The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1892-05-18
IN General.
A Bear ON a Locomotive.

Est known locally as the Bear Den woods.
The name was due to the fact that
scanned and rocky ledge, extending dag.
onally across the wild stretch was favor
tie lodging place for bears, which were
numerous in that region then, and in fact
still hold their own there in numbers sufIi
cient to be q source of much annoyance to
the farmers who strive for living on the
borders of the woods. The road connected
Chiffon Forks with the settlements at
Wigton's Willows, a distance of twenty
eight miles, and was built to develop the
timber and coal resources of the region. /
was the engineer of the construction train
during the building of the road, and it was
a common sight to see bears come out of
the woods at frequent points along the
line and inspect with ludicrous curiosity
the strange work that was going on in
their domain. We got so we didn't mind
them any more than we might so many
pigs grunting along the track.
The railroad was completed toward the
end of the summer, and a day was set for
running the first train over it from Chiffon
Forks to the Willows. There was long
trestle a mile west of Gravely's station
which carried the road over a ravine that
was more than hundred feet deep The
track went onto the trestle from a very
| sharp curve, and the trestle was not en-
| tirely finished, so that no train or engine
| could yet be run over it with safety, ex-
| cept with very slow and careful motion.
! The day the train was to be run the sec
tion foreman discovered that a piece of
| track near the eastern extremity of the
| Bear Den woods could be bettered consid-
erably by little more filling in and bal
lasting, and as everybody on the work had
to be a sort of general utility man, he sent
my fireman and me with carload of
gravel to bolster up the weak spot. The
| job was a bigger one than it was thought,
and when we had finished the work it was
| almost time for the excursion train to be
coming along.
In fact we had heard the locomotive
whistling at Cherry Rum two miles east of
us. We had also heard the mutterings of
one of those fierce storms that were com
mon in the region. By the time we had
got on the engine and were preparing to
pull out for Gravely's the storm came
bowling down worse than any had seen
since had been on the road. We could
hear the trees crashing down before it, and
as | jumped in the cab big limb from Il
hemlock came swooping square on the en-
CINE, and pinned me down between the
|
| were in wise. The fireman had stepped
up on the coal in the tender, and the same
fearful gust that bore the limb down on
me caught him and whipped him out of
the tender as if he had been a bundle of
straw, and | heard him drop in the brush
off to one side of the track. He didn't come
back and supposed he was killed.
There lay perfectly helpless, and knew
that the train with all the officers of the
road and their friends aboard was boom
ing along, and that in less than two min
utes it must come dashing at full speed
upon my engine. The inevitable result of
such a catastrophe was terrible to think
| about. The storm was now raging fright
fully through the woods. Trees were fall
ing ON every side, and | could almost feel
my hair turning gray. AS | lay there,
struggling to free myself, a bear, terror
stricken by the awful commotion in the
woods and hurrying to escape from its
fury, came climbing into the cab, and
stumbling over the butt of the heavy limb
that pinned me to the floor, tumbled against
the furnace door. The bear scrambled to
his feet and went paving wildly about in
the cab But | gave no thought to the
bear, for mingling with the tumult of the
storm | heard the rumble and tremor of
the approaching train on the rails
Suddenly heard familiar click, and
instantly the engine started forward with
a bound. | turned my head and looked at
the lever. The bear, in his aimless clutch
ing about in the cab, had caught it with
his paws and had pulled her wide open.
| The track was down grade all the way to
Gravely's, and, great heaven! how we flew!
The excursion train was right behind us,
| I fatx- 1s Il
have crashed into my engine. But that
great horror was escaped, and, although
was pinned down by the limb and had a
bear for Il pilot, almost tainted with joy.
Down that grade we flew like the wind
that was bowling all around us. The
humping and rolling of the locomotive
seemed to make the bear wild with excite
ment, and he pranced about in the cab like
crazy person. Then of a sudden the
sharp curve and the dangerous trestle
beyond Gravely's flashed across my mind.
At the rate we were going, even if we
rounded the curve all right, we would
strike that trestle at a mile minute, and
down we should go to the bottom of that
ravine, 100 feet belowl
With this new horror fresh upon me the
engine flashed out of the woods into the
open country. just a mile and half more
to the trestle, and | couldn't see how any
thing on earth could save us AS we tore
by the little station at Gravely's the bear
in his prancing and clutching caught sight
of the whistle cord. That excited his curl
osity and he seized it and gave it a lusty
pull. The whistle responded with shrek
that startled even me. It's effect on the
bear was electric. He tumbled over back
ward and fell across the butt of the limb
that held me down. His weight tipped il
up and lifted the other end off of me. The
bear rolled out of the cab to the ground
and was freed from the limb. | crawled
to the lever, reversed it and tainted. When
came to 1 was lying on the ground with
men around me. The pilot of the locomo
tive was half its width on the trestle.
1t has always been a sorrow in my life
that the bear that saved my life and the
lives of many others that day was killed
by his fall from the cab, My fireman was
badly hurt by his sudden voyage through
the air, but lived to run many trip witt
me on the old q. f. & W. W.-Nelo Yor
Sun,
A IL, ,nI