The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-04-25
ENGINEER CONNOR'S SON.

Some lives there are that seem to run in
perpetual sunshine End roses. Some are
rounded 10 darker lines running always be-
side the deeper abysses Of tragedy.
Some there are who live their threeScore
and drop out of existence, and the memory
of them, for good or III, ceases with the toll
ing of the bell that tells their going. And
there are some, short little lives, to be sure,
but so brim full of sweetness that the very
sunshine of them fingers in the hearts Of
those who knew them long after the little
lives are ended.
| When Jack Conner was promoted to the
position Of engineer On the n. and c. road,
which cuts the state Of Tennessee from north
TO south, he moved his family into the pretty
little cottage standing side by side with Grip
! pied Jerry Cranes, on the hill Just above the
railroad track, in the little village of An
tioch For the engineer was from home most
of the time, aud Jerry, being a cripple Jack
} knew would insure his own wife considerable
company and protection in Jerry's wife.
The houses stood side by side, and both
doors opened towards the railroad. The vii
! Iage, indeed, was built so, straight down the
railroad, for the train was about the biggest
/ thing about Antioch.
Jack Connor's cottage stood on hill so
near to the track that he could speak TO his
wife from his engine when she stood in the
| door, as she usually did, to see No. go by.
The train men were pretty well acquainted
with the Antioch people in general, but there
was not one among them, from conductor
down, who did not know Jack Connor's son.
Little Jack" they called him, and the
! train never whistled for Antioch but they
would look out for the little fellow hoisted
on the woodpiIe to see his fathers engine
go by.
He seldom went further than the wood
pile. that was his mothers order, though
the brakeman and the train butcher would
sometimes try to coax him down to the plat
form with apples and sticks of striped candy
But he would shake his yellow curls and
throw them q kiss as the long train pulled
out.
Sometimes his mother would take him
down to speak to his father, and the little
fellow would 20 almost wild over the big en-
CINE, and the glowing furnace, the great bell
changing a hasty good-by, and the shrill
whistle which he more than once had been
permitted to pull.
"Just naturally takes to the engine" the
fireman would often say; gets that from his
papDy."
And Jack did seem to lave a natural love
for a locomotive.
Jerry Crane used to say Of him:
81 can allus tell when the cyars are com
ing-there'S a shapbang Of neighbor Connor's
door, click Of the gate, and in a minute a
little yellow head top Of a big pile Of wood,
and when l see it | always say to my wife:
Mary, the cyars are coming And she looks
out, not at the railroad track, but at the
woodpile, and says she: Yes, they are COM
ing, Jerry"
Sometimes a neighbor would pass and speak
to him.
''Any news today, Jack!"
"Father's abroad today, sir, he would an
swer, or else, There's bridge dam between
here and Chattanooga, sir, or mo. VIII be
fifteen minutes late today, sir"
He always had something to tell and it was
mostly OF the trains or the track, engines OF
wrecks. Anything that concerned the rail-
road was interesting to Jack, for, aside from
his admiration for the locomotive, little
Jacks father went up, then down. that long
steel track just once each way every day.
He had his fathers head, the tranmen said,
but the neighoors declared he had his moth
er's sunny, hopeful, helpful nature.
But one day trouble came to her door.
Engineer Conner was brought home in a
caboose, both legs mashed and an arm gone,
while his engine lay in G ruined heap under a
broken bridge just beyond the Tennessee
river.
Every man had jumped but he-freman,
brakeman, all but Jack.
Jump, Connor for your hfer" hefreman
had called to him when the timbers began to
crack.
And the man had laid his hand upon the
throttle and said:
'You forget I'm engineer
And there he staid until the crash came.
He was not quite dead when the boys found
him, and all the time they were working with
him he was praying Just for life to get
home" they heard him whisper. Just long
enough TO get home and die with my wife and
boy"
His prayer was granted; he reached home
and the two he loved best on Gods earth.
Just before he died he reached for his pocket
book under his pillow and handed it TO mis-
wife
1T is all I've got, Annie" he said. 81 wish
it was more, wife"
Then be laid his hand on the little head
with its crown of yellow curls pressing his
pillow. He seemed to forget the boy was
only baby.
Jack" he said, al leave your mother to
you. Take care of her, my man"
Then his mind seemed 10 wander; he was
on the engine one moment, the next with his
family again.
The company viii do something for you
by and by. Jack he said, and always re-
member-don't forget 1t, Jack-that any man
in time Of danger may desert, any man but
the engineer. lie must stick-stlck-stick-
to his post, Jack"
The hand on the boys head grew heavy;
the little fellow choled back his sobs and laid !
one hand tenderly on his fathers brow. The
dying engineer opened his eyes and smiled.
''SJick TO the engine and stand by your
mother, Jack" ne whispered. The hand on
the boys head grew cold, and when they
lifted It and laid it back upon the dead mans !
breast Jack turned 70 his mother
There was no childish oaJblrs5 OF grief: /
only an awakening, as 1t seemed, Of the /
young manhood IL hlm as he opened his /.
arms
Here / am, mother" he said, and she IN
derstood.
It was then Jacks life began IN earnese /
The pet name OF "BZbT JACK no longer !
trembled upon his mothers lips. She called /
him instead My son" MY boy or else /
twas Mothers man" So IS the heart won't |
TO clo,he with strength that which it leans I,
upon
She trusted him entirely, and his quick /
mind recognized il
Tns prohibition 10 longer confined him . 4
TIRE wood pile. but every morning when the I
whistle sounded the cottage door would open, 4
"a >fr.
fash for a moment IL the sunlight rs a pair
Of EiElb.e les went bu-~vErs- down 70 tha I