Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-01-20


The two dl'unkards ought to have been sent
to state prison, but for fear of the story
getting into the papers they were allowed
to skip.
SIT was with this same night freight had
a startling adventure the next summer. /
had gone to bed and to sleep before it came
in. 1t was exactly 11:50, as shown by the
clock, when got call ON the instrument,
and as l sprang out of bed heard the opera
tor at K, a station eighteen miles below
me, clicking off, For Gods sake stop and
side track No. 81 There's runaway engine
coming up the liner got this by ear, you
understand, and I gave him an %. K as
soon as he was done. In three minutes was
out of doors and had my 'Danger-Stopn
signal set for the first time in months, and as
l started down the track with my lantern
could hear the rumble of No. as she crossed
the bridge three miles above. She was on
time and booming right along, but it was
clear and the red light would stop her.
81 should have told you that there were
two tracts in front of the station. One was
the main track, of course, and the other a
long siding, with a switch at either end. No.
9 had the right of way at night, and, instead
of side-tracking her, proposed to switch off
hard as l could run, and just as reached the
switch 1 heard No. 8 blow for my station.
While / was unlocking the switch the engi-
neer called for brakes, and then I knew he
had seen the light and would stop. I pulled
the bar over, and then picked up my lantern
and ran back, reaching the station just as the
heavy freight was coming to standstiu.
My purpose was to run down and open the
la+
on the main track again, to run until her
steam went down, but had scarcely moved
a hundred feet when heard her coming. It
was then too late, and l stood on the plat
form to see her go past. She was truly
runaway. She had broken away from the
accommodation train. which came no further
up than G., and was coming up with a
full head of steam and everything roaring.
There was gross carelessness in bringing
about this accident, but it was covered up
and kept out of print. We could hear the
runaway mile off, and we could locate her
as she came through the woods by the shower
of sparks flying from her smokestack., On
she came, and as she struck the switch it
seemed as if she must go over There was a
clickerty-clash and a bang, and she righted
and whizzed past us like fiery arrow.
"We knew what would happen at the other
end of the siding. There was field beyond,
and when the runaway left the rails she tore
up 100 feet of track, made splinters of score
of ties, and plowed her way into the field for
a quarter of a mile and blew up Had she
encountered No. 8 on the main track there
must have been q terrible smash up. At the
speed she was going the runaway would have
climbed right on top of the train. After tho
ll-rl
k to give him the news, but he could not
be raised. Icould not get him until the usual
hour next morning, and then learned some
thing which made my hair stand on end. He
had not heard q word OF the matter! He was
not in his office when the accommodation
passed, and he had heard nothing from c.,
the station above where the engine broke
away. l then called for the agent at c.,
and it turned out that at 5 o'clock on the
afternoon previous he had met with an acct
dent by which he had been made delirious all
night. When they went for him to telegraph
about the engine he was in bed, and being
held there by nurses, and they did not even
try to make him understand what had hap
pened. AS matter of fact and record, no
living hand clicked that message to me-
Every man on the line was examined, but oil
denied it / heard it, and understood it, and
acted upon it, and it came from k. How
do I explain ita / never could I have had
people tell me that it was mind telegraphing
to mind, but you can take any theory you
wish. I was called for in the usual way, TN
derstood fully what was being said, and hul-
ried out to do what I have described. The
matter has been puzzle and a mystery for
years, and l have no hopes of solution.
elbow did 1 lose my leg? Well there was
mystery about that. We had changed our
time, and passenger train passed my sta
tion at 2 a. m I awoke one night at l
o'clock feeling that the upper switch
had been left open by the freight train.
lighted my lantern and ran up there, and
sure enough it stood wide open, and a death
trap had been set for the express. l closed
it and was on my way back, when three cars,
which had broken away from the freight,
several miles away, at the top of the grade,
came whooping down, and in trying to
get out of the way / made stumble and got
my leg under the wheels. dragged myself
into the station and tried to call up the offices
above me, but could raise no one. The cars
were missed, and hunted for from one end Of
the line to the other, and, strangely enough,
they could not be found. 1t was an odd
thing to lose cars in that fashion, and before
they got through searching, men walked
over every foot Of the line. 1t was six weeks
before they were found. They had left the
rails at curve near steep bank, and had
gone over the rocks into a deep river without
leaving trace. 1t was as if they had been
picked up and flung over by human hands.
Being loaded with hardware they had gone
to the bottom, but the current had rolled
them along until they had finally showed
above the surface in a bend. When hauled
out none of the three were damaged cent;
worth, but it was a deal of trouble to gel
them back to the rails again."-New York
Sun.