Sharp County record., 1890-11-06
THE ENGINEERS LOT.
According to a Member of the Craft 1t IL
Not a Happy One.


Not a Happy One.
You talk Of locomotive engineers be-
ing nervous lot" said John Blower, an
old knight of tho lever, who has now re-
tired from active service, "but II you
knew all that we have to 60 through in
the course Of twenty or twenty-five
years experience on the road you would
not wonder that we are nervous. The
cause OF your surprise would be that we
have any nerves left and that we do not
all go to the mad-house after few years
at the work. My experience extended
over quarter of century and | could
tell you stories of things that | have
gone through that would make your hair
stand on end. toll you, If all loco
motive engineer sees and goes through
were written in book, it would be more
exciting than the most CORY dime novel
that ever was printed. At least, some
of the things that have gone through
appear to me that way when | try to re-
call them. 1t is ali very fine, suppose,
to have nice things written about you
after you have been picked up in pieces
along tho tracks and to be described as
hero for standing by your lever in face
OF inevitable death. The trouble about
all that is that fellow is not here to
read all these fine things about himself
They come too late to do him any good
and the thought that they will be said
is not likely to occupy his mind very
much whom he is looking into an open
switch fifty yards ahead o. him and his
machine is going at the rate Of fifty
miles an hour, or when he sees another
train coming round curve at the rate
mile minute on the same track he is
on, but in an opposite direction, while
he is rushing to meet it at the same rate.
There is not much room for thoughts of
glory in his mind then, | can tell you,
and after having gone through few of
such scenes 1t is not to be wondered
at If his nerves do get shNky once in a
while. See that wide scar running from
my crown to the back OF my head? That
is the result of one accident of the kind
that | have come through got that
on the Grand Trunk railway of Canada,
between Hamilton and Toronto. had
charge of a freight train at the time and
we were ten minutes behind and going
at fifty mile gait to try to make up.
Rounding curve we saw rushing down
on us a fast passenger express that
should have waited at the last station
until we go past, but which through
some mistake of the train dispatcher
had been sent on to the next stopping
place. had only time to grab the lever
and reverse the engine when the two
trains we're together. The last remem-
Der was making q bound from the cab
just as they struck. The next ! knew
] was lying in my own cottage in Tdk
ronto, six weeks after, with my head ALI
tied up ana every Inch of my body achs'
ing as If it werS being slowly torn to
pieces by graphing irons. 1t was threo
months before could get on my feet
again, and six before | could do my
work. How long il will be till / cease
to feel any effect from 1t depends, sup
pose, or how long live. This I do
know, that though it is now nearly ten
years since it happened frequently
feel as II were going through all tho
horrors that experienced when l first
recovered consciousness. That, sup
pose, was the closest call have yet
had, though | have had many hair
breadth escapes from similar catastro-
phos," Chicago Evening Post,