The Penn's Grove record., 1886-08-14
STORY OF AN ENGINEER.

'sThis is about it." said John Scott,
the engineer, as the train slowly crested
a long gradual grade. YOU'RE atop
of the Rocky Mountains, ma'am."
Emily Vaughn looked to left and to
right, and was conscious of a feeling OF
disappointment. She had pictured lh4
top of the Rocky Mountains as some
thing quite different from this. Here
were no frowning heights or sudden
CULTS, only a wide rolling plateau, some
distant peaks which did not look very
high, and far ahead a glimpse of lower
levels running down INTO plains. 1t
seemed hardly worth while to have
come so far for so little.
"Reallyln she said. but where are
the mountains2 They don't look nearly
so high as they did yesterday"
NATURALLY, ma'am," responded the
engineer, ''things don't appear so high
when you're as high as they are. We're
atop you know"
'sBut there's no look-off, no wonder
full distance, as from the top of Mt,
Washington. l confess l am disap-
pointed"
Its kind of queer" said John Scott,
with a dry chuckle, show folks from
the East keep abiding to that 'ere little
hill as il it were the standard of meas
urement. We don't think so much of
it this way. Why, ma'am, you're
about 1000 feet higher this minute
than If you was at the top of that little
shuck Of a Mt. Washington that they
all think so much cf,n
Miss Vaughn smiled, but she expert
enced a shock nevertheless. The New
England mind does not easily accustom
| itself to hearing Its sacred mountain
thus lightly spoken against. Have
you ever seen Mt. Washington" she
asked.
"Oh, bless you, yes" replied John
Scott, cheerfully. II was raised over
to F~ryeburg, and grew up alongside of
it. 1 thought it was a pretty big con-
cern when 1 was a boy, but now" He
closed the sentence with a short, ex-
pressive laugh.
Miss Vaughn changed the subject.
| She was not offended. She had grown
to like this rough, good-natured engI-
neer in the course of the three days
journey, during which, favored as IA
| relative of one OF the directors of the
road, she haddseveral times been privi-
legged to ride, as now, in the engineers
cab for a better view of the country.
"Have you been long on this roadS''
she asked.
pretty near ever since it opened. |
run the third through train that came
out from Chicago, and l haven't been
off the line since, winter or summer,
except for three months when l was
laid up with a broken leg"
"This must look very different in
winter, " said Miss Waugh, noticing the
treeless distances, and the SHOWS CLINT
ing on the higher peaks to the left.
"You may well believe it does! The
first year, when the snow-shed wasn't
built, it was terrible. 1 was running
that train that was stuck in the snow
seven days-perhaps you'll remember
about it, it was IN all the papers; |
shan't never forget that, not if l live to
be as old as my grandfather, and he
didn't die till he was 80 odd"
"Tell me about it," said Miss
Vaughn, persuavely, seating herself on
the high bench Of the cab, with that air
of attention which is SC enticing to the
story.teller; amusements are few and
far between in the long monotony of
the overland journey to California; be-
sides which, Miss. Vaughn dearly loved
a story.
"There amt much to tell, " said John
Scott, with something of the feeling
which prompts the young vocalist to
complain of hoarseness. ~ amt any
hand at telling things, either" Then
won by Miss Vaughn's appealing eyes,
he continued:
"We ran all fair and on time till we
was about 2U0 miles beyond Omaha.
Then the snow began. 1t didn't seem
much at first. The women-folk in the
train rather liked 1t. Theyall crowded
to the windows to see, and the children
hurrahed. Anything seemed a pleas
ant change after the sage.brush, l sup.
pose. But as 1T went on coming, and
the snow drifts grew deep, and the cars
had to run slow, the older ones began
to look serious, and l can tell you that
we who had charge of the train felt SO.
"We was Just between two of the
feeding stations, and W. put on all the
steam We could, hoping to push through
to where provisions could be got at IN
case we had to stop. But it wasn't no
use. The now kept coming. l never
seen it come so. The fakes looked as
big as saucers, and the drifts piled so
quick that, when we finally stuck, in
about ten minutes no one could see out
of the windows. The train would have
been clear buried over if the brakemen
and the porters hadn't gone the entire
length over the roofs every half-hour,
and swept it off with brooms and
shovels. We had a lot of shovels
aboard, by good luck, or else nothing
could have saved us from being banked
up outright. But it was terrible hard
work, l can tell you. There wasn't
no more laughing among the passengers
by the time it come to that, and the
children stopped hurrahlng."
''Oh, the poor little thIngsl What
did they dor Were there many on
boardY Was there plenty for them to
eat?"
"That was the worst Of it. There
wasn't plenty for any one to eat. We
had stuck just midway Of the feeding
stations, and there wasn't a great deal
of anything ON board besides what the
passengers had in their lunch baskets.
One lady she had a tin OF condensed
milk, and they mixed that for the
babies there was 10 of , em-apd 80
they got on pretty well. But there was
about five other children, not babies,