The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1889-11-15
over the road in his span;ol

and wanted to run regardless of al |
other trains. The Division Superin
tendent turned to Will, saying:
Byron, the Superintendent, want.
to leave st. louis at $ o'clock on hi
special. He wants to reach here by L.
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 Will soon had everything
open SO that he could come right
through.
The arrangement was no sooner
made than the Superintendent sent d
second dispatch to the effect that lie
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 q short space of time resulted in
another delay, and the special did not
leave st. Louis until several minutes
afterl1 o'clock. The superintendent
private car carried the two ~millionaires
and that official, while the son of n
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 a few minutes
after - o'clock. Following the SER
pentine curves of the track along the
river bank, the special bounded on its
way.
Two miles north of k was the
NJ River, which was bridged by the
railway. 1t was q small stream, only
about two hundred feet wide. On The
south bank, nearest to k, was a switch
and q small station, at which an 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 a precipi-
tous bluff with a sharp curve, SO that to
a 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 south-bound special, by
giving the suburban the siding. Will
called up k, and gave the ell
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 t. 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"
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. II can't raise him, and if he
don't come to his key before the sub
urban reaches him, there will be Il 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
tho 1tiIr, o,,1 ra4I;,~ ,,,,,-,,4
i'll"
A CHASTITY pallor came over Wills
face, and he sank back in his chair in
q dead faint. The trainmaster took
the key, and Will was carried into tn
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
very bad.
1t cost two lives. The son of the
New York millionaire, who was riding
on the specials engine, was jammed
into the fire-box and literally burned
alive. The fireman Of the special en-
CINE was caught between the engine
and tender and SO badly crushed that
he died in a few hours.
At II o'clock that night I met Will
as he came out on the street from the
superintendent office. 1 hardly knew
him, and as I took his hand he scarcely
spoke to me. He didn't know yet the
result of the accident.
"How did it end-how many were
killed?" he asked me.
well, there are three hurt-one
pretty badly" l answered, not wanting
to tell him the truth.
We were standing heal the depot.
On the platform around the was
a crowd of excited engineers, tiremen,
and brakemen. One of them spoke out
loudly, saying:
well, boys, I am not rich, but I
have thirty-ive cents left to help buy
a lope for that operator"
He did not know that Will was
standing within ten feet of him. Will
heard it. It was like q knife-thrust.
He reeled and fell into M arms. lear
ried him across the street into q saloon
and soon revived him. The strain was
too much for him and he tainted away
twice before I could get him home.
His mind wandered. / finally got him
to bed and gave him q heavy dose of
choral. He gave way for a few min
utes beneath the influence Of the drug,
but he would wake and start from his
bed with a look of terror on his face.
"They can't hang me, can they? It
wasn't my fault. There was no oper-
ator at W. / couldn't help that
He kept on in this way until nearly
morning when he at last sank into a
deep sleep Of exhaustion. He next APP
peared on the street at the end ofthree
weeks. He left town the SAME day.
He was brave, though. To this day he
has never mentioned Maggie's name to
me. Will left D, and ] met him
a year after in an eating-house in a
large city far from D
Il have never attempted train dis,
patching SINCE" he said to me.
Maggie married a few years later
and also left D. She never men,
toned Wills name in my presence after
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