Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1888-12-08
TIE SPECTRAL DOG
STRANGE STORY TOLD ~ AN OLD
RAILROAD FIREMAN.

white Dog Running side by Side With
IN Engine Going SIXTY Miles an Hour.
The Train Saved nom What Might Have
Deen an Awful Wreck.
A Tribune reporter was sitting on
one Of the seats on the Battery prome-
made recently when well dressed
woman passed leading by strap snow
white Spitz dog. A man dressed In tho
rough garb of laborcr sat on the scat
next to the reporter, smoking q short
sttmmed cob pipe.
Talking about strange things" said
the laborcr, nudging the news gatherer,
81 never see white dog but what It calls
up . strange experience had while
firing on the Pennsylvania railroad ten
years ago. was in the cab with Tommy
Burns, ono of tho best engineers in tho
company's service, and our run was be-
tween Jersey City and Philadelphia.
We left Jersey City at Q o'clock one Sat-
urday evening, pulling long train Of
passenger coaches and three Pullmans.
The cars were all full and we had tho
right Of way, making no stops except at
Market street, Newark, and Trenton.
Werolled along all right over the Hacken-
sack meadows and after we left Newark
we struck sixty miles an hour pace, and
watched the telegraph poles flash by till
thy looked like the teeth Of fine tooth
comb.
BURNS SEES THE sroox DOC.
1--WE had struck the plain at Princeton
Junction when Burns, who was looking
out OF the cab window, says to me:
'Look-a-hero Jacki There is white
dog runnin' alongside what's been fol-
lowin' us for five minutes and blamed IL
he amt keepin' up to the injine. Look
at him.
II was shoveling coal in the furnace
at the time and tho heat was blistering
my eye balls In their sockets. It took
me some time after gazing out Of tho
window before could make out tho dog.
Finally saw him skimming along like
q swallow. Now in the glare from tho
window he could besplainly seen, then
he would get out In the line Of the dark
ness and we would losc sight Of him.
But he would be sure to show UP again
In few minutes. bitches, cuts and
sharp bends, 1t was all the same, that
white dog stuck beside the cab as steady
as its shadow. Burns and I couldn't
make 1t out. First we thought our eye
sight was deceiving us, for the awful
heat from tho furnace, tho sharp wind
or something else, or all Of these things
put together, is terribly trying on ones
eyes who has to use them In an engine
cab. Tho sight gets blurred and cloudy,
and sometimes you see double, and
sometimes you don't see half. Well,
Burns and thought Mt first we wero
1aI Axx< 4
any dog. But mile after mile that white
dog was alongside.
"Jack,' says Burns all at once, this
Is more'n kin stand. II our eyes amt
mussed up there's something wrong
somewhere. am agoin' to stop her.
THE HEAVY STONE ON THE TRACK.
"Sure enough he stopped and we both
got of tho cab. Tho conductor camo
running up and wanted to know what
In the blue blazes was tho matter. We
told h. n about tho white dog running
alongside tho engine, and we looked
about to show him tho blamed animal.
But to our surprise there was no dog to
be seen, and hunt high and hunt low wo
could not find him. The conductor
laughed at US, and Burns and I got
aboard again thinking that after oil our
eyes might have fooled us. Burns pulled
back tho throttle and wo started on
slowly. There was curving cut Just
ahead OF us. Fifty yards from il, before
the wheels had fairly begun to revolve
good, the headlight flashing on the track
before us showed us q rock that must
have weighed two tons on our track.
We stopped tho engine with tho cow
catcher not twelve inches from the
stone, which, loosened. by rains, had rolled
down from tho back. Had we not
stopped on account Of that white dog
wo would have struck it on full head
way, and you can see what that ', ould
have meant. ! got shalsy soon after that
and resigned, and the very mention of
white dog, much less the sight of one,
brings that strange ride back to me-
New York Tribune.