Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-08-19
ON A LOCOMOTIVE.
thrilling Experience of a Travelling Man
While Riding With the Engineer.


thrilling Experience of Travelling Man
While Riding With the Engineer.
II suppose said reporter to q
Chambers street hardware salesman, a
modest man of about thirty-eight sum-
mers, ''that in the course of your career
as travelling man you have narrowly
| escaped instant death several hundred
| times"
''No, SIR" he continued, emphatic
ally, although I have been twenty
years on the road, of serious accidents
have known very few. I had one
rather thrilling experience coming out
Of Chicago once in a long train of four
taen cars filled with sufferers after the
second fire. We were sweeping across
the prairie at the rate of thirty-five
miles an hour, when a coupling broke
between the second baggage car and
the smoker. The engineer felt the
shock, and looking back, saw the
trouble. He gave a wilk shrek on his
whistle for down brakes, threw wide
open the throttle, and sped away down
the track as if the furies were after
him. The conductor happened to be
sitting just in front of me at the time.
He opened the window at the locomo-
tive's screech, looked out, but instantly
drew IN his head, and dropping his
lighted lantern Git was at night,
stood up in the aisle brac-
ing himself between two OPP
posite seats. [ tell you the chalky white
ness Of his face was reflected in every
countenance in the car. There was no
cutlery, but everybody clutcned some
thing and waited for the shock It
never came. We ran along for two or
three minutes, which seemed intermina-
bic. and then the train began to
answer the steady pull on the brakes
and finally came to a halt. Every man
was out of the car while the wheels were
still spinning at lively gait 1t was
bright moonlight. and we could see the
track stretching ahead in a straight line
for a long distance, but of the engine
and forward cars there was not trace
They were miles ahead, and the engineer
was in no hurry to slacken speed You
see, it was down grade, and you can't
blame a man for wanting to keep we'll
cut of the way of Il dozen loaded cars
laundering after him. We had time to
see about all there was of that particular
moon-lt prairie landscape before our
engine took US in tow again, but no.
body complained, you can guess That
engineer quick Judgment and prompt
action averted big wreck.
'Another time when my hair refused
to retain its normal position and rose
at right angles with my scalp was an
occurrence on the Erie road. | had
menaged to get on the engine as novel
experience. | first discovered that the
motion was really appalling. The en-
CINE throbbed and trembled as it ran
rocking and plunging on the rails as if
every moment it would leave them.
The din. too, was frightful. The fire
man and engineer yelled at each other
whenever they attempted to speak,
which was not often, andI simply could
not gather nv voice in sufficient vol
ume to overcome that pandemonium of
sound.
1T was dark, about six o'clock of
late November evening. We were
climbing the mountain, and the grade
was heavy and the curves many. AS
we Numbered along comparatively slow
| could see huge rocks towering close
to the track on one side, while from the
other dark chasms, their depths hidden
in gloom, yawned away. 1t wasn't
cheerful, and the outlook forward
wasn't much better. The first time |
strained my eyes ahead l drew back
with sudden start and clutched the |
window frame with both hands, expect |
ing my hour had come. To my unini- |
tiated eyes there lay apparently between |
the rails a huge bowlder of whitish rock |!
against which we must instantly |
crash, but we didn't, and after |
waiting to discover that we
were only thrashing around in the
usual way | took courage to look again. |
The fireman was stolidly feeding the |
insatiate furnace with tons of coal! l |
looked at the engineer; he was out on |
the engine with his oil-can stepping
along as composedly and easily as if he |
were walking a country turnpike; then |
l looked ahead. We had just rounded a |
curve. and at the end of the stretch of |
track before us | saw a lot of lights, /
some on the track and some moving
alongside. The sight startled me, and |
| touched the fireman. pointing through |
the window. He looked quickly, then |
seized the rope and blew short, sharp |
blast on the whistle. The engineer
heard, glanced down the track. then
sprang inside to the lever, which he
reversed with all his might
Meantime the fireman on one side
and | on the other were on the lower
step ready to swing off at the last mo-
ment. The engineer seized my shoulder
and tried to pull me back, but jumped
just as the engine crushed into the
caboose of freight train, which, too
long for the siding. had tailed over on |
the main track. My extra second or
two of warning had been of immense
value; our ira! n had slowed up enough |
to make the shock a slight one. The |
passengers got nothing more than
good shaking up. and only the caboose
was smashed on the freight train. ~.
Y. Times.
KING kALAKAUA.