Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-02-13

zine in his place. Jerusalem said l,
but i hope it won't take till midnight,
1 must be home by that
time, or the new year will be ua-
lucky"
Nonsense said the yard-master;
':=ou stick to it till you get through
and away he went through the snow.
II took it to heart more than it de-
served, but the chill which came over
me when L came out with the engine l
ascribed to the fearful storm that blew
in my face. The whole air was full OF
powdery snow and cold mist, and when
the white gusts drove across the track
l could hardly see the smoke-stack.
"Of the lamp signals you could only
get now and then y glimpse of red,
white or green; and OF the horn and
mouth whistle signals, signals are
sometimes given by blowing horns OF
whistles on German ralroads], what.
with the bowling of the wind among
the cars and the singing of the tele-
graph wires and the rolling of the cars
and the whistling of the engines, you
could hear only just enough to be sure
that you didn't understand them. Of
the Yard-master's calls you could UNI
derstand absolutely nothing except that
he was calling.
''In the midst of this some two hun
dred cars were being pushed in every
direction at the same time by three diff
ferent engines; everywhere they
emerged like great shadows from banks
of mist and snow, and thendisappeared
again, and the deep snow deadcned it
all; you could not hear them pass o
come nor go. The poor switch,nen and
yardmen sprung back and forth be-
tween the moving cars, wet to the skin,
knee-deep in the snow. You know
pretty well how a drilling yard looks
in a winter night! 1t is q special Prov
idence that men are not all crushed to
atoms, and all my life l have wondered
that | have not heard every other morn
ing of some ones being killed. And
when anything happens, high and
mighty gentlemen get around a green
table in a warm room, and take the
Book of Rules out of their pockets!
Well, so it goes, and it will; but if they
would just once in their lives go outside
and look on, they might learn some
thing.
$50 it was a bad night then, and
perhaps some Of the boys were anxious
to get to their New Years punch, for
the drilling was done IN a terrible hur-
ry. The cars fairly few back and forth,
and the lights passed by like lightning,
and everywhere wa the creaking and
rafting of the buffers as they came to-
gether, and the men crept under and
between the cars as if the wheels were
ginger cakes and the buffers feather
pillows. Prominent among them was
a little, ugly Drill-master's helper-I
never could bear the fellow, for he once
cut me out when l was courting-but l
had to wonder at his activity when [
saw his signal lanterns everywhere,
swinging round, across, up, down, for
ward and back, and heard his sharp
voice calling through the storm.
81 had Just called to this man when
I saw him dodge between two cars
again. 1 told him he ought not to be
so outrageously reckless in such wealth.
cr, when he could hear nothing and see
nothing, and moreover might Slip down
any time. But he laughed in my face
and shouted back: You mind your own
business, Zimmerman, and not me. We
must get through before midnight-go
ahead and away he went. eco to the
devil I shouted after him, and these
words l shall not forget as long as I
live, and shall repent them on my dying
bed" 9
Here the old engineer paused, wiped
his forehead, took a draught from his
punch glass, and then continued:
81 heard him again call out Ease
ahead to my comrade, heard the safety
chains rafting, and then a sound-like
what? Did. you eve hear a butcher
cut through a big bone with an axe?
Then | heard a stifled scream, and then
again the clatter and rattle of the
buffers coming together. A cold chill
ran through my bones. Then I got the
signal to FUN forward, and there was
no delay. I was soon far from that
place at the other end of the yard,
where no one could know what had
happened.
dreaming, andwhen, half an hour later,
we were through, and [ ran back into
the engine-house, the foreman said to
''DO you know, Zimmerman,
that the drillmaster's helper Porges
has been killed-crushed between the
buffers?' 1 did not ask many ques-
tions-1ny heart sunk in me, and how I
took are of the engine and got started
for home l don't know. AS 1 passed
the station platform [ saw a crowd
standing with lanterns and something
lying on the snowoovered with a cloak.
l had no questions to ask about it; 1
trembled like a leaf, and 1 can tell you,
boys, [ don't know what I would not
have given if [ had not called to him
half an hour before to go to the devil.
1t vas a hard task to drive that out of
my head, though it was not SO i'll
meant-a way OF talking that we rough
fellows got into the habit of.
with you young fellows it is still
worse, and it would cure you if ycu had
felt the remorse that l felt then. Well,
finally l succeeded in getting my mind
on the bright, wafm room at home,
with the felt slippers and Louise and
the baby and the cat and the tea-kettlc
singing on the stove, and the bottle Of
arrack and the sugar bowl and the
lemons on the table, and gradually I
could see it all plainly.
'You may imagine that I did notpay
mnch ATTENTION to wind ~. ,,yoothor ar