St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-08-28
THE MULE-SHOE CURVE
why Certain Precious Lives Were
Not Lost There.

Az long as the railroad, for over one
hundred miles of its course, meekly
ftraversed the valleys at the foot of the
range, the great mountains, seemingly
secure in their height and majesty, re.
:garded it with serene indifference. This
changed to contempt when, at certain
point, it turned and faced them; to alarm
them it began to climb their side, and
to a certain humiliation when it sue
cessfully surmounted them and gayly
danced off to the westward. The Amer
lean railroad engineer, however, has no
respect for mountain ranges. His mot
to, like Sir Philip Sidney's, is: 81 will
find way or make one" Of course,
twas not an easy task to carry the rails
over the Sierra, but the president of the
road said they must go; the general
manager said so, too, and the treasurer
had the money in the bank; so the chief
engineer reconnoitered the spot, and
then he and his assistants put ON their
working suits of tough yellow overall
stuff and began operations. They
worked slowly bus surely. The grade
rose gradually from the point of turning
on the plain, through the mazes of the
foothills, and then entered the mouth
of canyon. On one side of
this canyon they cut shelf to hold the
rails, and this shelf, slcping upward at
as steep an angle as it would be posi-
BILE for the engine to surmount, was
carried along the same side, round the
curving end, back to the mouth of the
canyon opposite the point where it had
entered, and again round the hill which
bounded the gulch on the south. Then
came its last climb up the southern side
of the hill, and then the level summit
and the descent of the other slope. Of
course, this mode of engineering is not
new. 1t may be seen in decorous East
ern form where the Pennsylvania road
crosses the Alleghenies, and there it is
Familiarity known as the Horseshoe
Curve
The seat. however, of which mention
has just been made, was rougher and
holder, as BELTS engineering in the wild
West, and. as the gorge was much mar
rover than its Eastern predecessor, and
the turns consequently sharper, the
curve was named for the footgear, not
of the horse, but of the refractory and
much-abused and useful mule.
Just where the line enters the foot
hills stands "new town. at some dis
lance from the old Mexican settlement
structures in the former, aside from the
somewhat barbaric railroad buildings -
station, freight-shed and engine-house-
seem at first sight to be mostly saloons
Of distressingly ugly style of archi-
lecture. The former is composed of |
squalid adobe shanties, with wolf-like
Mexican dogs proving about them.
Just before the daily passenger train
b due from the North there issues from
the engine-house just mentioned large
and powerful locomotive, expressly de-
signed for the heavy grades ahead. On
O certain beautiful September afternoon,
not long ago. it was in its place, giving
signs of life in the shape of occasional
threads of smoke from the stack and
little puffs of white steam. In anticipa-
ton of the trains arrival the station
platform was occupied by a gradually
lne Oh lule ClbiZtuSi anu, oH
Che bottom of an overturned gravel car,
not far away, were sitting Tom Lewis,
the engineer, who was shortly to go
out, and two of his ''pards Tom
Burke, roadmaster, and Jack Harris,
station agent.
To understand their conversation we
shoald know something about them. Do
you ever realize, gentle reader, as you
Sit magazine or paper in hand, at the
vide window of the drawing-room car
On the fast express, how completely you
are in the hands of some hard-worked,
menP Suppose the grimy
fellow in overal1s, sitting in the cab of
;he great engine with his hand on the
and his eye fixed on the
inc ahead, should relax his vigilance
.or single moment: should even stand
I'D to stretch his cramped limbs. Sup
bose the official who is charged with the
care of the roadway should forget one
title culvert some Saturday night when
lis wife and children are waiting supper
or him. Suppose the tired train-dis-
catcher. his head aching, and his eyes |