The Progress., 1888-09-22
Who Was It That Carried the Red
Light Up the Track2

Who Was It That Carried the Red
Light Up the Track2
One Saturday afternoon my brother
and | drove over to Crossfield Station
to meet our father, but found that there
had been a change Of time on the rail
road, and the train would not arrive for
nearly an hour. After lettering about
for few moments, Harry proposed
, that we walk down the track a bit, to
pass away the time.
We had gone but a short distance,
when we came to a place where the
rails crossed the highway, and there
we saw an old man, evidently cripple,
sitting in a. wheel-chair. He seemed
to have purposely planted himself in,
the middle of the track, and he now
sat unconcernedly reading his newspa-
per, apparently quite unconscious Of
our approach. &5
II declare" exclaimed Harry, eff
that isn't stupid to sit right between
the rails! Suppose the train should
come along?n
Then as we drew still nearer, he ad-
dressed the stranger:
Don't you think, sir, that it is rather
dangerous to sit there on the track in
that way?"
The old man looked up from his
paper, a, little surprised at first, and
then apparently much amused.
s'No, young man. he answered, at
length; II don't think it rather dan
gerous.' I've been a fagman on this
road a great many years, and never
got run over yet
<'Oh!' said Harry, altering his tone
considerably at discoving that the old
man was an employe of the road, and
noticing for the first time that the
stranger had a little red flag rolled up
beside him.
''And besides,' continued the flag
man, ''1ve got into the habit of sitting
here when no train is due. People
feel perfectly safe to drive over the
street when they see me between the
rails
II should think they would" said
Harry. And then, quite willing to
change the subject, he asked if there
was any thing worth seeing farther
down the track.
.,f Yes was the reply. ssThere's a
new bridge a quarter of a mile beyond
that's worth seeing, particularly as it
was there we came near having a
dreadful accident two years ago, when
one of the piers was carried away
We thanked him, and were moving
on, when he added: Perhaps you'd
like to hear the story before you go
down. It won't take long to tell it, and
it's well worth telling, too!'' 8
We were not. so old yet that we were
not always ready for a story, and we
gladly sat down on the grass beside the
track, and listened to the following in
teresting narrative, which I give as
nearly as possible in the fagman's own
words:
If you should go on down the track"
he began, ''you would come to stone
bridge, a new one, because, two years
ago this, April, on a dark, rainy night,
the river rose and carried away the
old one, which was partly wooden.
There is a train-an express
that goes through here every
night in the year, except Sunday
nights, at 9:35. I does not stop
at the station, but comes straight on
down here, and over the bridge, and
away for Boston. Two years ago it
was a part of my business to go up and
down the track every night, to see if
the trackwas in condition for that train
to go through. Ny boy has to do it
for me now.
s'On this particular night I took my
lantern always took a red one, SO as
to have it in case should need to sig
nal the train and, calling my dog,
started off down the track about half
an hour before the train was due. It
%as very dark, but it's about as easy
to walk on the track at one time as an
other, and went on at a pretty rapid
gait. All of a sudden felt the ground
giving way beneath me, and / knew |
was going down. I dropped my Ian
tern, and tried to save myself, but there
was nothing to get hold Of, and in an
instant felt myself going faster and
faster. And then 4 seemed to lose
breath, and strike with great violence
against something solid, after which
must have become insensible.
s.It was hours after that I aWoke Ia
find myself lying in my own bed at
home. IT seems that the first pier oi
the bridge had been carried away, and
had walked off the embankment or
this side. It was BY one of Gods
wonderful raesaies that ia some way