St. Paul daily globe., 1892-02-19
Two Trains Sent Rushing To-
gether in the lnky Dark
ness OF Night.
How the Accident Affected
One of the Men Whom the
Public Never Sees.
He Finished His Work, Then
Suddenly Disappeared
From View.

pressed feeling had freighted the at
mosphere in the office. 1t had affected
every one. Even the wires appeared to
suffer from it.
When the sOunder began to rattle off
''os, Os, os," which prepared the dis
patchers for the report of some train
passing far-away station.t they sounded
frightfully loud. Several times Dis
patcher De Forest had shuddered and
screwed down the armature of his in
strument so that it would not make so
much noise.
AT 1915 the deep stiffness of the
room, only broken by the slow, monot-
onous ticking of the clock by which the
were regulated once day. echoed with
the words of the telegraph.
The operator at F. reported to
Dispatcher De Forest that Conductor
Mctfill of Extra 100, loaded with fresh
beef, bound east, wanted to know if he
could have ten minutes of the time of
No. /, the weSt-bound night express, to
"Old 10 Just needs little shaking up,
McGill says, to take the kinks out of his
joints" the operator added.
De Forest cast his eye down upon his
train sheet, which told him at a glance
where every train out upon the road
was. Then he looked at the clock.
j was fifteen miles from F.. If
he did not allow McGill to use ten min
utes of the express trains time the meat
train would surely be delayed for an
hour or more.
All the dispatchers had orders from
the superintendent to give the meat
trains as much show as possible, the
road being bound by a contract to get
them through in specified time. So
De Forest sent the following official
order:
To Conductor and Engineer Extra 100:
until twelve-ffty Q2:5)) a. m. to make j
against west-bound train No. one (D.
Conductor McGill signed the order,
and the operator at F. repeated it
back, according to the custom. Dis
patcher De Forest 20 KID" it. A min
ute or two later the operator at F.
said ''Os" three times to attract De For
ests attention, and then reported that
Extra 100 arrived at 2:10 a. H., and de-
parted at 1918.
The dispatcher jotted down the time
upon the train sheet ami then began
calling the operator at T, three sta
tions east of j, where the extra
freight had orders to run. lie wanted
to send the duplicate of the order to the
express train, so that it would wait at
j. for the freight
The operator at T. did not ANSWER.
and. after minute or more of steady
calling, De Forrest stopped. Dispatcher
st. John, who worked the second trick
from 8 p. m. was ill, and his work had
foil hIC two ,,.l
then, to make matters worse, Dispatcher
Thatcher had been taken suddenly ill
early in the forenoOn.a and De Forest was
got out of bed to keep the road from get
ting clogged up.
There were three other dispatchers in
the office, but they kept the western
division of the road in operation. They
were not familiar with the eastern diviS-
ion, and consequently were of no use.
This necesSitated De Forests turning
out.
He had sat at the desk since early in
the morning, and. with the terrible
strain of the position, was in no CON
dition for duty that night. So. when he
failed to raise the operator at r, he
dropped his head and stared at the
train sheet on the desk before him. He
was not asleep, but there was a tenn
porary lapse In his mind.
The night express had passed D.,
and the operator there had reported it.
This made it absolutely necessary to
get the orders to T before it ran to
that station, as there was no other tele-
graph office between that point and
j, where the freight train was to
meet it. open at night.
Dispatcher De Fcrest sat motionless
at his desk, while the big clock ticked
off the seconds loudly. Finally the east
ers wire opened.
"Os, os, os, No. l passed on time
t. SAID the sounder slowly.
De Forest Strengthened up in hiSchair,
his face wearing an expression start
ling and wild. He reached for the key
of the instrument, and his fingers played
upon 1t as he asked the operator at +
to repeat the report. There had been
no mistake. De Forest jumped upon
Office he walked, wringing his hands
and sobbing:
MY God. what have l done, what
have | done!''
Intuition gave every one else in the
office an idea of what had happened.
None of them asked him. They merely
gathered around the table and glanced
at the train sheet and then at the book
which contained copies of the train or
derS. One look told the story. De For
est continued to pace the room, crying
as if his heart would break and glanc-
ing at the big cl0c k at each turn.
The night was thick and black. 1t
was perfectly plain that only miracle
could prevent the heavy meat train,
running Oil fast time, and the flying
night express from clashing together.
Ii the operator at F. had reported
McGili's departure correctly, the others
i'll the room heard De Forest arguing out
loud, the two trains would meet on the
flats several miles west of s..
The engineers might catch glimpse
upon single track. are Indicative of
danger, in time to prevent frightfuI
accident.
But the chances were that McGill had
not pulled out of F. for five or ten
minutes after he was reported. That
was common thing when the operators
and trainmen were OH friendly terms.
Jtwas called stealing time" While
thr officials knew that it existed. they
could never change it, because the train
men protected the operators if they
failed to make their runs quickly
enough.
In such an event as that the coductor
would report to the dispatcher that he
had been detained by hot box or some
other imaginary trouble.
IL McGill had stolen any time De For
est knew that the down trains would
meet on the curve few miles west
without moments warning. Nothing
could save them in such an event.
Dispatcher De- Forest continued to
pace up and down the Office, his eyes
fixed upon the clock and his mind upon
the accident that he felt must happen.
He did not pay the slightest attention to
his colleagues in the room. He talked
to himself. tracing the two trains. rush
ing on to their doom in the darkness.
''There goes McGill," he said in tones
that made the others shiver: "there
goes McGill down the grade this side of
Calico junction. Bill Browns got old
10 wide open. God, but how he'll sail
across the flats"