The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1889-10-30

night.
The next day was beautiful one.
When Will entered the trainmaster's
Office at the depot at o'clock a. m,
and relieved the man who had been on
since midnight, he looked badly, and
! the other dispatchers noticed that he
was nervous and unsteady. He sat
down at his table, took the key in n
mechanical way, and commenced work.
He was handling the north end of the
line between St. Louis and D,
forty-two miles of road.
1t was busy day Besides the two
or three freight trains each way, Will
had TO handle one north-bound accom-
mediation, the south-bound through
express, and the branch mail line, and
added TO this; two work-trains were
put out between st. Louis and point
twenty-five miles south, and short
suburban accommodation train was or
dered on for the summer months, and
! In half an hour he had the road clear
for the passenger trains, and brought
the new suburban out TO K, the end
of its run, where it was to lie until its
return at noon.
At this juncture the Division Super
intendent was notified that the Gen
eral Superintendent was coming out
over the road in his special car, ac-
companied by two New York railway
kings, one of whom had his son along.
| The Superintendent said he would be
ready to leave St. Louis at o'clock,
and wanted to run regardless of all
other trains. The Division Superin-
tendent turned to VIII, saying:
byron, the Superintendent, wants
to leave St. Louis at . o'clock on his
! special. He wants to reach here by ii
o'clock, and will have the right of way,
and You hardly have time to make
schedule, so you can run him down
this far by wire. Give him a good
run.
1t was no little work to rearrange
the time of all trains between the two
points, but viii soon had everything
open so that he could come right
through.
The arrangement was no sooner
made than the Superintendent sent
second dispatch to the effect that he
would not leave until 10 o'clock. This
upset all previous arrangements, and
new time must be made, and new or
| ders given TO every train. 1t required
! careful, level-headed work, and it was
! done.
At 10 o'clock the Superintendent
again changed his leaving time to II
o'clock, and the exasperating work had
to be again gone over.
The crowding of so much work into
such a short space of time resulted in
another delay. and the special did not
leave St. Louis until several minutes
after II o'clock The Superintendent
private car carried the two millionaires
and that official, While the son of one
of the rich men rode on the engine.
The first twenty-five miles of their
course lay along the river bank. The
! special would reach K, where the
suburban accommodation, north bound,
was due to leave at noon, at just about
the same hour-possibly few minutes
after II o'clock. Following the SER
pentiue cures of the track along the
river bank, the special bounded on its
way.
Two miles north of K was the
| M River, which was bridged by the
railway. 1t was a small stream, only
about two hundred feet wide On the
south bank, nearest to X, was q switch
and n small station, at which au oper-
ator was not regularly stationed. The
| little station was known as W. The
| bridge was put at the confluence of the
small stream with the mighty Missis-
sipri. Coming on to the bridge from
the north the tracks rounded precipi-
toys bluff with a sharp curve so that to
q south-bound train the bridge was out
of sight until the locomotive was al
most upon it.
With the intention of making W
a meeting point for the north-bound
suburban and southbound special, bv
| giving the suburban the siding, VIII
called up K, and gave the en-
| gineer of the suburban orders TO leave
on time. On that fatal day there was
no operator at W. OF course the
suburban would stop at W, but it
should have had orders to take the sid
ing and wait there for the special.
Now it was bound TO meet the special
before another stop was made, for the
latter had orders TO run regardless. F"
The suburban. had hardly more than
started until Will called up W to
! give it orders to take the siding for the
special. He had not known that there
was no operator at W that day.
He received no answer to his call
Time was precious. He called again,
and received no answer.
What's the matter with w." he
asked. Il can't raise him, and if he
don't come to his key before the sub
urban reaches him, there will be col
lision with the superintendent spe-
cial
There is no operator at W to-
day" answered the trainmaster, who
had just entered the room.
MY God! then they will meet on
the bridge, and nothing can prevent
it,
A ghastly pallor came over Wills
face. and he sank back in his chair in
dead faint The trainmaster took
the key, and Will was carried into the
next room and revived with cold water.
They kept him close in the Superin-
tendent's room. and would tell him
nothing save that the wreck was not