The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-03-01
- RAILROAD MEN suPERsTITIous.
When They Escape From Danger, They Re
gard It Merely Luck.

When They Escape From Danger, They Re-
gard It Merely as Luck.
If there is one thing that a railroad en-
ployee believes in more than another, it is
luck. No matter how clearly practical
man may analyze certain odd occurrence.
they will obviously shake their heads and
contend that it was case of luck, good OF
bad, pure and simple For instance, il one
of their number had been ordered out on
certain train and through sickness had
failed to report, and the man taking his
place had been killed, they will, one and
all, emphatically declare it was a case OF
lucky sickness for the man that was COM
PEELED to remain at home. They fail to see
the fact that the su bstitute proved negli-
gent in his duty, and had the regular man
been in his place it was hundred to one
chance that the accident would not have
occurred.
1t is occurrences like the following that
lend color of substance to trainman's
belief in luck: When coming into the yard
at Weatherly, Pa, a small station neal
Hazleton, with his train, Conductor John
McHugh told one of the brakemen to cut
the caboose loose at the lower end of the
siding and let the engine take the train to
point near the western end. McHugh
had then been on the road for 30 hours.
and his eyes were heavy for lack of sleep.
AS ordered, the brakeman a few minutes
later pulled the pin holding the caboose,
and supposing that the conductor would
take care of the caboose continued up the
track with the cars.
He noticed later, however, that the ca
boose had run out on the main line again,
and that McHugh had not appeared on
the platform. The road at that point is
marked by a grade which drops SO feet to
the mile, and to catch the caboose was
impossible.
Taking in the situation, the trainman
FASTENED to the telegraph office, and mes
sages wer. se1.t to the different offices be-
low to either sdetrsck or dera1l the run
away caboose. II was NOT known whether
the conductor was 10 it or net. The oper-
ator at Black Greek reported the car by
his station and this man at Penn Haven
was barely notified when the runaway
shot by tn window of his station. Down
the mount % side the car rushed with the
rapidity of lightning, while within 1t sat
Conductor McE agh, asleep and obllv1ous to
the danger his nap was mourning. Fortu-
nately there were no west bound trains
started out from Packingtcn, and the i'm
mGQSG Ql dllONttt tilHO III oho wv
ator to set the switches and run til car UP
the SAFETY track. Other trainmen were
distributed along the graded track, and as
the speed OF the runaway caboose decreased
as it climbed the hillside one of them was
enabled to board it and apply the brake
before it reached the obstruction at the
end.
When he did so, McHugh was found
on the bench sitting bolt upright and
sound asleep When aroused and told Of
the periloEs ride be had had, he refused
to believe it, and only after looking in
vain for his train did he come to sense
of the situation. There were 101 chances
for that car to either jump the track Or
crash into another train and kill the sleep
Ing McHugh, but he can certainly be
.lassed with the ones born under a lucky
Har,-New York World.