The Arizona sentinel., 1886-09-04
ON A LOCOMOTIVE.
Thrilling Experience of Travelling Ma
 While Riding With the Engineer.

Thrilling Experience of Travelling Ma While Riding With the Engineer.
 ''I suppose" said reporter to Chambers street hardware salesman,
 modest man of about thirty-eight sum
 mers, ''that in the course of your caree
 as a travelling man you have narrowl,
 escaped instant death several hundred
 times.
 ''No, sir" he continued, emphatic
 ally, although I have been twent,
 years on the road, of serious accident
 have known very few. I had onC
 rather thrilling experience coming ou
 of Chicago once in long train of four
 teen cars filled with sufferers after the
 second fire. We were sweeping acros;
 the prairie at the rate of thirty-five
 miles an hour, when coupling broke
 between the second baggage car and
 the smoker. The engineer felt the
 shock, and looking back, saw the
 trouble. He gave wilk shriek 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 Tn his head, and, dropping his
 lighted lantern Git was at mighty, stood up in the aisle, brac-
 ing himself between two op-
 posite seats. tell you the chalky white
 ness of his face was reflected in every
 countenance in the car. There was no
 outcry, but everybody clutched some
 thing and waited for the shock. It never came. We ran along for two or three minutes, which seemed intermina- ble, and then the train began to answer the steady pull on the brakes and finally came to halt. Every man was out of the car while the wheels were still spinning at lively gait. It was bright moonlight, and we could see the track stretching ahead in straight line for long distance, but of the engine and forward cars there was not trace They were miles ahead, and the englneer was in no hurry to slacken speed. You see, it was down grade. and you can't blame a man for wanting to keep well out of the way of dozen loaded cars laundering after him. We had time to see about all there was of that particular moon-lit prairie landscape before our engine took us in tow again. but no- body complained, you can guess. That engineers 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. I had menaged to get on the engine as novel experience. I first discovered that the mot on was really appalling. The en- zine 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, wh oh was not often, and simply could not gather my voice in sufficient vol ume to overcome that pandemonium of sound.
 ''It was dark, about six o'clock of a late November evening. We were the mountain, and the grade | was heavy and the curves many As | we thundered 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. It wasn't and the outlook forward wasn't much better. The first time I my eyes ahead drew back I, c,r6d al, La1 Al l window frame with both hands. expect ing my hour had come. To my unini- tiated eyes there lay apparently between he rails huge powder of whitish rock against which we must instantly rash, but we didn't, and after waiting to discover that we were only thrashing around in the lsual way took courage to look again. The fireman was stolidly feeding the nsatiate furnace with tons of coal! I ooked at the engineer; he was out on he englne with his oil-can stepping long as composedly and easily as if he we're walking country turnpike; then
 looked ahead. We had just rounded urve, and at the end of the>stretch of rack before us 1 saw a lot of lights, one OH the IrdCk anu some moving longside. The sight startled me, and touched the fireman, pointing through he window. He looked quickly, then eized the rope, and blew a short, sharp last on the whistle. The engineer card, glanced down the track. then prang inside to the lever, which he eversed with all his mi ght. f Meantime the fireman on one side nd on the other were on the lower , tep ready to swing off at the last mo- ,, lent. The engineer seized my shoulder nd tried to pull me back, but jumped I lst as the engine crushed into the !, aboose of freight train, which, too ,ng for the siding, had tailed over on le man track. My extra second or 7 vo of warning had been of immense alue; our tram had slowed up enough o make the shock slight one The 2 assengers got nothing more than a ' pod shaking up, and only the caboose . as smashed on the freight train. "-M 2 Tunes.