Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1886-05-13

1
In q Locomotive Cab with a Mad
ssngineer-A struggle 10 the Death.
New YORK Sun.
! was In the second year Of my appren-
.iceship as fireman on No. 63 Of the Gin
,innah, Hamilton Il Dayton road, when
got such setback one night oh few fire.
men ever lived through. The incident
happened about Is years ago, but every
feature Of il comes TO my mind as clear as
il the affair occurred last night. My
engineer was named Bob Ripley. He was
n jovial, whole souled fellow, never going
behind glass of beer, and was known all
along the line as sober and trusty man.
Well, all of a sudden, bad luck struck
him. He had little home, which was
taken away by land shark. He left Gin
cinnati one night for Toledo on his usual
run, and returned to find his wife dead. |
She had some heart trouble, and died |
without moments warning. Within q
fortnight his boy baby sickened and died,
aud that left Bob without home or family. |
l tell you IL made an awful change in |
him. He was on for two or three weeks,
and when he came back to the cab
could scarcely recognize him. He had
wild, queer look to his eyes, strange
sound 10 his voice. aud he was 80 sullen
and morose that almost feared to speak
20 him on matters of business. made
two OF three trips with him, and but for
the fear of hurting his feelings l should
have made application to be changed.
II was the third or fourth trip after he
returned to the road when we left Cincin-
matt one November night for the north.
1t was wild, stormy night, and rs we
got out into the country caught Bob
smiling and chuckling. The wildness of
the night seemed TO strike responsive
chord in his soul. Old '63 seemed to be
in uncommon spirits, too, for she was
sliding right along with a heavy train,
and making no fuss over ii. / made
some remarks about it, but Bob had no
reply. Indeed, he acted as if he was
alone in the cab. / didn't like the stu
alton q bit, for l had suspicion that he
wasn't quite right in his head, and he
was also squirting her beyond schedule
time. We were to pass o side-tracked
accommodation about thirty miles out of
Cincinnati. She ought TO be in eight
minutes ahead of our time, but So was
oyerreaching schedule time so fast that 1
feared a collision. The conductor had
his eyes open, however, and at o stop
about twenty miles out he came forward
and cautioned Bob TO slow her down.
We had everreached five minutes in that
short run. Bob answered surly enough,
but as we pulled out again he obeyed
orders and checked her down to lose the
extra minutes gained.
We had passed the siding all right when
noticed that his nervousness increased.
He would whistle for crossings where
none existed, and he would toot suppose
tious cattle off the track. Once, seeming
to ignore my presence altogether, he
opened the furnace door and piled in the
fuel, although we were carrying more
steam than had ever seen on.
At Hamilton / was fully resolved to
speak to the conductor if he came forward
and gave me opportunity, but he did not.
It was when l returned to the cab after
oiling up that Bob looked up at me with
start, as if surprised to see me, and
said
''Jim, I'm thinking of them"
"Yes, Bob, but they are better of, ="
soothingly said. 'You must bear up
like man. It's sad enough, God knows,
but you must meet it bravely."
"Did you see --?n
"What2 ?" / asked us he suddenly
checked himself.
He did not answer. He looked at his
watch, signaled me to ring the bell, and
in moment more we were off. The
night was growing wilder, and we were
not ten minutes out of Hamilton when
made up my mind that there was trouble
close at hand. Bob turned to look at me
and then in way to prove that he medi.
tated evil, and from the way he kept the
whistle going the passengers behind must
have supposed the track to be swarminl
with living distractions. We were about
half way to Dayton, and had Just re-
plenished the fire, when Bob suddenly
gave her all steam. II seemed to me OF
if old 60 took a clean jump of 10 feet a,
she felt the extra steam, and l shouted
my alarm. The words were hardl,
uttered before he was upon me.
you've got to die with mel" he
screamed as he clutched my arms, ant
I'm not exaggerating bit when / tel
you that his eyes looked like GOALS o
fire.
I was by far the stronger man of tn
two, but in his first rush he dashed m
about in dreadful way, and had almos
pulled me to the steps before called u
my muscle. Then 1 did my best to say
him. He was bound to go off, and wa
bound to prevent, and, as we pulled an
tugged at each other, the train was rur
ming so close to mile minute that non
of the passengers cared to reduce the frat
ton. 1 think our struggle lasted abou
five minutes. l was gradually DRAWN
him back into the tender, and was wol
dering how could secure him, when b
suddenly shut his teeth on my right wri
and bit and tore like dog. had to |,
go my clutch and as did so he turne
and leaped off, uttering a cry which ran
in my ears for weeks after.
II was high time the steam was shut Of
As / afterward learned, every passeng
was hanging on and praying to heavel
for the dullest IF them knew that som
thing had happened on the locomotiv
brought her to stand-still as soon
possible, and when the conductor reacht
the cab we backed up to look for 20
Bob's body. We found it about ty
miles back, and it was a shocking sigl
He had struck stump head first al
head and face were simply bloody ma
of flesh.
1 ran the train into Dayton, and we hi
scarcely come to standstill before "
seized with chill, and had to be help
to the hotel. / was Just clean brok
down under the mental strain, and it "
plump six weeks before crept out
my bed. 1 was determined never to st
foot on an engine, but when health Cal
back got my nerve again, and the res
was that 1 finished my apprenticesh
and took the other side of the cab.