The Indianapolis journal., 1890-08-17

said, and there was nothing to stop the
mad rush of the runaway locomotive until
1t should dash into the station at Calves
ton and plough its way through bricks
in% nna am mortar tar until both the Snld
l had plenty of nerve then, and i
suppose by your laughing you think have
lost none of it. but L am free to confess that
would not now dare to undertake the task
lsuccessfully accomplished that day. Per-
haps it vas the excitement and enthusiasm
of the moment which led me t0volunteer to
Iasso that locomotive. lalways smile when
i recall the look of incredulity that met
my confident assertion that | could catch
and arrest the mad flight of the runaway,
but was SO confident that they gave me n
hearing. and finally secured the services
oil a sturdy Irish lad as fireman. In less
than three minutes after the dispatch had
been received | was on my engine. with
steam slowly coming M. again. and pulling
out as rapidly as possible to meet the on
coming terror. 1t was impossible for the
train-dispatcher TO give me any accurate
idea as to where the runaway was. The
best he could do was to say that it had
passed small station about seventy-tive
miles up the road some ten minutes before,
moving at the rate OF about ninety
miles an hour. A few minutes more, and
with steam up / had my engine NOV
ing at the rate of sixty miles an hour.
and going straight at the runaway on
the same track. ran this way for about
twenty-five minutes, when, as near as /
could calculate, the runaway had done
thirty-seven and half miles and had
covered Twenty-Five. If my calculations
and a half miles between us. but you can
imagine that the last five miles covered
running direct at the Oncoming monster,
were anything but pleasant. Well. re-
versed my engine and started running
away. gradually increasing my speed until
we settled down to a comfortable thirty
miles an hour, the Irish lad meanwhile
keeping on terrific pressure of steam. We
might have run into almost anything, for
did not look ahead at all; my eyes were
strained until they panied me looking up
the track for the runaway. 1t might have
been ten minutes, more or less-it seemed
like years TO me. Finally we heard the
rumble and roar of the hell-bent monster.
and she was coming a-hummlng. For the
frat time. / confess. / lost my nerve.
1t was only momentarily, how
eyer, and then | opened my
throttle and away we went There
us when first caught sight of her; then we
turned a curve and she was out of sight if
not out of hearing. When she did come
she had gained on US pretty, nearly half a
mile. shut off steam tritie. and when we
struck level piece of track but quarter
of mile separated us. 1 told Irish to keep
up pressure, and the way he did it it's
wonder the boiler of 76 didn't bust. She
kept getting nearer and nearer and it was
all L could do to keep from throwing wide
the throttle and speeding away from her,
but kept my nerves as steady as though
they were of iron. Nearer and nearer she
came, until / could actually imagine she
was ploughing her way through us. Fin
ally she closed in upon us, and / assure you
that so nearly equal had succeeded in max
ing the speed that the shock was little, if
any. greater than that felt upon the COUP
ling Of two cars. i did not hesitate an in
stant, but jammed down the steam-valve
tight. sprang upon the tender of my
enRine-a difficult task even for an athlete
like / then was, and from there swung
myself upon the runaway. 1t was the
work of scarcely half minute to Chamber
in the cab and jab down the steam-valve
there We ran possibly a mile before we
came to q standstill, and by that time
was as limp a rag and shaking like a
man with the ague. A good drink of
whisky brought me around in a few min
utes. We coupled the engines, and in half
an hour had them both safely housed in
Galveston.
That was my last experience as a loco
motive engineer. You could never get me
to steer cab again."