew half or quarter of
the dangers they encounter in railrord
travel more would walk than ride on
the cars. There is never train but
grazes destruction in some form. Only
the man in the cab knows what it really
means to dash ahead into the darkness,
and only he realizes that he is playing
on chances when he pulls open the lever.
Not one fraction of the accidents and
escapes are ever printed or known. For
on road leading into Chicago. Eigh-
teen miles out, the road is crossed by
another, which is yelled by thick woods.
On this occasion the crossing-tender was
asleep. but his signal to come ahead was
swinging where he had left it, and
moved along. AS my wheels touched
the cross-tracks, saw an engine coming
down on me at full speed. I turned
cold and was knocked in heap; but I
managed to pull the lever wide open,
and the fractional minutes it took to get
my train over the crossing seemed an
hour. Old No. 4S was good for it, and
the engine that might have cut us in
two and killed hundred people brushed
the platform of my rear car as it dashed
by. Very few knew of that close CALL"
ITO handle an engine" he said, turn
ing to rejoin his companions, sis to take
a hand against death by fire, by water,
on earth and in the air, with the odds
ever up. It is wearing and hard life,
but a fascinating one. You grow to be
fond of the dangers, and the excitement
and exultation you feel in controlling
the smallest movement of your machine
never grows stale, nor less necessary to
you."-Chicago Herald.