The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1886-03-19
JOE slEe.
WISCONSIN


Who are the heroes we hail to-day.
And circle their brows with wreaths OF bayS
is 1t the warrior back again,
To be girt by throngs of his fellow-menY
The statesman fighting in keen debate
For the laws that will make his country groati
Or the poet whose spirit in his song
Withers like fire the front of wrong?
Yes, these are heroes on whom we may. call,
But a greater still is behind them all.
Who? And we shout with q ringing cheer;
" Joe Sieg the railway engineer
Who did his duty and never thought
He did any more than driver ought"
Look at Sieg, Isay, as he stands
With the lever clutch'd in his oily hands,
And hearing naught but the grind of the wheel
On She cankifg rail underneath his heel
Or, Lighting his pipe for Whit or two,
Yet looking ahead as drivers do.
Now any one seeing him thus would have said,
With very doubtful shake of his head:
Poor stuff after all out of which to plan
Your hero when action calls for the man."
So you would think but listen and hear
The story of Sieg, the engineer:
Down the Pennsylvania line,
in the light of an afternoons sunshine,
Came Sleg with train of cars behind,
And hundreds of lives that were his to mind.
Little thought he of danger near
AS he watched for signals set at clear.
If he thought at all, and that thought could be
said,
As he stood on the foot.plate looking ahead,
Run sharp to his time, nor be overdue.
So along the metals in smoke and glare
With Sieg at his post by the levers there,
Engine and cars like a whirlwind tore
Till, just as the stoker threw open the door
OF the furnace, at once through each black
hue came
The quick back-draught, bringing with it the
flame
That scorching with lightning fingers of pain,
Drove Sieg and his stoker back in the train.
Bacl, they went, bearing all the brunt
OF the fiery tongues that were Kissing in front.
They caught ut the cars in their wild desire,
That In less than moment were mutfied in
fire.
The engine, like some wild steed that is free,
shot ahead with shrek of defiant glee.
Behind we're hundreds of lives in tomb
That was hot with the breath Of their awful
doom.
To leap from the train would be certain death,
TO stay would be food for the flames wild
breath.
Now was the time for your hero to plan;
The hour had come, and Sieg was the man.
Not a moment he stood, for at once he saw
H. duty before him, and that was law.
Not single thought of himself came near
To shake his grand. brave spirit with fear,
Only there rose, like Il flash, in his eye,
AS in those when the last stern moment is
nigh,
A look that would do all that duty could
claim,
And with one wild rush Sieg was into the
flame.
The red tongues qulverd and clutch'd at him;
They tore the flesh from his arm and limbs
They wOve, like scarlet demons, between
The engine and him fiery screen.
But he fought his way to his terrible fate
Till he felt his feet touch the tender plate.
Then, blind with the flame and its scOrching
breath,
And weak from his terrible struggle with
death,
He CROPPED for the levers, clutch them at
length
And, with one wild effort of failing strength,
~ ID the Kissing of fire and the engines roar,
Threw Off tho steam, and could do no more.
When the, engine at last was brought to a
stand,
Not life was lost out of all that band.
No life, did say2 Alas there was one,
But not till his duty was nobly done.
For, back in the tender, silent and grim,
Backened and scalded in body and limb,
Lay Steg, who had without aid, and alone,
Saved hundreds Of lives and lost his own.
That is the story, plain and clear,
Ot Sieg, the railway engineer.
Honor to him, and no stint of praise
From the best of hearts in these modern days.
Honor to Sieg! 1 say, and hail
Ihis last Jim Bludso of the rail-
Who did his duty and never thought
lie did any more than q driver ought
--1teG0IdeF anderson, in Good Words.