The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1885-08-29
THE HAUNTED ENGINE.
An Engineers Terrible Revenge
Upon a False Friend.

By such parties as were in the habit of
frequenting the Transverse & Devious
Railway Company's offices, Julius Wright
must be well remembered. This obserya-
ton is supposed to apply more particularly
to the toilers and delivers, who were not
likely to meet the man under other condi-
tions. Socially considered he was very
much more of a swell than apperred at all
justifiable by his position or his personal
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES excepting that in
definable, mysterious quality known as
"magnetism," which is, as novelists and
telepathists inform us, quite Independent
of either beauty or merit He was an
insignificant little fellow, not over five feet
four in his biggest-feeling moments. His
face was alert and keen, but, to my eye,
always fraught with the peculiar express
sion of a man liable at some time to 90
wrong. One does not follow any business
for the years that | have done without
learning to recognize the signs of potential
gullt-that is to say, in faces of the active
type. lnever try to analyZe pretty face; ;
l can not do it. | think no man living can.
Wright was man Of accomplishments.
He could dance and sing, ana play prettily
upon several instruments, and turn Off neat
little verses-ccrS de SDcietc-isn't that the
term? And he was manly little chap;
could swim and shoot, ride, drive spar and
run with the best. SO, as men liked him
for his good fellowship, and women for
his love making and Iiberality, Wright was
popular man.
But | knew thing or two about him. 1
was not surprised-nOt muCh-when a ftel.
few days of uncertainty and suppressed
rumOrs, it came out that Julius WRIGHT
H., al. 4 l.
cOmpany's funds reaching well up toward
the hundreds Of thousands-more than it
appeared should have been accessible to
him. The general inference and the nat
ural, was that he had betaken himself out
OF the country to the refuge of a govern
ment not ON terms Of eXtraditiOn with the
United States Great, then, was the as
tOnishment of the community when it
transpired later that the escaped defaulter
had been living for many weeks in easy
reach of his purSuers, and actually in the
employ of the company he had robbed. 1t
was no wonder, said his late companions,
with retroactive admiration, somewhat
misplaced, that the officers of the law had
failed to find, in the stoker of a freight
train over the southwestern division, the
spruce and fastidious individual who had
been almost "A social autOcrat in the head
quarters city of his company.
The newspapers got the story, of course,
and gave it the usual send-oif, with extra
heavy headlines, and all the ALTERATION
the dictionary would supply. | remember
one of their phrases about Engine No. %
pulling into Waling with importance in
every Clank Of the metal" and "the pluck
and power displayed by the engineer, who
had to report "A notable occurrence on his
run" Briefly stated, it appeared that No.
% had come into Walling minus her fire.
man. The engineers story was that some
twenty miles back, as they crawled up Il
hard grade, the fireman had jumped from
the train, discovering his identity to the
engineer, together with satirical message
TO the directors of the road.
"'Tcll 'em,' says he to me-'frOm julius
Wright-that's me-their Office was better
than a school of polytechnics. Say, Stacy,
can't | fire" And with that he iumpef,
Just as we started TO run down the grade.
librought her in alone. | knew | could do
it, and we was too short Of hands TO call
one of the boy from the twsts-the brakes !;
so Just come on and fired for myself
Tired? | should smile! and 50 shally and
Starry couldn't slecp-couldn't even set
down and eat. You bet. The boysll tell
how ali broke up l was. But / daresn't
stop short Off. No, sir! | Just rustled
round and cleaned the engine, and put her
TO bed myself. Well, Ive heard men say
they could run an engine Sirty mile and fire
for themselves, but Pm blamed if | could I!
Twenty's enough for me-" he said, with
what struck me as rather defiant emphasis
and a keen, underbrowed lOok-for | got
the story from his own lips, when | was
sent out TO Walling to work on the case.
/ am not, as Il rule, an imaginative man.
"a patient, persistent plodder"-that is the
characterization | once heard as made of