Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1888-05-11
THE WomAN IN WHITE.
How an Engine Was Stopped at the Mouth
Of Buck Hiu Tunnel


per Ward was unhappy. Jasper was a
locomotive engineer on the Burlington
road, and had trod the footboard of an
engine as fireman and driver since the
first appearance of his mustache
His career had been one of such
evenness and calm, so much quiet life
within himself, such absence Of Incl
dent or accident, that his steady temper
had been rarely stirred by Joy or sor-
row. His first grief had come to him
ten years or more before, when his wife
died suddenly while he was away on
again nor seemed to care much for so
eiety or company, or anybody, or any
thing, saving only his son Jack, and of
course his engine, for which he had
half dozen pet names. Jack wanted to
be a locomotive engineer, like his
father, and often coaxed to be taken
out to learn to fire; but Jasper would
not listen to this. $50 to school,
boy" he said, "and learn to be some
thing in the world. An engineer isn't
much" Yet if anybody else had said
this, which nobody would in Jasper
Wards presence-at least nobody who
knew him-Jasper would have been
very much grieved. He was proud Of
his calling-proud of his record on the
footboard. Thirty years had he stood
there, and in all that time not one ac-
cident more serious than fractured
connecting rod or piston bar had Oc-
Cured to him. Not one life entrusted
to his care had been lost, nor even
jeopardized For twenty years Jasper
had run the same train, an accommo-
dation, and all the people up and down
that division of the line knew Jasper
Ward and his locomotive as well as
they did their own dooryards. His
face at the engine window was so IA
miliar that to miss it for day or two
was to take something out of the daily
life Of the people who dwelt near the
tracks.
But now Jasper was unhappy when
he should have been most content, for
he had finally relented and taken Jack
with him on the locomotive. His old
fireman had been promoted to an
engine, and Jack had thereupon begged
so hard that his father finally applied
to the master mechanic for permission
to take the boy on and make an en-
gineer of him. 1t was a happy day for
Jack when the master mechanics re-
Y ply was received; but not so with old
Jasper, for the message contained these
words: ''Iu give you a new engine,
too. Take out No. 451 tomorrow
With your own boy on and a shining
new engine" the official could not
resist the temptation of adding, un-
businesslike though it was-he
wouldn't have added an unneces sary
word to anybody except old Jasper
you viii be quite gay again, and viii
have all the young men envying you. .
The master mechanic meant well, but
it was a sad blow to Jasper. GA new
engine" he exclaimed, somewhat
bitterly, ''what have L done that
should have my old pet taken away
from me? Well, if the old engine
isn't good enough to run along yet
awhile, why, L suppose the old engin-
eer Will have to go, too, pretty soon.
This is the beginning of the end, sure
They'll lay the old man off before the
year is out. D"
His sorrow was greatly increased
when he boarded the new engine and
found that she was equipped with one
of the new electric headlights with
which the company was then expert
menting. Nor was that the worst of it.
The whistle of the new machine was
harsh, coarse whistle, as unlike the
sweet tones of the old whistle as any
thing could be- The first sound of il
nearly drove Jasper wild. They'll
get me off the road now, he exclaimed
II can't run an engine with q headlight
like that on it, and such a whistle
They'll lay the old man off, but they
can't say he hasn't made time. They
can't say that. Making time is a sOr
of hobby with all good locomotive en-
gineers. With Jasper it was mania
An engineer isn't worth a cent unles
he can get in on schedule nineteel
times out of twenty" he used to say
and man can always make time If Ia
has the nerve. Let a man get tn
least bit timid, so that he pulls up 70
everything that he doesn't like tn
looks of, for every speek on the track
or for every down grade, and hel
never make time. Let her go, let he
go, he advised Jack; don't be afrai
of anything. When you start out on
run make up your mind that you ar
going to make time or die trying. Don
be afraid of the ditch. If it is YOU
fate to be ditched and stop there, 20
can't get away from it by shutting OF
steam every time she begins to jun
8 little or you imagine you see some