Connecticut western news., 1891-07-02
CANAAN CONN, THURSDAY

more over as took her out of the shop. always do that with my own eyes, but if had known what we were to try on I'd given those connecting rods more at tention. We used to wedge them on the wheels; you have seen the steel keys? Nowadays they are fastened so the men can't wedge them too tight. It is this new way of fastening that causes the ringing noise that you now hear as the big drivewheels pass you. Did you never notice?
 "Wel1, l soon began to feel of her wind. She was not long in making that freman's box too uneasy for my general manager. He danced like toy man. Then he closed the window ahead. Then he shut the one at the side and braced his legs. Then he left the windows alone, though they rattled open, and he lost his hat, which the fireman caught on the baggage car brake; but MT. Manager could not let go his clutch on the seat to replace his hat. The hat was all coal dust, anyway, so it was put into the toolchest. Now we were just flying I never took my eyes off the iron, but out of the corners of my eyes I saw how dis tressed he was. He undertook to holler something, but paid no attention. The fireman showed in the sprinkEngs fine: he knew exactly how. Firing is half the battle in a big run. Well, we were go- ing so well that I was afterward told the paymasters car, which we were pulling home, could not keep the dinner dishes on the table. No, sir! Twice, going round curves, every dish the boys had was swept on the floor. If we had had dining cars in those days wouldn't the soup have spilled?"
 "I should have thought your con- ductor might have interfered," I sug- gested.
 ''I expected he would," was the reply. ''But as time went on, and our rate grew simply fearful on the passengers, knew well enough the conductor had been scolded as we'll as the rest of us. No; he told me afterward that he simply sat down and said his prayers. But to go on; I saw that we had made up twenty eight minutes, then thirty, then thirty three being only seven minutes behind. But there we hung. She could not in- crease her lead, do my best.
 "I knew then that we should soon be- gin to lose them, for she was heating. Whether the boxes were lugging on the Then, too, it might have been the curves: at all events we were lugging and losing. We fell off, I calculated, some five min utes, when we struck the tunnel IL was a heavy rail and a straight track there, and pulled her clean out for one more squirt, live or die, as we dashed into the steam and darkness of that long hole. In there you can't see any thing but signals. The Sagamore an swered me for just one plunge. But the next instant-crash! God help me! The whole side of the cab was flying in splinters. I knew what that meant. I jumped from my seat in front of the fire box. There, under my seat, was the general manager. He had been merci. fully knocked in instead of out, but he was senseless. My drivers held their rod yet, but I knew the strain could not last long without snapping that rod, too, as I could not find the throttle to shut her off. It was so queer about that throttle. Turned round and round, trying to find it; kept turning to the left. I thought I had an extra eye just over my ear, and my other two eyes were blind. That new eye showed me beautiful clear light, but not the throt- tie. Round and round that fearful steel hammer, the broken rod, kept crashing and tearing out the shreds of the cab on that side. Then the other one twisted, which threw old Sagamore plump into the granite wall. We were all piled up there, dark as pitch all about, and finally still. Now, the curious thing about it all is that with my new eye over my ear l actually read the time by my watch, and we were only seven minutes late. Yes, sir, we had made up thirty-three minutes in the seventy-four miles, slow ups and stops included, and minute more would have brought us to the sta tion. I just yelled, 'How's that, old English? and my new eye seemed to go out in darkness"
 The new eye was the result of fear ful gash on the side of the head, from the effects of which the poor man lin gered on the borders of death for weeks. That postponed the wedding. The pecul- far effect of that blow on the head the writer cannot explain, but the fact that he read his watch correctly is substan- tiated by the conductor of the train, of whom asked my infQrmation.
 "Were there many injured?" I added, in the pause that followed his conclusion.
 "Don't ask me-yes. Thank God, Pm alive! Now, Mollie," addressing his wife, who just entered, 'srve told that story for the last time, except in my prayers. ."-Emory J. Haynes in New York Ledger.