The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1891-07-29
AN ENGINEERS STORY.
A NAN DUMPED m TO THE FIRE B0K BY
4 MOB.
THE NEW ORLEANS DIVISION OF THE l..
y N. HAS A HAUNTED ENGINE-THE
TERRIBLE FATE OF A CoLoRED
MAN NAMED HARRIS IN
IGpJANA

y N. HAS A HAUNTED ENGINE-THE
TERRIBLE FATE OF A CoLoRED
MAN NAMED HARRIS IN
INDIANA.
There is no class of men that can tell
of more thrilling experiences-ex
ences IN fact which border on fiction
than railroad men, conductors and en-
gineers. Yesterday a well known en-
GINGER, who makes his home in Ameri-
Gus now, told a reporter this experience
of fellow engineer:
"There is locomotive ON the New Or
leans division of the Louisville and
Nashville railroad that is said to be
haunted. In 1877 the engine was No. I,
and was a freight engine on the old st.
Louis and Southeastern railroad 1t has
since been rebuilt, however, given diff
ferent number, and put into the passen-
ger service in the South. There are
many railroad men who know the
haunted engine. III engine pulled a
heavy freight train into Mt. Vernon, Ind,
on the night OF the terrible lynehing bee
in that town. SIX colored men were
hustled OFF into eternity in a very short
time by an excited mob of citizens, sew
eral hundred in number.
"The mob had strung five of the col
ored men up to limbs of trees, when the
engine pulled into town and stopped
near the crowd. The one man left was
an old colored man named Harris, who
had brutally murdered popular deputy
sheriff of Posey county. The feeling
against the man Harris was bitter 1t
was the prevailing opinion among the
p ople that hanging was too good for
him. Some one in the crowd said: TO
the engine with Harris; let's burn him
In an instant the cry was taken up by
the crowd: TO the engine! burn him!
burn himr The locomotive was sur
rounded by the mob in a few minutes
time. The engineer and fireman were
covered with guns and ordered Off their
engine. The engineer, John Thomas,
and his fireman, a man named Buchanan,
promptly obeyed the orders of the mob
and left the engine.
"The engineers story of the affair told
by him the next day was as follows :
After we had been hustled away some
distance from the engine by some of the
crowd, | noticed the sky light up by the
door to the tire-box being opened 1t
was only for an instant the door re-
manned open, then all was dark as before
The fiji eman saw two men throw some
thing into the ire-box. We were com
pletely in the dark as to the object of the
crowd in taking possession of the engine.
1t was perhaps not more than five min
utes before we were told to go back to
our engine, and the crowd disappeared.
AS soon as we mounted the engine ]
whistled off brakes and told the fireman
to coal up. He took up the shovel of
coal and opened the door to throw it In,
but he never emptied the shovel. The
sight that met our eyes was terrible.
There in the fire before us was the grin
ming skull of human being
"'GOod God gasped the fireman, and
he sank down in dead faint on the coal
at my feet. finally pulled myself to-
gether and shoveled coal into the fire
box. Madly | threw shovelful after
shOvelful into the fire, but the grinning
skull always appeared the same. Finally
| slammed the door shut, pulled the
throttle wide open, and we left the town
at rapid gait, The fireman finally came
too and crawled to his place on the seat
He remained there all night long. /
sh0veled the coal into the engine myself,
1t was a terrible night, Every time
opened the door of the fire-box | could
see the skull and could frequently hear
terrible groans in the fire bed. When
we reached the end of our rum conelu-
ded the engineer, both the fireman and
myself asked to be relieved
Engineer Thomas was In Colorado a
few years ago running an engine on the
Denver and Rio Grande railroad. Fire
man Buchanan took solemn oath on
that terrible night that he would never
again fire an engine. lie kept his oath,
and has never been ON a locomotive
since"