The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-05-06
PRESIDENT IVES FAST RIDE.

Three or four years ago President Ives
of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and
Northern Railroad was coming down the
road in his special after an inspection
tour to Sioux Falls. Chief Engineer
White, General Passenger Agent Hanne-
gan, General Freight Agent UT and the
presidents son Charlie, who has now
become general freight agent, were
among those ON the old special car No.
101. The equipment of the road was not
in as good condition then as now, but
President Ives believed it was better
roadbed than the New York Central had
He would pin his faith to that any time,
and nobody connected with the road
ever thought of differing with the "old
man."
Now, between LivermOre and Gold
field there is a good long stretch of
straight track which swings off in sharp
bend at Goldfeld, just as the bridge over
the Boone river is reached. The Boone
is not large stream anywhere, and up
here near its headwaters it is a pretty
small waterway to be called a river.
Still it is big enough to have bridge
over it, and that is something. Now, all
the way down the party had been sitting
in the coy little Office at the end of the
car looking out over the track, spinning
yarns and smoking, and every little
while President Ives would growl out
something about the slow time the train
was making.
At last, when Livermore was reached
and stop made to take water he said
to his son: "Charlie, go ahead and tell
the engineer to pull her wide open; I'm
getting tired of this slow time" Charlie
obeyed with cheerful alacrity. No mes
sage ever lost any of its redundant ac-
cessories when he carried it, so he went
up to the engine and yelled: Dave, the
old man says he wants you to pull her
wide open or he'll raise hell. He says
if you're afraid to run the train he'll
come up himself
"Oh, he will, will hep" replied old
Dave Funk. "Well, I'll shake him up,
guess"
When the train started there was Jolt
that nearly cracked the coupling
and Livermore was out of sight in about
a minute. Before the train had gone
TWO miles General Passenger Agent Han
negan said: "That's deuced big herd
of cattle grazing over there" The fact
was that there were several herds of cat
tie, but the velocity of the train merged
them into one. The farm houses, which
were never nearer than a mile apart, be-
gan to look like row of city flats. All
this time the inmates of the special were
being tossed about the car like a dollar
in basket. Engineer White had his
watch in his hand and was vainly en-
deavoring to count the telegraph poles
so as to gauge the speed of the train.
General Passenger Agent Hannegan was
hanging on to window sill with both
hands and General Freight Agent UT
had backed his chair up in a corner so
he could not be hurled to the floor.
President Ives sat in his chair in the
middle of the floor, his feet well spread
out so as to guard against the sudden
and terrific jOlts, his hands grasping the
sides of the chair, his teeth set and his
face pale. He was riding about 20 miles
an hour faster than he wanted to, but he
wouldn't own up, and he vas prepared
to die rather than acknowledge by any
sign or word that it wasn't the smoothest
he had ever ridden over.
In the meantime the car rolled from
side to side, jumped clear of the track,
and then settled down again as though it
was going right through to China. 1t
was wonderful how it ever kept the rails,
but it did.
When the train began drawing near
Boone river everybody drew a sigh of