The morning news., 1893-12-03

decreased as it climbed the hillside one of
them was enabled to board it and apply
the brake before it reached the obstruc-
ton at the end. 49,
When they did so McHugh was found
on the bench, sitting bolt upright and
sound asleep. When aroused and told of
the perilous ride he had had he refused
To believe it, and only after looking in
vain for his train did he come to a sense
of the situation. There were a hundred
and one chances for that car to either
Jump The track or crash into another
train and kill the sleeping McHugh, but
he can certainly be Classed with the ones
born under lucky star
THE RULE or THREE.
Few veteran engineers there are who
will not tell you that the rule Of three has
quite as much to do with railroad acci-
dents as it has to do with the theory and
practice of proportion. A serious mishap
to a train invariably causes a shudder of
apprehension among the trainmen the
whole road over, for a large number of
them are firm in the belief that many
days will not pass before a second and
third will happen to round out the trinity
of accidents which to their minds was
fOreshadOwed in the tirstdisaster. 1t isno
use to laugh at the superstition of the en-
gineer who has run trains at breakneck
speed over unseen bridges on dark nights
without turning hair, as he stands pre-
dieting trouble with seemingly childish
fear. He will quote instances, ancient
and modern, and will tell that when
Young and a fireman he himself was an
unbeliever, but that by experience the
truth of the adage has been proved to
him.
social session of the "Tie and Rail
Club was being held one evening re
,a,,tIV down the Oll house IN Nir,gi,ia
avenue, when an Evening Star reporter
happened to drop in. The discussion was
warm, and many of the stories told were
given as illustrations to substantiate as
SertiOns that it is better TO be born lucky
than rich. An engineer, all rugged out in
a suit Of blue jean, and who was sched-
uled to go out on the fast freight was
telling how Slight the barrier between
life and death may sometimes be. and
how his lucky star permitted him to re
late the story at this time He said:
Il was running at good rate of speed
one day. when, as | approached a part of
the road about two miles east of Phila-
delphia on the newly built Baltimore and
Ohio road where there was rathera sharp
curve. and where the road bed was raised
about forty feet above the turnpike level,
the front wheel on the outward side un-
der the forward truck of the locomotive
\
shaft and rolled down the embaukment.
Instantly all the wheels under the whole
train-engine, tender baggage car and
several passenger CarS-werC humping
along over the ties
The humping and iolting was so
violent that no one could steady himself
preparatory to leaping from the cars; all
the passengers could do was to hold on
for dear life After this frightful ride
had been continued for about 300 feet, and
we were running fully fifty miles an hour,
the reversed engine brought the cars to a
standstill. nobody the worse except for
the fright and jolting.
What do you think saved us,' asked
the engineer, casting an inquiring
glance around to his companions, all of
whom shook their heads negatively
Merely a little one-inch iron bolt nut un-
der the pilot. The nut was brought, when
the cars left the rails, against the inner
side of the outward rail. and, acting as a
sort of fange. served to keep the course
of the cars forward instead Of outward. II
was all a com binatiOn of things not TO be
met with once in 10000, 600 times
HELD on THE ANLE.
con, that experience is nothing to Tom
Kellv's. the boss Of section No. Il. up near
Bowie. chimed in a greasy-lool1ing loco
motive cleaner. Tom was walking on
the west bound track one day last spring
so as to face trains approaching him,
when a wild cat engine running back