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

..N.s iSWei buC i didn't unAcr-
ssano more than half of what tho other
examlners-learned men in high posi-
tlons-asked me. They didn't talk
kallroad language, and what they
wanted TO know | had only learned out
Oh the books the foreman had lent me,
JUST 1or the purpose of passing the ex-
ANIMATION. l never had come across
.he1n IN practice and had never used
anem, and probably never will as long
"And what were they?" a comrade
began to ask, lighting a cigar, when
the door of the room suddenly opened
ana IN poured a cloud of snow, out of
Whlch emerged two new arrivals, the
ENGINEERS OF the belated freight trains.
Just in Time" was the cry; ''now
pass round the punch, and send to the
restaurant for the New Years i've din
ncr."
"Aerc is some game to add to it,"
said one of the newcomers, holding up
a h%alf,roasted rabbit by the hind legs.
the matter of it?"
THE little fellow was going to dish
himself up for the feast, but was in a
little too much of q hurry, and got
roasted with his skin on" said the
owner of the rabbit. s'The red light
on my engine scared him mi of his
hiding-place in the snow, and he began
running a race with the train. For two
or three minutes I saw the little fellow
by the light of my fire flying over the
snow alongside the engine, on the other
track. l gave a short whistle, which
scared him SC that he ran ahead, gave
a leap, got under the red light of the
lamps, which probably blinded him,
and then doubled in front of the engine
as he would in front of a dog, across
the track. 1 looked out to see if he
would come in sight again, but he did
not, and l supposed he had been run
over or passed by, and forgot him. But
when they were cleaning out my CRATE
at Seestadt. the fellow with the poker
called up from the ash-pit: 'Hornig,
Hornig, you have brought a roast with
you" l thought the man must be
crazy. and got down and looked. AS
sure as l am sitting here, there lay my
rabbit of the Biglitz woods in my ash
pan, dead andhalf-cooked. The ash-pan
must have caught him as he was maxi
ing a jump. He must have been in a
hurry to get roasted"
The story of the young engineer was
received with loud laughter.
Laugh away over the poor beast"
growled Zimmerman, filing the
glasses meanwhile. "You don't know
how bad it feels to lie under a fire.
box"
"And do you know how it feels?"
said several voices in tones Indicating
great doubt.
Il know all about it, as you fel lows
very we'll know, and 1 have gone
through all the experience there can be
between the bottom of the rails and the
top of the smokestack," answered
Zimmerman.
"But you never have been in the ash
pan?' said his companions.
"Not quite" answered the old en-
gineer very gravely, ''but mnde7 it, and
part of me pretty nearly in it, too.
But l tell you l have been where a fine
train of handsome cars, full of Jolly
people, i'll a nomenclature you could
put your hand to a whistle or put on q
brake-was turned into a heap of
kindling wood and pieces of bolts,
aNles and wheels, out OF which came
groans and cries for help, and around
which people cried in despair. 1 have
been where locomotives leapt like kit
tens off the rails, down the bank, and
rolled over two or three times, wheels
IN air, smoke-stack under, and every
thing was all steam, ruins, fire, kissing
and screaming. l have been through
all this, but in thirty-five years of rail-
reading my heart never stood quite so
still as it did under the ash-pan."
'Tell us all about it, Father thinner
whose tones showed hat they were ac-
customod to make themselves heard
above the rafting and Gathering of the
engine;
to talk about it," he answered, as he
slowly united his tobacco pouch and
began to fill his short pipe. "Some-
thing thumps hard here under my third
rib whenever Think about it,"
''You zee, boys, the hands that en-
broidered this tobacco pouch came
near becoming a widows hands, and
my Carl and Julie would never have
been born, if you could have called me
Big Frank then as you do now"
''How SO, Father Zimmermann?"
"Just light your stylish cigars-they
suit you fellows in glass cabs, just as
the short pipes used to suit US sturdy
fellows in the open air-and hand back
your glasses. Then hold your tongues
till l get through.
ION New Years Eve in the year
1915, full thirty years ago, it wa ter
rible weather, as it is bodybuilding
snow and driving sleet. 1 was the
junior runner at the main station in
u city, and had only lately been mar
ried. You know the station is a
miserable place for running. Which
ever way the wind blows itcatches you
there. The road enters the city through
a narrow cutting, and one Of the two
tracks always gets blocked before the
snow has been blowing an hour.
Just beyond the cutting, in the third
house on Gardner street, behind the
old oil mill, which we cursed so often
because we had to cut off steam on
passing for fear the sparks might set
the shingle roof on fire. just behind
thic mill T 1ivad with NV Tor1;co onI