The Delaware ledger. (Newark, Del.) 1879-19??, 1886-07-31
Riding on a Locomotive.


was really appalling. The engine
throbbed and trembled as it ran rock
ing 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, which was not often, and /
simply could not gather my voice in.
sufficient volume to overcome that
pandemonium of sound. For l was
pretty nervous, and was thinking
that after all parlor car travelling was
good enough.
at was dark, about six O'Clock of
late November evening. We were
climbing the mountains, and the
grade was heavy and the curves
many. As we thundered along com
paratively slow l 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. 1t wasn't cheerful,
and the outlook forward wasn't much
better. The first time / strained my
eyes ahead / drew back with a sud
den start and clutched the window
frame with both hands, expecting
my hour had come. To my uninit-
lated eyes there lay between the rails
huge boulder of whitish rock
against which we must instantly
crash, but we didn't, and after wait
ing to discover that we were only
thrashing around the usual way /
took courage to look again.
"Good gracious there was another
boulder-but we glided on unharm-
ed, and then l saw that what l mis-
took for rocks were patches of white
ballast on the track, newly placed
In the glare of the heavy shadows of
the surrounding darkness these
harmless surfaces had taken exager-
ated height and thickness.
"Well, the blood was beginning to
course semi-naturally through my
much shaken body, and l was be-
coming sufficiently used to my ex-
perience to decide that / might in
time breathe without gasping when
we passed over the spurof themoun-
tain and began the downward run
into Middletown.
"Jehosaphat I didn't want any
more of It'll We slipped along
through the darkness at the rate, /
estimated, of three miles to the min
ute, keeping up at the same time a
pounding and swaying and jumping
and jerking and pitching that might
befall a man in basket tied to the
tail of dozen elephants all gallop-
ing together down Himalaya
Mountain, slope. looked at my
companions. The fireman was stol-
idly feeding the insatiate furnace
with tons of coal l looked at the
engineer, he was out on the engine
with his oil can, stepping along as
composedly and easily as if he were
walking country turnpike then l
looked ahead. We had just round
ed curve, and at the end of the
stretch of track before us saw a lot
of lights, some moving alongside.
The sight startled me, and l touched
the fireman, pointing through the
window. He looked quickly, then
seized the rope, and blew a short
sharp blast on the whistle. The en-
gineer heard, glanced down the track
then sprang inside to the lever,
which he reversed with all his
might.
Meantime the fireman on one
side and l on the other were on the
lowest step ready to swing off at the
last moment. The engineer seized
my shoulder and tried to pull me
back, but jumped just as the en-
gine crashed into the caboose of
freight train, which, too long for the
siding, had tailed over on the main
track. My extra second or two of
warning had been of immense value;
our train had slowed up enough to
make the shock slight one. The
passengers got nothing more than
good shaking up, and only the ca
boose was smashed on the freight
train.
'Some of the tallest swearing |
ever listened to was INDUCED in then
and there by our engineer and fire
man and the freight crew. sort of
safety valve after the fright, | sup
pose. Then the freight pulled out
of our way. The track was quickly
cleared, and we started up again.
Before we did so the engineer hailed
me.
81 say, young fellow he said,
that was a good lookout you kept,
but you don't want to talk too much
about it,