San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-01-05
IN HIS HEADLESS GRASP.
A CONDUCTORS THRILLING EN-
PERIENCE WITH a HEADLESS
MAN.

Iation Of an Actual Occurrence.
The last Christmas day did not
find every body in his place or every
body at his home. The trains were
crowded with men, women and child
rem, taking advantage of the holiday
excursion rates. Thus it was that
when the NJ. X. & 4. road south
bound reached Taylor, Texas, SIX
hours late, thereby failing to make
connections, some couple of hundred
passengers were duped at the place
to wait until the next train was due.
The thickly crowded waiting room
was somewh relieved of It's crushing
numbers by large portion of
the travellers putting up at the
hotels of the town, leaving around
the glowing depot stove, only those
who were too broke to pay the bill for
the nights lodging, or who believed
that they could get as much comfort
out of country town waiting room as
country side hotel.
In the beginning of the wait every
one held out exceedingly well. No
one seemed anxious to sit, but grad.
ually an unpleasant silence seemed to
hold sway; parties who still stood up
with their grips in their hands,
quietly set them upon the floor. A
few more people thought they would
sit down little while anyhow, for
the fact began to dawn upon the
people that it was little more tire
some work 10 wait from 10 p m. to
$3.50 a. M, than they had supposed.
The sleepy quiet and sameness that
seemed to hold the room under q
charm, was finally broken by
giggling, freckle, faced coun-
try coquatte, who had lured
to her side few metropolitan
dudes, with box of candy, to which
the party was helping itself with
merry talks and laughs, but quickly
all OF the candy had disappeared and
one by one by dudes slid out of sight,
looking for some place to sit or lean
to rest their weary limbs and leaving
the foolish coquette to mOralize on the
fickleness of the dude.
Then ensued long and lasting
period of sleep producing solitude.
Those who could not get seat stood,
and those who were too broken up to
stand. reversed the wooden spittoons
about the stoves and got what COM
fort they could out of their but little
improved situation. A freight clerk,
who with a railroad conductor were
travelling over the line, and who had
monopoliZed bench i'm order to rest
themselves just least bit, caused a
dozen of nodding, DOING heads
to Jerk with an enlivening sudden
ness, by inquiring in his strong bass
voice, of his partner, "What time Of
the night or day have you, Relddas."
The handsome conductor stretched
himself, rubbed his eyes and felt his
side to see how deep an impression
the hard bench had made on his
side. Pulling out his chromometer
he disappointed the whole groupe.
1--WE got eleven fifty-five, Terrab.
How Is this tor comfort"
Just then one of the waiting pass
engers stepped In and announced that
the south bound was two hours late,
giving for his authority the dispatch
or.
Freight Clerk Terrab unused awhile
and finally broke out to Conductor
ReIddas. II tell you, We will have
to kill this time systematically.
We can't hold out by doing nothing
and we can't stand the torture of the
hard bench, so propose that you tell
good one and in return will tell
you one.
To this the conductor agreed, prOvid
ing the freight clerk tell his tale
first. 1t suited the freight clerk, and
thus without delay, he sprung his
yarn:
GAS you know, the G. B. & O., and
the Wabash run for distance OF thir-
miles parallel and within speaking
distance of each other, upon their
leaving Cairo. Now, when the roads
put on their flyers they would skim
over the rails so lightly that the least
lar would tend to throw the engine of
the rails, and there was constant
danger of wrecking the trains. Some
one. however" resumed the freight
clerk, after q minutes reflection,
probably of what he had said and
what might consistently follow,
"some crank, I suppose, discovered
that q most excellent way in which to
keep the engine on the rails, would be
to load the heavy driving wheels with
powerful load stones. Both roads
took up the idea and experimental
with the same, finding the discovery
decidedly practicable. shortly both
the Wabash and the G. B. & O., fitted
I'D q first class locomotive with
extraordinarily heavily charged driv-
ing wheels, attaching them to their
flyers It happened, however, that
these swift going trains were moving