Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1883-08-30
RUNNING A TRAIN BY NIGHT.

ooh! yes, engineers do lose their nerve,"
said Old Throttle, "especially one who has
a night run all the time. You see in the
night time an engineers eyes, thoughts and
all are confined to very small space; it's
nearly or quite dark inside the cab, and If
the engine is working all right, carryin' her
water, good lots of steam, and the fireman
wide awake and lively, that engineer don't
have much do with his eyes, only to look
out ahead over the little space made bright
by the headlight, and his thoughts are natu-
rally confined to what his eyes take in. In
the daytime it's different, he can look
around and see lots that is goin' on. He
notices that this field of 'taters looks good
and wonders if his little patch at home will
turn out as we'll he sees feller fishin' and
remembers the last mess of trout he caught
in the Shohola; he sees a woman and baby
in the little white house near the big curve,
and his thoughts fly back to his home and
his children and he wonders what they are
doin' just now. All this he can take in, and
be tendin' to business strictly but in the
night time all is changed, and his visions
and thoughts, as l said, are confined to the
small SPOT made visible and distinct by the
headlight, and his ideas naturally follow the
rails. He remembers that the culvert just
ahead is the very spot that was washed out
last Spring and nothing left under the ties
and rails for ten or fifteen feet; true, his
engine jumped the chaSm and only five cars
loaded with express matter and baggage
went down and were smashed and piled on
top of each other, but it might have been
the ten cars of emigrants that were coupled
in the rear, and it isn't pleasant to think of
what might have been. Just around the
curve is the place where his engine struck a
draw head some careless brakeman had left
I L. n,,lx f,1r,, n
over on her side, and fortunately the air
brakes had so stopped the train that no fur
ther damage was done, but he shudders as
he recalls the sensations he experienced
while the engine was turning over and
crushing its mad way through the ties, and
| 'tisn't pleasant to think of. He flies over a
huge embankment at a pace of forty miles
an hour and thinks of the feelings that were
his on certain trip last Winter when side
rod came crashing through the side of the
cab while passing over this same embank-
ment In the cut just ahead is where, on
| the last trip, a Watchman, intent on watch
ing Il train on the opposite track, had forgot
ten that the express was due, and the hor-
ror and agony depicted on his face as
the pilot threw him high in the air, will
never be forgotten, neither will the emangled
and stained body picked up and cared for as
soon as the train could be stopped. And SC
on over nearly every mile of the road some.
thing of this kind is brought to mind, as his
thoughts follow the circle Of light ahead
which flashes and changes constantly, now
shining on bridge, now showing an en-
bankment, flashing its rays now on a house
and now through trees and foliage, and il
the man is easily worried or bothered he
gets very nervous, indeed, and wishes he
was at the end of his trip-anyWhere off the
rail. Why I've known men to give up the
best trains on the road and big pay because
they had to run in the night time, and take
trains that were much harder to run and
poorer pay simply because the latter run III
daylight. Yes engineers do sometimes gel
frightened and lose nerve, and it is not to be
wondered at when we think of his standing
one hand on the throttle and the other or
the reverse lever, with his thoughts going
back to incidentand accident, ofhis busy anC
hazardous life on each curve and straight
line of the road, as revealed by the head
light of his eng ."-POf JurriS Gazette
WE REAP AS WE SoW.-If you should see
a man digging in snOwdrift with the eN
pectation of finding valuable ore, or planting
seeds upon rolling billows, you would say a
once that he was beside himself. But il
what respect does this man differ from you
while YOU SOW the seeds of idleness and dis
sipation in your youth, and deXpect the fruit:
of age will be good constitution, elevated
affections and holy principles? Ifyou desire
a virtuous and happy life, youth you mus