Arizona silver belt., 1893-01-21
ON THE ALEGAZAM.
A GRAPHIC STORY OF A THRILLING
 RAILROAD WRECK

tAVdU " FNtpH &Nf
 I.iae Might Have Mnde Better Time,
 but the Speed of its Trains Was Appre.
 clsted In One Case Anyway-Hero It Is.
 We were sitting in the smoking car pf the sleeper and the conversation un- plasantly enough, lrifted into the ques. ton of railroad wrecks It was strange too, that this should be, for we were all old hands at travelling That sort of people seldom talk about wrecks, but we were soon in the thick of it, every man of us telling his experiences. So spoke .Iaiaes A. Hart, to whose mind this story was brought by the occurrence of sev. eral bad wrecks in the east We were travelling from one town to another-l won't say where-on road 1 will call the Alegazain, because don't want tu make bad friends of the railroad people. But the experience Is worth telling, for i'l pever forget it if live 10 be a thou sand years and day old There was one big fellow ill the smoker--a drum ,ner who evidently was kicker At al eyents he did not like the Alegazam road Why. said he. it wouldn't sur prise me bit if we were to go 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 q horse car line alongside of t 1 would take that. The big drummer was get ting to be nuisance in the conversa- ton.
 At the end of every horrible tale he would brighten up and say; That isn't q marker to what will happen some day ou the Alegazam. Mark my words This roSd is hood0o if there ever was one. Our cigars were smoked out as cigars will be smoked out. and we re- tired for the night The drummer'B berth was only few numbers from mine, and as he got into bed he poSed his head out between the curtains and said in q hoarse whisper, Let your body hang half ont the window 50 you'll be on hand when it strikes; and then turned i'll. and don't doubt. went sound to sleep, never looking for an accident, not witnstanding all his talk.
 Now, n railroad wreck is a funny thing continued Mir Hart Every. body thinks he's the last man ont and the last to hear the shock and conse- quently thinks there's 10 hope for him e'eople don't stop to consider that in ninety-niae out of hundred wrecks the damage k all done at once or not at all And this case is good exemplar ] sleep acuEdig but lightly when travel. and ani | ready walker when there is any unusual noise-that is, noise not caused by the travel of the traih over the rails This night ! turned in win smile at my drummers fears and WAS fast asleep in ten minutes. The rub-a-duDdub Of the wheels sung me into sound slnmber, and i'm sure don't know how long it lasted until was awakened hy combination of three things, and pretty thoroughly awakened at that First the train had stopped and there was no rattle Then heard Il voice cry out in the nj, ,ht outside:
 For Gods sake stop that enginet
 And then following that mp almost instautanoously there was great crash. ing sound of breaking gii,ss. That was all Following this there was q silence 80 profound that copld hear my watch tl:king under my pillow. What dia ii mean? A thousand questions rushed into my head in the second of time that followed the breaking of the glass. But before had time topet cat of the berth voice rang through The ear in q tone the like of which l never heard before and hope never to hear again.
 Jump for your liyesr
 I have heard and seen some quee things in my day but before 1 heard that voice never knew what horror meant The feeling Of mans whole life was concentrated into that voice. and it struck into my nerves as might streak Of lightning that had DO power to kill.
 "As jumped 10 the ground and rushed up the track saw approaching our train on the same track, coming to meet onr engine the headlight of an- other locomotive That headlight and the dark outlines of the engine behind il looked to me like some horrible mon ster from another world. It was more than simple piece of machinery The thing was alive. and seemed to be about ten times as large as it really was The impression l had of 1t then was the most singular feeling ever knew. and cant describe it. Everything had been doue so quickly and l was so terribly excited that it was not for some seconds that noticed l was the first man in the train that had got out. The strange engine slid along the rails until it was within few feet of ours and stopped Then the people began coming out
 Why, in tue interval that elapsed be- tween the cry of Jump for your lives! and the time the passengers were alarmed 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 the trouble. In my inquiries discovered the cause of the crashing glass. The inan in the berth next mine had heard the brakes pnt on, had heard the first outcry and, thinking that trouble was ahead, simply bolted through his win dow, carrying the glass with him He was not even scratched We learned that, through an error in switching at a station up the road, the strange engine had slid down our track just in time to see 5Gf headlight and for both engines to stop twenty feet short of collision
 But the funniest part is to come Long after the first rush was over win dow of our sleeper was broken through and our friend the drummer diyed l through it head first to the ground. He had just learned that we were going to be wrecked. and he didn't want to take