St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-09-18
LAssOING A WILD ENGINE.
Congressman Grain Recalls a
Thrilling Time in His Career.

congressman Grain Recalls q
Thrilling Time in His Career.
Congressman Grain, of Texas, who
ran about the capitol the other day in
seersucker coat and profuse perspira-
ton, swearing in well-chosen Texan
that he would kill an obnoxious CORE
spohdent. was to-day in high good
humor, says the Pittsburg Press, spin
ming yarns to coterie of brother mem
berS.
In my young days" said the con-
gresham, Il was an engineer on the
Santa Fe railroad. / had only been on
about three months when by some care
leSSneSS righteousness one of the engines
known as mOuntain-climberS got away
with full steam on and started down the
road on a message of death and destruc-
ton. l had just finished a long run and
was preparing to go home, when the
train dispatcher rushed wildly out of
the Office and told me the news. The
track had been cleared, he said, and
there was nothing to stop the mad rush
OF the runaway locomotive until it
ton and pillow its way through brick and
mortar until both the building and loco
motive were ruined.
II had plenty of nerve then, and l
suppose by your laughing you think l
have lost none of it, but | am free to
confess that | would not now dare to
undertake the task that l successfully
accomplished that day. Perhaps it was
the excitement and enthusiasm Of the
moment which led me to volunteer to
lassO that locomotive. l always smile
when | recall the look of inc redulity
that met my confident assertion that [
n n 0Sf "A 9Orhf Of
the runaway, but | was so confident
that they gave me a hearing. and I
finally secured the services of sturdy
Irish LAD as fireman.
''ln less than three minutes after the
dispatch had been received | was On my
engine, with steam slowly coming up
again, and pulling out as rapidly as pos
sible to meet the oncoming 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 a small
station about seventy-fve miles up the
at the rate of about ninety miles an
hour. A few minutes more, and with
steam up had my engine moving at the
rate of sixty miles an hour, and going
straight at the runaway on the same
track.
81 ran this way for about twenty-five
minutes, when, as near as | could cal
culate, the runaway had done thirty
seven and half miles, and l had Gov
cred twenty-five If my calculations
were correct there were still some
twelve and half miles between US,
but you can imagine that the last five
miles | covered running direct at the
sOnc0ming monster were anything but
( pleasant. Well, I reversed my engine
q and started running away, gradually in
& creasing my speed until we settled
+ down to comfortable thirty miles an
! hour, the Irish lad meanwhile keeping
son a terrific amount of steam. We
might have run into almost anything.
for l 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 monster. 1t didn't take her
long to heave in sight, and she was
coming a-humming. For the first time
confess l lost my nerve. 1t was only
momentary, however, and then opened
my throttle, and away we went. There
was mile of straight track between US
when first caught sight of her; then
we turned curve, and she was out of
sight, if not out of hearing. When she
did come she had gained on us pretty
nearly half mile. / shut off steam a
trifie, and when we struck level piece
of track but quarter of mile separ-
ated us. told Irish to keep up press
ure, and the way he did it it's wonde.
the boiler of rs didn't bust. She KEEP
getting nearer and nearer. and it was al.
could do to keep from throwing wisi
the throttle and speeding away.
'Finally she closed in upon us. and
assure you that SO nearly equal l.a
succeeded in making the speed tina IA.
shock was little if any greater than Ii.
felt upon the coupling of two ears.
did not hesitate an instant, but jammed
down the steam valve tight-a difficult
task even for an athlete, as | then was.
and from there swung myself upon the