The Pacific commercial advertiser., 1893-01-16

4 GRAPHIC STORY OF / THRILLING
RAILROAD WRECK.

The Road Was Slow and Horse Ca-
Line Might Have Nars Better Time
but the Speed of Its Trains Was Appre-
ciated in One Case Anyway-Here II Is.
We were sitting in the smoking car
/ Of the sleeper and the conversation uu-
t.asantly enough, drifted into the oues-
ton Of railroad wrecks. 1t was strange,
too, that this should be. for we were al
Old hands al travelling. That sort of
people seldom talk about wrecks. but wa
We're soon IN the thick of it. every man
Il Us telling MS experiences. So spoke
James a. Hart, 10 whose mind this story
I was brought by the occurrence of sew
eral bad wrecks III the east. We were
travelling from one town to another-I
won't say where-On a road | will call
the Alegazam, because | don't want to
make bad friends of the railroad people.
But the experience is worth telling. for
III never forget it if live to be thou
sand years aud a day old. There was
one big fellow in the smOker-a drum
mer who evidently was kicker. AT all
events ne did not like the Alegazam
road Why, said he, it wouldn't SUI
prise ne bit if we We're to 20 smash
before the night is over. never ride
on this road without buying ten dollars
worth Of accident policy. Oh, this Ale
gazam is a beauty. If there was a
horse car line alongside Of it | would
take that. The big drummer was get
ting TO he a nuisance III the converse
ton.
AT the end Of every horrible tale he
would brighten up and say: That isn't
marker to what will happen some day
on the Alegazam. Mark my words.
This road is hoodoo if there ever was
one. Our cigars We're smoked out as
cigars will be smoked out, and we re-
tired for the night. The drummer's
berth was only a few numbers from
mine, and as he got into bed he poked
his head out between the curtains and
said in a hoarse whisper, Let your body
hang half out the window so you'll be
on hand when it Strikes and then turned
H. and, don't doubt, went sound to
sleep, never looking for an accident, not
withstaGding all his talk.
Now, railroad wreck is a funny
thing" continued Mr.. Hart. Every
body thinks he's the last man out and
the last to hear the shock, and conse-
Quently thinks there's no hope for him.
People don't stop to consider that in
nlnetynine out Of hundred wrecks the
damage is all done at once or not at all
And this case is good exemplar.
sleep soundly but lightly when travel,
and | am a ready walker when there is
any unusual noise-that is, noise not
caused by the travel of the train over
the rails. This night | turned III
with a smile 1t my drummer's fears and
WAS fast asleep in ten minutes. The
rub-a-duD-dub OF the wheels sung me
into sound slumber, and FIN sure |
don't know how l0nr -
WIS; winch people arr lasted until
q -,,,.Eakened by d combination of three
things, and pretty thoroughly awakened
at that. First, the train had stopped
and there was no rattle. Then l hearl
voice cry out III the night outside:
For Gods sake stop that enginer
And then following that up almos
instantaneOusly there was a great crash
ing sound of breaking glass. That wa
all. Following this there was a silenc,
so profound that | could hear my watcl
ticking under my pillow. What did i
mean? a thousand questions rushed
into my head in the second of time tha
followed the breaking of the glass. Blu
before | had time to get out of the bertl
a voice rang through the car in tom
the like of which | never heard befor
and hope never to hear again.
Jump for your lives!
Il have heard and seen some quee
things in my day, but before heart
that voice | never knew what horro
meant. The feeling of mans who'll
life was concentrated into that voice
and it struck into my nerves as might
streak Of lightning that had no power T.
kill.
AS : jumped to the ground ant
rushed up the track | saw approachin!
our train on the same track, coming t,
meet our engine, the headlight of an
other locomotive That headlight anC
the dark outlines OF the engine behint
it looked to Inc like some horrible mon
ster from another world. 1t was NOR
than simple piece of machinery. Tn
thing was alive, and seemed to be abou
ten times as large as it really was. Th
impression | had Of it then was the mos
singular feeling ever knew, and | can
describe it Everything had been don
so quickly, and | was so terribly excite,
that it was not for some seconds that
noticed | was the first man in the trai,
that had got out. The strange engin
slid along the rails until it was within
few fset Of ours and stopped Then tn
people began coming out.
why, in the interval that elapsed be
tween the cry Of Jump for your lives
and the time the passengers Were alarme
and had begun to come out, a thou
sand trains might have been wrecked
Nearly all the passengers were now out
side inquiring into the cause of tn
trouble In my inquiries l discovere
the cause of the crashing glass. Th
man in the berth next mine had hear
the brakes put on, had heard the frs
outcry and, thinking that trouble wa
ahead, simply bolted through his VIII
dow, carrying the glass with him. Il
was not even scratched. We learne
that, through an error III switching q
a station up the road, the strange engin
had slid down our track just in time {
see our headlight and for both engine
10 stop twenty feet short Of a collision.
But the funniest part is to com,
Long after the first rush was over q VIII
dow Of our sleeper was broken through
Fs.;ani 1yr1,r,rrolr- dive
through it head first to the ground. Il