The Arizona sentinel., 1888-09-22
'SIG.'' y
Who Was It That Carried the Red
 Light Up the Track?

Light Up the Track?
 One Saturday afternoon my brother and I drove over to CrOssfeld 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 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.
 s'I declare,' exclaimed Harry, eff that isn't stupid to sit right between the rails! Suppose the train should come along?"
 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, little surprised at first, and then apparently much amused.
 ''No, young man," he answered. at length; 'I don't think it rather dan gerous.' I've been a iagman on this road great many years, and l never got run over yet"
 4'Ohr' 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, ''I've 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. ."
 ''I 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.
 ''Yes," was the reply. "There'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. Itwon't take long to tell it, and it's well worth telling, toor'
 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 a stone bridge, a new one, because, two years ago this April, on 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:S5. It 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 part of my business to go up and down the track every night, to see if the track was in condition for that train to go through. My boy has to do it for me now.
 ''On this particular night l took my lantern-I always took red one, so as to have it in case 1 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 was very dark, but it's about as easy to walk on the track at one time as an- other, and l went on at a pretty rapid gait. All of a sudden felt the ground giving way beneath me, and knew I was going down. I dropped my lan- 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 I seemed to lose breath, and strike with great violence against something solid, after which I must have become insensible.
 Ut was hours after that I awoke to find myself lying in my own bed at home. It seems that the first pier of the bridge had been carried away, and l had walked of the embankment on this side. It was by one of Gods wonderful mercies that in some way had been caught among the fallen timbers below in such way as to save me from drowning, though, as it was, it cost me dear. My spine was so in-