The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-01-07
NIllIIs Es9lr
AN OLD RAILRoADER's STORY,
Kindly Acts, Like Chickens and Evil
Deeds. Come Home to RoOst.

AN OLD RAlLROADER'S STORY
Kindly Acts, Like Chickens and Evil
Deeds, Come Home to RoOst.
81 don't believe a good action goes
hnrewarded," said an old railroad man
the other day to the writer.
About twenty years ago was SHOW
cling black diamonds to boil the water
in a locomotive on the Wabash railway
between Lafayette, Ind, and Danville,
Ill. Near Attica, Ind, there was an
overhead wagon bridge across the track
that had killed no less than five brake.
men in five years. and one dark,
stormy night, in coming down the hill,
j happened to remember that we
had green brakeman ahead,
who was unacquainted with the road.
] spoke TO the engineer about it,
but he said: oh, let him go; he's all
right But / didn't feel like letting
fellow mortal take any such chances,
snd started back over the train, crawl
ing from car to car in the Egyptian
darkness, and came near being blown
off several times, as it was blowing great
guns, and old No. So was tanning that
train fifty miles per hour down the sum
nit. Back twelve cars from the engine
found 'Brakesy,' who was as tail,
handsome a man as you could find in
thousand, and he was twisting up the
slack of those brake chains with neat
less and dispatch, while the wheels
made a regular torchlight procession
along the rails. He was badly scared
when he first discovered me by the light
of his old lantern, crawling along the
running board, with my face as black
rs the ace of spades from the dusty dia,
monds.
- sit down. Sit down. I cried, so
loud that / almost imagined the whistle
was sounding for Attica: and down he
sat, so hard and quick that he bit his
tongue, and the next moment we few
under the bridge, while his lamp seemed
TO burn brighter as it disclosed those
heavy timbers over our heads that had
killed many poor brakemen. He came
near fainting when he clasped my hand,
ard we sat for several moments on the
wet deck of the car, and neither of us
spoke a single word, but we were as
white around the eyes as the ghost of
Hamlet's father.
six years afterward I was in Fort
Wayne, Ind, at the Wabash depot, one
morning, the most disconsolate man on
Gods earth. I had been hurt on the
road several years before, was unable to
work, and was trying to get back home
to old Lafayette, Ind, as | thought to
die. i was hungry and tired, and didn't
have cent in the world, and to cCa the
people step up to tie lunch counter and
call for hot coffee that was smelling to
Heaven was enough to set poor, fiat
broke invalid crazy. l had begun to
think that all my friends had been con-
veniently translated bodily from earth
TO Heaven. when tall, handsome con-
ductor. with silver lamp and gold.
banded cap, approached me and in
CURED:
Didn't you fire an engine about five
years ago on the western division of the
Wabash?'
Yes l replied, and it was a sorry
lay that l ever went to rail- oading.'
DO You recognize me?'
NO, SIR And vet thought his face
5egan TO assume the angelic.
"'Well, / will refresh your memory.
DO you recollect of risking your life
one dark. stormy night in crawling
over freight train to warn a green
brakeman about dangerous overhead
bridge below Attica?
''You bet do! But you're not Billy
The brakeman
Ono; sir! No more Billy in mine:
it's Will-sweet Will-condnctor Oh the
through passenger and he broke into
a musical laugh that nearly ratified the
dishes on the lunch counter.
THE tears came to my eyes in spite
of me, for | was weak, weary and
heartsicll. He noticed them, and,
clasping my hand, said in the sweetest
words that ever fell on mortal ears:
"'Come, come! Shut her off and oil
:he valves, and he led me to stool at
Che lunch counter and said
"'Now, you sit here and fill up Let
few biscuits hit the chair and you will
be all right again
HE stepped into the dispatcher's of
Ace to get his orders, while l poured
down coffee that would discount the
nectar of the gods. lie appeared in
about ten minutes and said: AN aboard
for Lafayettev' took me by the arm and
led me to a coach, and then stepped
back to the platform and waved his
moss agate at the engineer. I curled
mp in the seat when the train started to
hide the tears that kept yelling up in
my eyes, and for the first time in twenty
long years could have cried like baby.
l believe in a special providence since
shat terrible night and the morning
was heartbroiSen. And Bill is still pull
ing a bell-cord in the vanished cars on
the old Wabash. Argentine Republic.
ury OOsue.