Mower County transcript., 1890-12-03
BRAVE JOHN BURNS.

ND, gong W006ef5s4ts W8o 00Se tu0y
famous and fatal Silver creek. An east.
bound freight had been wrecked, and
several cars thrown a,ross the track Of
the limited, which was tearing along
down the grade. '5...'> .*s'.a ..
The express was endeavoring to mako
up time on tho down grade. and it,
speed could not have, been less than
dfty miles an hour. Tho train was
made up Of > baggage car, smoking car,
two day coaches and seven Pullman
cars, drawn by ninety-ton engine, No.
"a. John Burns, engineer; Frank Watt,
conductor. II he attempted TO stop tho
train, Burns felt sure that. while he
might save his own life by jumping, the
passengers would meet horrible fate.
Jumring from his seat in front OF tho
boiler, he threw his engine open and
awaited the crash. The heavy locomo-
tive driven at such speed cut through
the fragments Of wreck a. = knife
would cleave IN apple, and opened tho
way for his train. He then reversed
the engine and stopped the train. When
Burns emerged from the wreck he had
one arm scalded, was covered with cuts
and bruises, but was not dangerously
hurt. il" .t-'.
Burns presence Of mind was seconded
by the quick wit Of baggageman, who
started to run through the coaches,
telling people to get on tho outer side
Of the car. He had gone through two
cars when tho crash came. Tho engine
and baggage-car were smashed, and one
side was torn from the two coaches,
whose passengers had just been warned.
One woman, who had two ribs broken.
was the only person seriously injured.
Owing to the faithfulness OF Engineer
Burns, not car in the train loft the
track. and Judge s. S. Burke, presi-
dent Of the Toledo & Ohio Central rail-
road, who was passenger, pronounced
it the most wonderful escape on record.
After the people were QUOTED, c. NJ.
Spitzer, Boston banker, headed list,
and over $40o were presented to Burns
by the passengers.
Such incidents as this do not occur
frequently, and deserve to be critically
studied. 1t was display Of heroism
and something moro. Heroism alone
would not have saved the lives of the
passengers by the Chicago Limited.
Burns would have been hero If he had
taken the usual precautions, reversed
his engine, and perished with other VIC
Tins of an inevitable disaster. It was
to the combination Of unerring judg-
mont and heroism that the passengers
owed their lives There was only one
chance of preventing an accident and
carrying the train through the wreck in
safety. That chance was taken; but
Burns in that terrible moment must
have known that il his train were to be
wrecked appearances would be against
him. Instead OF attempting to stop the
train he was doubling the speed, and
possibly more. II the accident which
he succeeded in averting had occurred.
and the roadbed had been Uttered with
dying and wounded passengers, he would
have been condemned as q reckless fool
1t was very easy for the rescued passen-
gers to raise purse for Burns when
success had crowned his intrepid cour-
age and sound Judgment; but II he had
failed, and tho worst had happened.
they would have been unsparing in their
censure, contending that by doubling
the speed he had quadruplcd the dam
ger. Burns with his quick Intelligence
must have discerned the risks to which
he was exposing himself in opening
wide the throttle, but he never swerved
from his duty. II unerring Judgment
were needed in effecting the deliver
ance Of the passengers, moral intrep pid-
ity was also required in acting upon It.
What mon admire in heroes OF action
like Stanley is their indomitable pluck
and courage, their selt-possession in
great crisis and their discernment of the
only practical expedient for averting
failure and disaster. Burns, the on.
gineer, exhibited all these traits. Like
Stanley in critical emergency he was
law unto himself. He perceived the
only possible way OF escape. and he
whipped up his racing engine as calmly
and resolutely as jockey on the home
stretch drives the spurs into his horses
tanks His Judgment was not paralyzed
with apprehension Of criticism il he
were to fail. He thought only of sue
cess, and had the moral courage to
achieve it-N. Y. Tribune.
According to the Scientific Ameri-
can. the range and the penetrating pow
er of the modern rife-cannon are tre-
mendouA The six-inch rife will hurl
its projectile through ten and half
inches of wrought-iron thousand yards
from the muzzle. The eight-inch rifle
will pierce sixteen and three-tenths
inches of iron at the same distance.
The ten-inch rifle that the rejuvenated
Miantonomah will carry will send its
missile through twenty-one inches Of
iron thousand yards away. At the
same distance, the twelve-inoh rifle, Of
which we are to have a supply in the
future, will penetrate twenty-eig ht
inches of iron.
"A fly always walks upward. Put a
Fly on window, and up he goes toward
the top; he can't be made to walk down
ward. I made window screen divided
in half. The upper halt Tapped over