The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1892-08-10
MET ON THE TRAGIC.
Animals That Meet Death Before the
Engine.

Engine.
"Of all animals that wander along
the railroad track" declared veteran
locomotive engineer to Washington
Star reporter, "goats are the most irri-
tating. It's next to impossible to kill
them, and that's not the least tantaliz-
ing feature about them from the stand
point of our profession. No matter
how fast you may be running or how
quietly you steal down upon him, Mr..
Goat will see you out of the corner of
his eye and manage to get away just
in time to miss the cowcatcher as the
engine rushes by him at lightning
speed. Cows and horses are generally
disposed of with ease, though some
times they get under the wheels and
cause bad wreck. But they're so
large that the pilot gets under them
and throws them off to one side. The
goat, though, nearly always succeeds
in getting us worked up to a high
pitch of nervousness and then con-
trives to get off without scratch, and
that's what we don't like.
speaking of striking animals on
the rail-" continued the engineer, "the
one thing we most dread to meet on
the track is hog, Nine chances out
of ten the hog'n throw you. He is
tough and greasy, you know, and if
an engineer has any show at all, it's
best for him to stop the train as quick
as it can be done and drive the animal
off the track.
"When the pilot of an engine hits a
hog it usually knocks him down, and
then rolls him for few yards before
the trucks strike him; and when they
do there's great danger of their leav-
ing the rails. The drivers are almost
certain to follow the trucks and you're
lucky if you don't go down the bank,
So you see what havoc one pig can
make with railroad. Another disa-
greeable thing about pig is that he
never stops squealing from the time
he is hit until he is stone dead.
eSheep are the most pitiful of all an
imals to run down. They seem to
realize the danger they're in and hud-
ing death. Their innocent eyes stare
at you so mournfully and sadly that
they haunt you for days to come. A
locomotive seems to take savage de-
light in destroying sheep, 1t throws
them in every direction and will kill a
whole flock in an instant.
Il struck flock of geese once" pro-
| ceeded the engineer. "Wen, l never
thought there were so many feathers
in the world. I couldn't see anything
but feathers for ten minutes, and when
we reached the station my engine
looked as if she had received coat OF
tar and feathers"
Here the engineers eyes began to
sparkle, and he stopped talking to hold
his fat sides, shaken with suppressed
laughter over a funny recollection.
| Mentioning feathers" he explained
after pause, recalls to my mind a
comical experience / had few years
| ago in running a fast limited passen-
ger train over the Pennsylvania main
| line from Pittsburg to Philadelphia.
We'd gone through the town of Hun
| tingdon, on the Juniata. without slack
ing up, and had whirled safely around
the base of the ridge east of there,
when we struck a little stretch OF
straight level between high dirt banks,
| known as Snyder's cut. | cast my
eyes on ahead as we scudded along to
a wagon-road crossing near the lower
| end of the cut. just as we approached
| it two-horse team was driven down
from the turnpike at the right side,
apparently with the intention to cross.
But instead of crossing the team stood
still. Two men were in the wagon,
and they seemed to be having an alter
cation as to whether they should cross
or go back. As a compromise they
just stood there on the track. | re
versed the engine and whistled dowr
brakes, but it was too late, We struck
| the team square in the middle, and
then-O, my!"
Here the engineer laughed without
restraint. Then he resumed: "The
men in the wagon were evidently
farmers returning from town in s
boisterous humor after days mar
| l1etipg, carrying home with them q
queer cargo of .store goods Curious
| to relate they weren't hurt in the least,
nor were the horses. The wagon, nps
| til we cut it clean in two, contained a
feather bed. keg of nails and bar
rel of whisky.
"Now, we struck them all at the
same instant. The nails flew way up
in the sky, as it seemed, and came
down with a peppering rattle over the
roofs of all the coaches in the train fo1
at least five minutes. The feathers
scattered far and wide through the
air like a driving snow-storm and
seemed to come from thousand
bursted feather beds instead of one
The whisky got mixed with the feath
ers and spurted high up in every di
rection, falling in fine spray princi
pally over the engine, the tender and
the first couple of coaches. The whisky
and feathers elung to the tops anC
sides of the cars and against the win
dow panes for the remainder of the
trip, and the passengers, as l was tolc
afterward, all got thirsty with vair
longings from shifting the rum-soake6
atmosphere. It was altogether the
funniest mess I ever was in, and the
strangest combination. Think of it
nails, whisky and feathers-all fyins
through the air and following US fol
miles and miles, o, my" And thu
jolly engineer laughed again anC
again, until he actually cried, at tht
picture he had in mind.