Morning journal and courier., 1891-05-27
TOLD BY RAILROAD MEN.
Good Stories Picked Up at ConveI
 ton of Train Conductors.

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 TOLD BY RAILROAD MEN.
 Good Stories Picked Up at n Conven-
 tfon of Train Conductors.
 From the Globe Democrat
 ''Five years ago." said Mr. L. V. Hurst mann, conductor on the Illinois Central, "we never saw or heard of such thing as woman tramp, but lately, within the past two years, the percentage of females among tramps has been steadily, and now We meet with one almost every month. They are not as daring as the men in jumping on or off trains, but we find them hanging all over freight car, on the trucks, or clinging to the truss rods by hands and feet like the sloth; in fact, in a good many dangerous places that a male tramp would never think of getting in. I suppose this increase in women tramps may be attributed to the way they are oc- cupying all the positions formerly held by men alone, and they don't propose to let even the tramp's profession go by without entering its ranks"
 ''I have been on the Baltimore and Ohio in the capacity of engineer and conductor
 
 of Parkersburg, w. Va, land, as you see, I have not a scratch to show for it. Every engineer running on the road believes more or less in dreams and peculiar signs. 1 had an engineer under me that would never go out when warned in dream that there was danger ahead. Of the dozen or more times that he stopped at home only one accident occurred, and that was trivi- al. prevailed upon him to give up this 1a1, ,af IL. IL out, after he had been warned in three dreams, we met with an awful catastrophe, in which several persons were killed and many wounded. The engineer was among those killed, and I have never forgiven myself, nor will I until die persuade an- other man from any belief"
 "One stormy night in October, three years ago." said J. R. Beesling, q was in mortal fear that the bridges, of which there are good many on that branch, would be washed away by the swollen riv- CTS. Fortunately we passed nearly all of them safely, but just as we drew near the last bridge l happened to be crossing from one car to another and noticed a strange, weird-looking blue light dancing up and down in front of the train. don't know what possessed me to do it, but I rang the bell and brought the train to a stop. The engineer, brakeman and 1 then set out to discover the cause of the light, but it had entirely disappeared and not a trace of it was left. We went down the track as far as the bridge, and found that it had been completely washed away by the stream, which was swollen, only a few timbsrs re- maining to bear evidence that & bridge had once spanned the stream. We were kept there for over two days, until another bridge could be built: and although the other trainmen laugh at me for it, 1 earn estly believe that that spectral blue light was placed by divine providence to save us from an awful fate"
 Bridal couples gave me more trouble than spotters, drunks, or the other things which the general public think make 0 Suydam, now yard-master on the Della ware, Lackawanna and Western railroad at | Elmira, N. '. "I have been a conductor, | and say to you, never make bridal trip | on the cars if you can help it. You can | not conceal the fact. The more you try | the less you succeed. It is Imaginable | sight to see A man with his arm around a | girl on train, but they do it. A mans | arm seems to creep naturally in that di- rection. When you ask for their tickets both of them look at you as if you were | an intruder. Then, as a rule, they never | know where their tickets are He thinks | him put them away, but she cannot tell | where. When they do find them they usually drop them on the floor as they hand them to you. Confusion ensues. | No matter how old a couple may be, nor how often they have tried matrimony be fore, they are mark as soon as they get | on a train. I was married before I went | to railroading and I never expect to have to go through the ordeal again, but if dc I'll take to the woods for my trip"
 | The Canadian Pacific was represented, among others, by H. A. Washburn, one of | the youngest and most neatly attired "punchers" in the assemblage. He wore 6 | very peculiar watch chain, made from part of the horns of a moose, to which is attached this story: About two years ago l the train in charge of MT. Washburn | pulled up near North Bay to kill few | minutes time. About the time the train started a large moose was discovered standing near the track about one hun- dred yards away. At the approach of the train the animal became frantic, and when the engineer blew the whistle, instead oi running away it made dash for the en- zine head downward. It was too late then to stop the train, and the engineer, fearing that an accident might happen to the | train put on full head of steam. The engine struck the moose and lifted it about thirty feet in the air, and it dropped on the hind platform of the second coach, breaking glass and causing quite a commo, tion. Neither the blow nor the fall killed the animal, and while struggling to free itself it fell between the cars. The horns were torn from the scalp, and, after the excitement subsided and the passengers were pscifed, Washburn got the horns and has them now in his room"
 "When I was running freight train on the 'Nypano,' several years ago." said John Fulkerson of the Pennsylvania line, 'T used to have good deal of trouble at little station up in northeast Ohio. always expected to get out of that place behind time, no matter what time got in there, if I struck the town during the night, for it always took the crew half an hour or more to get the whole train out of the place. The trouble was caused by 8 number of boys who made @ practice of pulling as many coupling pins as possible while the train was standing. Of course, when the engine pulled out only the cara which were coupled to it would follow. Then the engine would back up and all the pins would be put in place. While the brakemen were doing this the boys would pull some more further ahead, and SO they kept us starting and backing up again some times for 6 whole hour. One night the engineer concluded to try. an experi- ment on the rascals. He pushed the train slowly back few feet, 50 as to slscken all the couplings, and then suddenly threw the lever wide open. The train was a light one and leaped forward like a deer. One of the boys had just pulled pin and grabbed the brake rod to jump from be. tween the cars when the train started. He was thrown nearly one hundred feet, and one leg and one arm were broken, but ii stopped pulling pins at that station The father of the boy had had a claim agains the company which was rejected, and thi, was his method of getting even."
 UHoonshiners Oive ma ser,a Nuaiv d. |.