The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1885-09-25
TWO CLOSE CALLS.
A Travelling Groceryman's Notes
of Adventures.
AtRunaway Railroad Track and Its Singu-
lar Antics-The Idiosyncrasies Of
Disiocated Fly-Wheel-Six
Minutes of Genuine
Excitement.

"Tve had some narrow escapes dur
ing my twenty years knocking around
the country" said John Gilbert, the
travelling groceryman. ''but 1 think
about the closest cali was the time the
quarter-mile of railroad track ran away
with itself in Oil City. l don't know,
though, after all, whether had nearer
glimpse of the Great Beyond on that
occasion than 1 did the day the Dyer
lap-weld mill and portions of the ma
.chinery distributed themselves about
Pittsburgh in wonderfully promiscu-
Gus fashion. As the two calls were only
two days apart, maybe I can lump 'em
and call 'em one.
Maybe you think it's funny to say
that railroad track ran away with
itself; but if You had been there when the
runaway happened. the funny part of it
wouldn't have been very apparent to
you. Oil City lies between ranges of
lofty hills, and its available building
sites, owing tosthe rapid growth of the
place, became very scarce and costly
lative gentlemen, not satisfied with the
uncertainties of oil, conceived the bril-
liant idea of utilizing the airy SUBMITS
of the high hills On the west side of the
town for building lots, and purchased a
big track of land on top of the range.
There was no way to get to the pros
pective new addition to the city. and SO
they built a railroad from the base of
the hills to the summit, the car to be
run by stationary engines and cables,
after the manner of the gravity roads in
the coal regions. 1t was good scheme.
but it didn't work. Nobody bought the
breezy lots. and the road was aban-
-doned. In the winter of 1880 some coal
operators of Schuylkill County bought
the railroad, and the day l struck Oil
City they were to take up the rails and
remove them to their mines. The road
was q narrow gauge, and had two
tracks. The rails were fastened to-
gether at each end, and formed four
unbrOken lines of track from top to bot
tom of the hill.
81 had friend living in Oil City who
kept a good horse. His barn was about
one hundred yards from the foot of the
railroad, and his house was nearly in a
line with the barn. He asked me to
take sleigh ride with him, and went
/ stood in the stall on one side of the
horse, and my friend was on the other
side in the act of throwing the harness
over the horses back, when we heard q
rumbling noise something like that made
by heavy slide of snow from the roof,
and the next instant their came crash
against the side of the barn, and we
were almost buried in shower of spin.
tiers and broken boards. Following the
crash black streak shot through the
stall behind US and out at the open door
about foot above our heads. Iran on,
of the door and saw that the streak was
string of iron and it kept coming until
1t was at least one thousand feet in
length. 1t sailed across my friend
garden, just grazed the corner of his
house, and made kindling wood of an
clubhouse that stood in its path. The
iron string kept right ON its course
like a streak of lightning. and was
headed straight for the kitchen of the
james House. Whatever made that iy.
ing iron swerve in its course don't
know. hnt it curved around sufficiently
to bring 1t in contact with high stone
fence not four feet from the kitchen
door. When it struck the wall the irOn
string few into half dozen pieces, and
they went flying about in all directions,
some of them shooting on for hundred
feet before they fell to the ground. A
number of girls were at work in the no
stel kitchen. and II the line of iron had