The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-07-05
A "FLYER."
description Of = Wsndsrfnl Railway Trip
ON . WanderfMl NOMd.

o1crlptlOu OF \ WOmdevIul halfway TIP
ON : WondsrfMl Road.
Some three years aRo, in tho republic Of
ondurss, ! rode upon tho overland express
the Honduras and Inter- oeAnic rail-
I'D. said a speaker before the Western
pciety Of Engineers. May l describe this
ker2 First of all was q wheexv little old
hgin0. At this throttle Of which stood a
liver I've engineers call him nothing elae)
black a. Ersbus. but the very aonl OF
pod humor. Two natives sat In front.
here the pilot had once boen. with a boz
sand between them. which they applied
the track az occasion demanded. Back
the engine wher0 n few OF the most un-
kterably forlorn looking old aat cars
int the eye Of mortal ever saw,
10 boiling sun with the freight. The train
oncluded with the tirst-olass coach. A
,ntury old IL seemed, for every joint
Rwned and all the windows were broken.
long wooden bench stretched from n
nd to tho other Oh the larboard side. A
oard side whom the morning stars sang
Dgether, but at this time OF my visit
BY prone amidst tho cigar stubs and
roken pottery with which some genera
ions OF Honduras travellers had strown the
OR. There was not q brake on the entire
rain or : oar that seemed able to move
Iithout falling TO pieces, and dofed my
at before theshoary old ruins with a rsvor-
initial awe TINT my accident insurance poll
les did not aneliorate.
The conductor OF This rare aggregation Of
antiquities was a tall. sunburned specimen
{ humanity in linen clothes n straw hat
Pho hailed from Chicago. as genial, as
onest and as lazy a man as ever pulled n
ell cord or punched a ticket. He looked
nd acted an II born with his train, seemed
ust as likely to fall into pieces, and fitted
INTO the hot sun n waving palms Of the
tropics as nicely AZ though tho energy and
bush OF great Chicago had never warred
bout him. Well, after an amount OF
ghistling that loft only steam enough for
n asthmatio wheeze, the little engine
pulled out Of the station. We soon stopped.
however; to fill up the sand box on tho pi-
lot. Another move. and we stopped for
wood. Then we stopped while the conductor
hunted mp a carpenter and gave him time
. repair the tirst-class coach. We stopped
Tor water. We stopped to give me an OPP
Portunity to take some photographs: We
Etor ped for dinner. We stopped while the
escorted a drunken passenger to
bis home hard by the rail, Dad track, and
had a little visit with the family. We
stopped to get the train on tho track: We
Tor The fun OF the thing. Why there we're
more stops to that train than any grand
bryan that I ever saw, and at every stop
when we were ready to get under way. the
little engine whistled itself into the vhoop-
ing cough. and the big conductor ran
hround in the woods or through the village
be the case might be. and escorted US buck
10 the palace car.
But the roadbed ! o! shades of Eads
and Cooley and the rest Of US! That's what
gave me a passion for engineering. It
HANGED up and down like a Norman colt on
. frosty morning. 1t lodged in and out in
> way that made me dizzy to contemplate
and the iron lay upon it in angles and
that resembled the handwriting of
Horace Greeley. But like the Cunard line,
The Honduras and Inter- Oceanic has never
lost a man. and with answering faith in
I held on while tho old caboose
squeaked and ratified and 'thumped and
and stopped for nine mortal
hours over 81 miles of jagged iron. Talk
about the blue laws. witch burning and the
The civil engineering that
a road like that. that will laceyate
a mans body and harrow his soul and
destroy his piety. that will set his head and
to aching and make him sea sick
md home sick aud heart sick, if not worthy
place beside the most lurid theology of
The time. 10 at the least we'll fitted to attract
attention and it was months before I could
meet a civil engineer without having a good
deal of sympathy for myself.