The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-12-25
a rBRILLINa STORY TOLD BIZ AN
ENGINEER.

or northern ana NORTHWESTERN PennSyl-
vania some years ago, was engineer OF
the first train thatmade the round trip,
said Joe Carroll, now of one of the Erie
divisions, ''and it was attended with
such altogether unusual and peculiar
experiences that resigned my place
after that first trip. If had been in the
menagerie business it might have been a
big thing for me to have remained on the
road for few trips longer, for 1 think
I'd have had enough material to start the
biggest kind of geological exhibition.
But was simply wanting job as an en-
glneer and not as collector of natural
history specimens. A job on railroad
where you were expected to stop every
little while to either capture bear or
kill catamount, and where you were
apt to be attacked right in your cab by
some fierce denizen Of that fearful re-
gion, wasn't just the kind of job 1 was
looking for, and one trip was enough for
me. That trip only covered distance
of about thirty miles, but we gathered in
three bears, one Of them alive, two cata-
mounts and the biggest bald eagle that
was ever seen in that locality. Besides
that VIC had race with a catamount
saw two more bears and chased big
buck for more than a mile before it
escaped by a tremendous leap across a
ravine.
THE first train over the B. B. 6 X.
wasn't an excursion train, but train for
business. 1t was mixed train, and l
remember very well that there was car
load OF calves in it on the down trip. We
hadn't gone more than three miles into
the woods when my fireman touched me
on the arm and pointed toward big
hemlock tree at one side of the road.
Peering out from behind it was a ire
mendous big bear, with only his head
and shoulders visible. AS the train
passed by the tree the bear came out
from behind it, and looking back, we
saw him in the middle of the track,
standing upon his launches and gazing
after US. We had hardly got over the
excitement of the bears survey of us
when big catamOunt came bounding
through the trees from somewhere in the
woods, and raced along with the train,
leaping from tree to tree, and sometimes
getting several rods ahead of us, al
though we were running % miles an
hour. Whenever the wildcat got ahead
of us it would stop and crouch on limb,
and glare at us as we came along, as if it
intended to spring upon us. 1t kept
along with us for more than a mile and
then bounded away again and disap-
peared. Whether it was the same cata-
mount that met us two or three miles
further on, in company with 3 mate, and
boldly boarded the train, can't say, but
it is likely that it was. Whether it was
Or not, when we were going up very
steep grade known as Shows mountain,
and necessarily running slow, I suddenly
heard great bleating among the calves
in the cattle car, which was only the sec
car behind the engine. 1 leaned out Of
tho cab window and saw q catamount
cling to the side of the cattle car, and
trying to push himself into the car be-
tween the Stats, but the opening was too
small. grabbed the long iron poker
used by the fireman, and jumping from
the engine, ran back and dealt the wild
cat blow that knocked it partially loose
from the car. My attack on the cata-
mount turned its attention from the
calves to me, and it sprang from the car
at me. Another blow stunned the cat,
and another one broke its back. Il
My fireman had by this time stopped
the train, and the conductor and a brake
man came running toward the cattle car.
Before they reached it l made the dis
oovery that there was second wild cat,
which being smaller than the one had
killed, had squeezed between the Stats of
the car, and had already killed calf
and was making meal from it in one
corner, the other calves being huddled in
trembling, bleating group at the other
end of the car. The conductor of the
train had a revolver, and he put the wea-
pom through an opening in the car, close
to the catamount and fred. The fierce
animal sprang to its feet, and seeing me
and the brakeman close to the car, on
opposite side, he leaped toward us,
striking the side of the car with such
force that the animal fell back to the
floor The conductor fred second ball
into the cat, and the tough beast got up
again and leaped toward the conductor,
striking the side Of the car, cliRging to it
this time, and endeavoring to get out at
one of the narrow openings. The con-
ductOr shot the animal in the throat, aud
it fell back and died.
"The conductor carried the two dead
wildcats back to the express car, and we
started up the hill. Just at the summit,
perched in the crotch of big chestnut
tree, and not 20 feet from the track, we
came in sight of our second bear gave j,
a sharp toot with my whistle and the
bear tumbled out of the tree ~ If he had
been shot, and went shutting away into
the woods at race-horse speed, never
once looking back at the object that had
frightened him. was beginning to
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