Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-07-11
the danger of arrest. After some ten
minutes 1lirlavinp

10 protect the Associated Press engine
and tender from any interference by the
crowd aboard of the coaches provided
that he and his party were to be safely
delivered in Louisiana beyond the fear OF
danger OF arrest. This arrangement was
fully carried out by both parties,
Mitchell going so far as to place at the
service of the Associated Press any num-
Der of lis men necessary TO secure full
fllment of his part of the contract.
The thrilling incidents as just related
were succeeded by others of almost equal
danger Twice before reaching the
Louisiana line the train had to dash
through company of Mississippi
soldiers, who signalled it to stop and
made a determined effort to intiInidate
the engineer into slowing up. The eff
forts OF the troops were disregarded, and
the train dashed on without any dim
mutton of speed Just rs the train was
approaching Nicholson the engineer dis
covered squad of men on the track
with stacked arms, while behind them
were others waving the train to come to
halt. The engineer began to slow up,
and had almost comefo dead stop when
Mr.. Hogan, who was delegated to ride
with the engineer, and whose back was
turned at'the time, looked around and,
realizing the situation, said to the en-
gineer:
''Pull your throttle wide open and let
her go.
The engineer with the courage charao-
teristic of his class, obeyed the order to
the letter and !.
DASHED. DOWN THE ROAD
at the rate of tfirty7five miles an hour.
The Mississippi troops, who By the way,
III
skipped aside off the. track, and as the
train dashed by leveIled their guns as ifin
the act of shooting TO the great terror and
dismay of all on board the engine and
tender, while the officer in command
shook his fist at the engineer. 1t was .
also noticed that the adjutant general,
who occupied a coach on the sidetraek,
busted himself in taking down the num-
Der of the engine. The tram reached
Lake Pontchaatrain without further eff
forts at impeding its progress. At Lake
Pontchartrain there is bridge of trestle
work without side pieces or approaches
or protection of any kind except a good
level track seven miles in length The
speed across this water span was terrific, |
so much so that it seemed to those aboard
that the train would fly the track and its
occupants meet watery grave, but the
engineer received no orders to slacken,
and the Associated Press men in charge
were
WILLING TO RISK THE DANGER
in order to get first to the wires. When
the other side of the lake was reached
the train was within mile or so OF Sill
dell when it was tagged to the sidetrack
six miles from New Orleans to permit the
passage of the Cincinnati express coming
from an opposite direction.
This was the point selected to un couple |
the tender and rush to New Orleans
with the Associated Press staff |
No sooner had the Cincinnati |
express passed and cleared the switch |
than at a preconcerted signal one of the |
Associated Press staff pulled the coupling |
pin, and the order was given to the en-
gineer to rush on without losing any time |
in disconnecting the air brakes This |
was executed without a |
hitch, and the manager of the Associated |
Press men, who renamed behind on the |
train, seeing the rapidly receding tender |
with his staff aboard recedIng in the dis
lance, then realized that the day
had been won. He had instructed /
the engineer to return for the
coaches which had been left, and as an
evidence of good faith remained there
himself to show the Mitchell party and
their defeated and badly injured princi-
pal, Kilrain, that he could be true to his
In connection with this
order was another one in which the As
ISOLATED Press staff was instructed by
their principal to protect their rights land
they were shown a pile of coupling pins
and links and instructed to protect
themselves if it came to the worst
when the time came for cutting off the
Half an hour afterward the engine
and carried Kilrain and all his
party to New Orleans, arriving thirty
i've minutes after the locomotive which
carried the Associated Press men. This
s a true version of the desperate strug-
gle made by this newspaper fraternity to
rive the world the first news of the fight,
md accurately portrays by what tremen-
lous risk the Associated Press was
bile to score a victory. The
tory of how the news was
arried by the reporter from the depot to
he Associated Press leased wires and
dashed to the four corners of the earth
las already been told. There was no
ime taken for repose or refreshments.
NE men tagged out by twenty four hours
# exposure, fatigue and starvation be-
an without a moments intermissiop to
end the news out over the wires and'di
lot desist until the last word was written.
he magnitude of the work may be
auged by the fact that the Associated
'ress account published in full in the
Iemphis Appeal occupied ten columns of
pace.