Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-05-22
Bugs and Mosquitoes
They Make Life Miserable on
a Maine Railroad.
CATERPILLARs STALL a TRAIN.

While Mosquitoes, Hungry for Red Blood,
Banquet on the Laborers-The Railway
Hands Cuss in Five Languages, But 1t
the Diniculty-Eleven Miles of Gray
and Greasy Wrigglers.
NEW YORK, May ga dispatch to The
World from Lewiston, Me-, says: The rail-
road men who went out with the pioneer train
on new line through the Maine wilderness
Monday had an experience which left them
blistered, weary and disguised The train
was brought to a dead stop in the woods by
millions of caterpillers, which took fancy
to crawling on the rails, and defied every de-
vice essayed.for removing them until another
locomotive was sent to the rescue. More
over, droves of hungry mosquitoes swooped
down on the trainmen and drank their
blood
Small aud Gray, but Greasy.
The advance guard was seen by railroad
tmekeeper as he rode over the line on his
velocipede the night before. He encountered
lot of small, gray caterpillars, which had
spread themselves over the track so thickly
that he had to push his machine along by
hand for half a mile. A big engine and
eleven fiat cars, loaded with 800 ship knees,
the Canadian Pacific's first train for bust
ness, started from Sebois from Brownville
Monday morning 1t had gone but few
miles when it ran into sticky, squirming
mass, which the locomotives ground 10 a
greasy pull that clogged the driving wheels
and prevented them from getting any grip
on the track. 1t was as If wheels and rails
had been thoroughly 1arded.
'Pooh!" Said the Engineer.
The train came to a standstill, and the con-
ductor and engineer made an investigation.
"Poohl" said the engineer. "Bugsl"
"Ha, ha," laughed the conductor deris-
lively.
They jumped aboard after little scraping
and triel to start again, but it was no use
The "bugs' were too much for them. As far
as the eye could reach the little caterpillers
were in complete possession of the track.
The Canadian Pacific was turned into two
lines of gray wriggle The train was in the
midst of the woods.
An Extra Locomotive Starts 1t.
"Cut bushes and try to sweep them off, :"
said the conductor to the trainmen All
hands tried it, but the bushes crushed the
pulpy mass, and only smeared the track
worse than ever. Sand was then sprinkled
on the rails. This enabled the engine to
start, but the caterpillers soon creased the
ties again, and the train halted A mes
senger was dispatched to the Sebois station
and the situation was telegraphed to the
manager of the road. He sent an extra
locomotive and a crew of helpers to the as
sistance of the beleaguered train With a
force of men scraping and sanding, with an
engine to pull and another to push, the train
crept through the woods at snairs pace
Blood-Thirsty Mosquitoes.
A vast horde of large and ferocious mos
quitoes came out of the depth of the forest
and assailed the motley crew of railroad men,
showing no national predictions, but draw
ing blood from Poles, Frenchmen, Russians
and Irishmen alike. Even bishop would
have smiled to see the crowd fighting mosaui-
toes with one hand and caterpillars with the
other, all the time swearing in at least five
different languages. Superintendent Van
lille issued the orders, and charge after charge
was made at the steep grades fabricated with
squeezed caterpillars. All day long, and
after the sun had gone down, the locomotives
and men toiled to drag that train from Sc
bois to Brownville.
Eleven Miles of Bugs"
The myriads of caterpillers covered the
rails for eleven miles. When the train
reached its destination at last it bore the
most exhausted and Disguised crew ever seen
outside of blizzard The railroad officials
are mystified and worried. They have some
fears of the reserve force of this army and
its next attack, and are consulting the "bug-
ologists" about it. Superintendent Van Zile
talks now of digging bitches and flooding the
road with running water.