Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1885-05-09
THE ENGINEER'S STORY.

aNo, children; my trips are over;
The engineer needs rest:
NV hand is shaky; Pm feeling
A Juggling pain at the breast.
But here, as the twilight gathers,
I'll tell you tale of the road
ThatIl ring in my head forever,
IT'LL it rests beneath the sod.
we were numbering along in the twilight;
The night was dropping its shade,
And the ..Gladiator' labored
While climbing the steepish grade.
The train was heavily ladened
So 1 let my engine rest f3k 81
Climbing the grading slowly
,'Tin We reached the upland crest.
held my watch TO the guage-lamp;
Ten minutes behind the time,
Lost in the Stacked motion =
Ofthe up-grades heavy climb;
But knew the miles of the prairie
That stretched level track,
So touched the guage of thesboiler
And pulled the lever back. NJ
Over the rails cleaning,
Thirty an hour. or so,
The engine leaped like ademon
Breathing fiery glow; asa "a
But to me, ahold of the lever,
1t seemed child at play,
Trusting and always ready
My slightest will to obey.
Twas proud, you know, of my engine.
Holding her steady that night,
With my eye on the track beforeus E
AblaZe with the Drummond light,
We neared wellknown cabin
Where child of three or four, ~
AS the sup train passed, oft called me,
A playing around the door. fff ~
Nv hand was firm on the throttle
Aswe swept around the curve,
When something altar in the shadow
Sent fire through every nerve!
/ sounded the brakes! and crashed
The reverse lever down in dismay!
Grooming to Heaven-eighty PAGES
Ahead was the child at its play!
One instant, one awful and onlyt
The world few round IN my brain,
And smote my hand hard on my forehead
To keep back the terrible paint
The train i thought flying forever
With mad, irresistible roll,
While the cries of the dying the night wind
Swept into my shuddering soul!
Then stood on the front of the engine;
How got there l never could tell;
With my feet planted down on the cross
Where the tcow-catcher' slopes to the rail,
One hand firmly locked on the coupler,
And one held out in the night, &4 .
While my eye gagged the distance and
measured
The speed of slackening flight.
My mind, thank the Lord, it was steady; \
i saw the curls Of her hair,
And the face that, turning in wonder, "a :.
Was lit by the deadly glare! eC BN
know little more, but l heard it,
The groan Of the anguished wheels,
And remember thinking the engine
In agony trembles and reels!
One rod! To the day of my dying
/ shall think the old engine reared back,
And, as it recoiled with shudder is
swept my hand over the track!
Then darkness came over my eyelids,
But ! heard tho surge of the train
And the poor old engine creaking,
As if racked by deadly pain.
They found us, they said, on the gravel,
My fingers enmeshed in her hair,
And she on my bosom climbing,
To nestle securely there.
We are not much given to crying,
We men that run on the road,
But that night, they said there were faces
With tears on them lifted to God
For years, in the night and the morning,
AS i neared the cabin again,
My hand on the lever pressed downward
And slackened the speed of the train.
When my engine had blown her greeting
She always would come to the door,
And her face with the fullness Of Heaven
Blesses me evermoreW