New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-11-18
THE STORY or 4 SPECTRAL DOG.
HOW WRECK ON THE PENNSYLVANIA ROAD
WAS AvERTED.

HOW WRECK ON THE PENNSYLVANIA ROAD
WAS AvERTED.
Tribune reporter was sitting on ono Of the seatt
on the Battery promenade recently when a well
dressed woman passed leading by strap a snow-whte
sptz dog. A dressed I'm the rough garb of
laborer sat on the seat to the reporter smoking
a short -stemned cob pipe.
Talking about strange things said the laborer
nudgIng the news gatherer. 81 never see white
dog but what IL calls up strange experience had
while firing on the Pennsylvania Railroad ten years
ago 1 was in tho cab with Tommy Burns, one Of
the best engineers in tho companys service, and our
run was between Jersey City and Philadelphia. We
left Jersey City at O'Clock one Saturday evening,
pulling a long train OF passenger coaches and tnree
Pullmans. The cars all full and we had the
right of way, making stops except at Market-st,
Newark and Trenton. We rolled along all right over
the Hackensack meadows and after We left Newark
we struck a sixty-mes hour pace, and watched
the telegraph poles fash by TIL they looked like the
teeih Of fine. tooth comb We had struck the plain
at Princeton Junction when Burns, who was looking
out Of the cab window, says to me
"'Look-a here Jackl There is white dog runnn'
alongside what's been follown' us for five minutes
and blamed II he amt keepln up to the milne Look
at him.
al was shovelling coal in the furnace at the time
and the heat was blistering my eys-balls in their
sockets 1t took me some time after gazing out OF
the window before could make out the dog. FINALLY
[ saw him skimmng along like a swallow Now
I'm the glare from the window he could be plainly
seen then he would get out in the line Of the dark
ness and we would lose sight OF him. But he would
be sure to show up again In few minutes bitches,
cuts and sharp bends, all the same that white
dog stuck beside the cab as steady It's shadow
Burns and couldn't make II out First we thought
our cyesght decelving us, for the awful heat
from the furnace the sharp wind or something else,
or all Of these things put together is terribly trying
on ones eyes who has them In engine cab
The sight gets blurred and cloudy, and sometimes you
see double, and sometimes you don't see half Well.
Burns and thought VI first were fooled by our
eyes and there couldn't be any dog But mile after
mile that white dog alongside.
Jack says Burns all at once, this Is more'D l
kn stand. II eyes amt mussed up there's some
thin wrong somewhere. l am agoin' to stop her ,
:" Sure enough he stopped and We both got OH tho
cab Tho conductor came running up and wanted 10
know what IA the blue blazes the matter. We
told him about the white dog running alongside the
engine and looked about 10 show him the blamed
animal But 10 our surprise there was no dog 10
be seen and hunt high and hunt low could not
find him. Tho conductor laughed at us and Burns
eyes might have fooled us. Burns pulled back tho
throttle and started slowly. There a
curvng cut Just ahead Of us. Fifty yards from IL,
before The wheels had fairly begun to revolve good
us rock that must have weighed two tons our
track We stopped the engine with the cowcatcher
twelve inches from the stone. which loosened by
rains had rolled down from the bank. Had we not
Struck It on full Roadway and you can see what that
would have meant. got shaky soon after that and
res gned and the very mention OF white dog much
less the sight of one brings that strange ride back