The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1892-06-23

burdened by the recollection 5of his
former perils. After waiting reason
able length OF time for him to resume
his story, / said, when the collision
occurred, was it with the train in
front or in the rear, or with BOTH"
a'Oh, the colllsion' said the con-
ductor. ''Well, now you come to the
ridiculous part Of the story. The
collision did not take place at all \" he
said, in an apologize tone, as il there
ought to have been a serious accident
after so much preparation. sWhile
was standing on the platform, think
ing whether | had better warn the
passengers to hold themselves ready
for shock, Jake came from forward
dragging after him two large petroleum
cans, each of which would hold "a
quarter OF a barrel of oil.
CHOW, them said Jake to me, If
you will oil one side OF the track, I
will try the other
81 saw at once what his plan was
We each brought the mouth Of an oil
can as near to the polished surface Of
the rail as possible, and commenced
pouring on it the kerosene. In less
than a minute half-mile OF the iron
rails on both sides was nicely oiled
and slippery"
"You have raised my expecta-
tons of a catastrophe SO high
that you have been obliged to
grease the track so as to let them
down easily" said I, tor ! felt a little
nettled at the unexpected turn the
story had taken, and was inclined to
believe that the conductor was draw
ing largely upon his imagination for
the faces. s:45.-
"Why don't you know that an
engine can no more make Roadway
on a CREASED track than a tom-cat
can climb a steep roof covered with
ice?" said the conductor, with pity
ing glance vt one so profoundly ignor-
ant OF railroad matters as myself.
II slapped Jake on the back, and
said, old fellow, your cuteness has
brought us all out of a hard scrape.'
"In a few seconds the lantern Of the
train behind us was getting dim in the
distance. We slackened speed and
backed down to see what the matter
was with Simpson, as Jake said.
There stood the old Ben Franklin
putting like a mad bull, the driving
wheels buzzing around on the creased
track like all possessed, but not
gaining an inch. We sanded
the track, and bore down upon the
old machine. Jack was the first
aboard, spelling for a lgood chance
at the engineer, Simpson. But no
sign of an engineer, fireman, or any
other living being was to befound The
engine had only a tender attached,
and although there was still a full
head OF steam on, the fires were get
ting low. We made short work in
pushing back to Lakeland. We
reached the station, and got fairly
upon the switch when the Greenport
train, which we should meet there,
came in, and were waiting as ifnothing
had happened, and as ii we had not
been fifteen miles out on the road to
meet it a few minutes before.
'The telegraph operator at Lake
land handed me a dispatch which
read as follows
ITO Conductor C: The Ben Frank
lin has broken loose, and is coming
up the road. Turn switch at Lake
land, and run her off the track.
'.". Barton, Supt. !
:. brooklyn, 1O.5 p. m. -
"You see, we did not have much
time for turning switches at Lake
land,' he continued, $50 we did still
better, and saved the old Ben-which
was not responsible after all-from a
smash up"