The Wichita daily eagle., 1891-11-11
ghe aaa DAILY Eagle adsdnesdau gorne gonember H. 1881
A MANIAC In THE CAB.
CROSSING A VlADUCT IN FRANCE
AT LIGHTNING SPEED.

Story Told by a Traveller IN the Way tt
Paris About an Experience That BefeI
His Uncle-The Train Came to His Sta
tion Before He Had Finished.
There were six of as in the railway car
| riage, and between Paris and Rouen the
| train ran at tremendous speed to make VI
| lost time. The talk among old travellers
fell naturally upon railway speed, and the1
| of course it turned to railway accidents
due to high speed. One after the other we
gave what we deemed strange tales of dan.
ger by rail. The last man to furnish g
contribution was a wiZzened old fellow,
| whose twinkling eyes twinkled all the
more as horrors were piled upon horrors
He unused for a moment and then said:
81 know of one adventure by rail that
may interest you gentlemen, although
was not personally concerned in it, 1t
| happened to an uncle of mine an invalid
who was returning from Nice to Paris a
few years ago. If you remember, the Gus
tom was then to change cars at Lyons.
| The train came to stop in the Lyons sta
| ton and the passengers, after climbing up
some twenty steps, found another train
ready for Paris.
on THE VIADUCT.
1.-THE train by which my uncle travelled
was the day express noted for speed and
always in the hands of the best men on the
line AS in the case with us at this mo-
ment, there had been some time lost
through a hot box, and as the train reached
the neghDorhood of Lyons it was really
whizzing along the tracks. If you know
the country at all, you may recall that at
the little town of Vienne the line crosses a
viaduct over one of the small rivers that
empties into the Rhone at that point. For
years it has been, and still may be, the
custom to slow up when going over this
viaduct
"On that particular morning the day ex-
press was sent across the viaduct at a
speed which brought most of the old trav-
elers to their feet. Such thing had never
been heard Of. Ny uncle, among Others
opened the window of bis carriage (the
doors were locked) and looked ahead. His
carriage was near the front of the train.
"As he raised the window, above the
roar of train going at nearly sixty miles
an hour, he heard shrek of terror come
apparently from the locomotive, then an
other and third. He soon discovered that
many of the passengers in the cars ahead
of him were watching the locomotive with
blanched faces. What was going on2 The
fellow travellers in my uncle's compart-
ment asked the question, but were too
frightened to suggest any reply.
AN AWFUL MOMENT
"As another piercing and awful Shrek
rose above the roar of the train, one of the
ladies went into Mysteries and another
tainted. Ny uncle asked some one to hold
his body while he stretched out and called
to some people in the car ahead. AS he
did so, he saw only too plainly the trouble.
The engineer had gone crazy, and was stand
ing over his assistant with a redhot poker
My uncle caught one glance of the mani
ac's face as he looked out from his cab in
the locomotive and shook his fist in the
faces of the terrified passengers.
The screams they heard were from the
poor wretch of a stOker, whose attempts
to get into the cab of the locomotive were
repulsed with the red hot iron, but who
struggled notwithstanding some frightfui
burns upon the hands and chest.
''The stoker knew the dan ger and so did
many of the passengers. My uncle knew
perfectly well that the track upon which
we were running virtually ended in the
river at Lyons There was short stone
parapet which train going at sixty miles
an hour would make nothing of, and then
the Rhone. There was scarcely time for
thought, and yet this thought did present
itself-that the end was coming, and soon
for already the outskirts of Lyons were
rising into view.
at seemed as if the train was going faster
than ever. Ever since that day my uncle
refuses to travel on fast trains; the speed
makes him nervous. In ten minutes Ly-
ons would be reached.
THE END OF THE EPISODE.
"a shout passed along the train. Who
had gun or revolver? One of the men
in the first passenger carriage offered to
shoot the maniac if revolver could be
found. The cry passed from mouth to
mouth. There was not a revolver on board
The maniac in the cab seemed to know it,
for he bent out and Ieered with devilish
glee, brandishing his enormous poker
"My uncle swears that they were run
ming at seventy miles an hour. In two
minutes the Lyons station would be in
sight. Though the train was flying, the
passengers could see the panic stricken
looks of horror upon the faces of the people
along the line. In one minute-there was
just time to prepare for eternity-I beg
your pardon, gentlemen, this is my station
and was almost carried by-au revoirl'
And off he jumped. We were too inter- /
ested in his story to realize for the moment |
that we had lost its point. We never knew |
how the old fellows uncle and those other |
terrified passengers escaped death.
l once ventured to question an officer of /
the railroad company as to the record of /
any great smashup in the Lyons station /
ten years ago. He never heard of any dis (
aster of the kind. Perhaps it was not for /
nothing that the old Santa Claus had a |
twinkle in his eye.-Philip G. Hubert, Jr.,
n New York Epoch.
why the Mole Is Blind.
The creatures which dwelt in the dark /