Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1892-07-29
ONLY AN ENGINEER.

ONLY AN ENGINEER.
When the b.. n. s X. railroad was
opened through the hemlock wilder.
ness of Northern and Northwestern
Pennsylvania, some years ago. l was
r of the first train that made
nd trip" said Joe Carol, now
Nrie divisions, land it was
~..ens-i with such unusual
and peculiarly lively exper-
fences that l resigned my place after
that first trip. Ii l had been in the
menagerie business it might have
been Il big thing for me to have re-
manned ON the road for a few trips
longer, for l think I'd have had
enough material in that time to start
a geological exhibition. But I was
simply wanting a job as an engineer,
and not as a collector Of natural his
tory specimens. A job on a
railroad where you are ex-
pected to stop every little while
to either capture a bear or kill a cata-
mount, and where you are apt to be
attacked right in your cab by some
fierce denizen of that cheerful region,
wasn't just the kind of a job l was
looking for, and n trip was enough
for me. That trip only covered u dis
lance of about thirty miles, but we
gathered in three bears, one of them
alive, two catamounts, and the biggest
bald eagle that was ever seen in that
locality. Besides that, we had a race
with a catamount, saw two more
bears, and chased a big buck for more
than a mile before it escaped by a ire
mcndous leap across a ravine.
s'That first train over the B., p. s.
X. wasn't an excursion train, but a
train for business. 1t was q mixed
train, and l remember very we'll that
there was a carload 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 a big hemlock
tree at n side of the road. Peering
!. out from behind it was a tremendous
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, stand
ing upon his launches and gazing
after us We had hardly got over the
excitement Of the bears survey Of
us when a big catamount came
bounding through the trees from
somewhere in the woods, and
raced along the train, leaping
from tree to tree, and sometimes get
ting several rods ahead of us, al.
though we were running twenty-five
miles an hour. Whenever the Wild
cat got ahead of us it would stop and
crouch on a 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 disappeared.
Whether it was the same catamount
that met us two or three miles
further on, in company with a mate,
and boldly boarded the train, l can't
say, but it is likely that it was.
Whether it was or not, when we
were going up a very steep grade
known as Shows Mountain, and nee.
essarily running slow, I suddenly
heard a. great bleating among the
calves in the cattle car, which was
only the second car behind the en-
CINE. I leaned out of the cab win
dow and saw a catamount clinging to
the side of the cattle car and trying
to push himself into the car between
Stats, but the opening was too small.
I grabbed the long iron poker used
by the fireman, and jumping from
the engine. ran back and dealt the
wild cat a blow that knocked it par.
tiallv loose from the car. My attack
on the catamount turned its atten.
tion from the calves to me, and it
sprang from the car at me. Another
blow stunned the cat, and another
one broke its back.
"My fireman had by this time
stopped the train, and the conductor,
and a brakeman came running to-
ward the cattle car Before they
reached 1T I made the discovery that
q second wildcat, which, being smaller
than the one I had killed, had
squeezed between the Stats of the cal,
and had already killed a calf, and
was making ajmeal from it in one
corner, the other calves being hud-
dleo in a trembling. bleating group at
the other end of the "a The con.
ductor Of the 6rain had a revolver,
and he put the weapon through an
opening in The car, close to the cata-
mount, and fired. The fierce animal
sprang to its feet, and seeing me and
the brakeman close to the car, on the
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 fired a second
ball into the cat. and the tough beast
got up again and leaped toward the
conductor, striking the side Of the
car and clinging to 1t this time, and
endeavorinR to get out at one of the
narrow openings. The conductor
shot the animal in the throat, and it
fell back and died.
1.-THE conductor carried the two
dead wildcats back to the express
chr. and We started on nm the hill.