Sharp County record., 1888-02-16


she was late or on time. Twenty
eight minutes after her time 4 pas
senger train On the other road
made the crossing This crossing
was eighty rods above the station,
and. while I had nothing to do with
the trains on the other road, natural
" kept track Of them, and knew
whether they were late or on
time. On this particular night l
went to bed at 1915, and was
asleep before eleven o clock. A. 1920
l suddenly awoke. The night freight
had not come in. had been sound
asleep but knew she had not She
was fifteen minutes overdue, and yet
my call had not been sounded. This
to me meant some sort Of accident be-
tween me and the next station north,
which was eleven miles away | at
once called for the station. but the
operator had gone. Iran to the door
and looked out. There was a fine rain
and a dense fog.
Freight trains are seldom on
schedule time, and l had known those
on our line to be m hour late without
worrying over the fact. However on
this night l was all worry The rain
and the fog, the crossing, the fact OF
my waking up as had, the failure to
raise the agent at the station above,
these things made me terribly uneasy,
and at 1925 I lighted my lantern, put
on my rubber-coat, and started up the
line on run. | had not gone forty
rods when | heard Kissing of steam.
and two or three minutes later | could
see the glare Of headlight through
the fog In couple ofminutes more l
found our midnight freight-twenty-
two loaded cars and big locomotive
aud she was standing dire city on the
crossing of the roads. | began to
shout as soon rs | had made out the
| locomotive, but no one answered me.
| pushed along to the cab, climbed up,
and found the engineer and fireman
on the floor of the tender, arms
around each Other and fast asleep or
dead. At that same moment the pas
senger train on the other road
whistled for the crossing
Il am telling you, sir, that | lived
a year for every minute in the next
five or six. l knew very little about
an engine, though l had seen how
they were reversed and how the thrOt-
tie was worked If any thing was
done l must do it, and do it quickly.
Why l did not pull ahead l do not
know 1t struck me that must back
up. and l flung over the bar, gave
her steam, and she began to move.
The steam had run down, and we
moved at 4 snairs pace, and even
when l pulled her wide open the en-
gine scarcely had power to back the
heavy train. We did move, however.
although it was foot by foot l could
hear the roar of the passenger train,
and l knew that every second was
fastening terrible calamity,
but | did not leave the engine. Back!
back! back! we crawLed, and Of q
sudden q great light flashed in my
ewes, there was crash, and | saw
cars moving in front of me and dis
appearing into the darkness. What
had happened' Well. l had backed
the freight until the locomotive Of the
passenger train only carried away the
pilot as it crossed our line. That was
all the damage done. and no passen-
ger had suspicion of his narrow es-
cape from an awful smash-up.
When the train had disappeared
and could realize the situation, l be.
gan to investigate. l ran back to the
bOose, but no one was to be found.
| shouted and screamed, but soon
found that | was all alone. Then,
climbing back into the cab, l sought
to arouse the engineer and his fire.
man. Dead? No. Drunk as two
lords! Yes, sir. They were drinking
men, though the company did not
know it They had been taken off
another run two weeks before, and
coming down the line on this trip had
brought a bottle with them. At the
station above they had reached
the limit. and in their drunken
deviltry had suddenly pulled out and
left all the train crew behind. The
conductor could not readily find the
station agent, and when he did rout
him out and get him to the office l
was out of mine, and did not answer
his call. The two men had let the
steam 90 down, and the train had
crawled down to the crossing and
stopped where found II. The men
were by that time too drunk to stand
up. aud had grabbed each other and
rolled on the floor to sleep | was
vet in the cab trying to kick some
sense into them. when the Conductor
and his two brakemen arrived on a
hand-car, a It after getting up steam
we got the train over the crossing to