Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-09-27
AN ENGINEERS pREsENT1MENT.
How a Terrible wreck Was Prevented
by Dying Man.


A number of railroad men sat in the
rotunda of the Laclede the other night
exchanging "reminiscences. The converse
ton gradually drifted into stories having
supernatural tinge, and among these was
the following, related by well-known
conductor:
"Some years ago" he said, Sin the town
of Garrett, in Northern Indiana, the head
quarters of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail
roads Chicago Division, there lay sick an
engineer named Boardman. He was
wildly delirious and his rawlings took a
serious aspect at times. One evening he
was told that engineer Moses had been
called to take out his engine, No. 712, on
an extra run, following No. 5. Engine
712 was the pride of the road and of its
engineer, then SO seriously sick. 1t had
not been sent out before the foreman of
the round-house wishing to satisfy the
wishes of its engineer, but on this occasion
it was necessary, as special train contain
ing an opera company had to make Wash
ington in twenty hours, run of S53
miles from Chicago, and no other engine
on the Chicago Division was equal to the
speed demanded by the company.
"Boardman, lying in his bed, was sud
denly gifted with supernatural power,
and in his rawlings would say:
"'Hicksville Ha How she spins !
Runs up the St. Joe grade like the wind
Twenty-Five miles; one stop for water,
one stop for railroad crossing, and thirty
minutes gomez
Then he would be quiet as the grave
for moment.
'Holgate Listen at her spinl She's
got the crossing. There she goes. Def
ance to Holgate was like a step to her..
"His watchers looked at one another.
Could he have the power of second-sight
to watch the movements Of the train ?
One Of the boys was sent to the dispatch
er's Office, but few blocks away. Before
he returned Boardman had called out a
water station, and said:
-Four minutes lost, Why couldn't she
do without water? All, ha Watch her
pound sand now. Isn't she beauty?
''The man had returned from the tele-
graph office, and, in a whisper, told the
other watchers that he had followed the
train correctly. A feeling of awe came
over the boys. The sick engineer was in a
seeming trance. His breath came slower
and more laborious. The boys crowded
nearer and were about to raise him in the
bed. so that he could catch his breath
easier, and the family were called, when
he sat erect, looked wildly about him and
cried:
"'Tifin! Red light Stop for orders !
My Godp Here he held up his hand as
if reading an order). Train No. second
five, engine No. 712. Prepare to meet thy
God. o. K. CocKRELL'
Then he sank back in the bed dead.
The Mortified boys stood amazed and
SPECIFICS. 1t was a presentiment.. One
rushed forth to the dispatt chers office ara
cried to the east-end man:
For Gods sake, Dixey, Stop second
five at Republic sup
QUICK Over the wires the call went and
VI, was ans''rered, and then this message:
- second fve.' There was a wait of
breathless anxiety, when the news came
back; Second five is stopped. Conductor
wants to know what for By this time
the story was known in the dispatcher's
office, and the answer was sent to Repub-
lie Had terrible presentiment. Tell
conductor to proceed cautiously to Chicago
junction.
Hardly had the answer gone when
Attica called up and said:
"'Stop second five at Republic. First
five ditched mile west of here; engine
and three cars off. Cow on track. En-
gineer killed by jumping
"And the man who had saved probably
five score of lives lay a corpse at his home,
with his sorrowing family surrounding
him. The opera company made up a
purse, which, together with the life in
surance he had carried, made the engin-
GERS family Independent for the rest of
their lives"