Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1891-05-14
ENGINEER CONNOR'S SON.

Some lives there are that seem to run in
sunshine and roses. Some are
ounded to darker lives, running always
beside the deeper abysses of tragedy.
Some there are who live their three
score and drop out Of existence, and the
memory of them, for good or ill, ceases
With the tolling of the bell that tells their
going. And there are some. short little
ives to be sure, but so brimful of sweet
less that the very sunshine of them lin
gers in the hearts Of those who knew them
ong after their little lives were ended.
When Jack Connor was promoted to the
position OF engineer on the N. and G. road,
which cuts the state OF Tennessee from,
north to south, he moved his family into
the pretty little cottage standing side by
side with crippled Jerry Cranes, on the
hill just above the railroad track, in the lit
tie village of Antioch. For the engineer
was from home most of the time, and
Jerry being g cripple, Jack knew would
insure his own wife considerable company
and protection in Jerry's wife.
The houses stood side by side, and both
doors opened toward the railroad. The
village, indeed, was built so straight down
the railroad, for the train was about the
biggest thing about Antioch.
Jack Connor's cottage stood OH a hill so
near the track that he could speak to his
wife from his engine when she stood in
the door, as she usually did to see No. go
by.
The trainmen were pretty we'll acquaint-
ed with the Antioch people in general, but
there was not one among them, from con-
ductor down, who did not know Jack Con-
nor's son.
'Little Jack" they called him, and the
train never whistled for Antioch but they
would look out for the little fellow hoisted
on the wood pile to see. his fathep's engine
90 by.
He seldom went further than the wood
pile; that was his mothers order, though
the brakeman and the train butcher would
sometimes try to coax him down to the
platform with apples and sticks of striped
candy.
But he would shake his yellow curls and
throw them a kiss as the long train pulled
out.
Sometimes his mother would take him
down to speak to his father, and the little
fellow would 60 almost wild over the big
engine, and the glowing furnace, the great
bell changing hasty good-by, and the
shrill whistle, which more than once he
hal been permitted to s:puIl"
"Just naturally takes to the engine the
fireman would often say; "gets it from his
pappy."
And Jack did seem to have natural
love for a locomotive.
Jerry Crane used to say of him:
IL can allus tell when the cyars are
coming-there's slapbang of neighbor
Connor's door, click of the gate, and in a
minute little yellow head top of big
pile OF wood, and when see it always
say to my wife: Mary, the cyars are COM
ing And she looks out, not at the rail
road track, but at the wood-pile, and says
she, yes, they are coming, jerry"
Sometimes neighbor would pass and
speak to him.
'Any news today, Jack ?"
Gathers aboard today, sir.' he would
answer, or else, There's bridge down
between here and Chattanooga, sir" or No.
s will be fifteen minutes late today, sir"
He always had something to tell, and it
was mostly Of the trains or the track, en-
gines or wrecks. Anything that con-
cerned the railroad was interesting to
Jack, for, aside from his admiration for
the locomotive, little Jacks father went
up and down that long steel track Just
once each way every day.
He had his fathers head, the trainmen
said, but the neighbors declared he had his
mothers sunny, hopeful, helpful nature.
But one day trouble came 70 her door.
Engineer Conner was brought home in a
cab0ose, both legs mashed and an arm
gone, while his engine lay in ruined
heap under broken bridge just beyond
the Tennessee river.
Every man had jumped but he-freman.
brakeman, all but Jack.
Jump, Common, for your lifeT the fire
man had called to him when the timbers
began to crack.
And the man had laid his hand upon the
throttle and said:
You forget Pm engineer"
And there he stood until the crash came.
He was not quite dead when the boys
found him. and all the time they were
working with him he was praying. Just
for life enough to get home, they heard
him whisper. 9Iust long enough to get
home and die with my wife and boy
His prayer was granted; he reached
home and the two he loved best on Gods
earth just before he died he reached for
his pocketbook under his pillow and hand
ed 1T to his wife.
sit Is all I've got, Annie, !" he said. u
wish it was more, wife,
Then he laid his hand on the little head
with its crown OF yellow scurlS pressing his