The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-07-10
WITH A MANIAC ENGINEER.
An English stoker's Story of Why He
was Impelled to Take Human Life.

Z
was Impelled to Take Human Life
From the Chambers Journal
Some years ago 1 was well off and re-
ceiyed the education and bringing up Of a
gentlemen, but lost all my capital, and
about two years ago found myself penni-
less. After some fruitless efforts l OBJ
tanned the position of a railway stoker.
On the day when l went through the
most disagreeable experience of my
life was travelling from PadlIngton to
Cowchester. The engine driver was a
man named John Morgan. He had
been many years in the company's
service and bore an excellent character
for steadiness, but was considered
rather tactiturn. About an hour after leav-
ing Padlington, Morgan stopped suddenly
| in the middle of sentence, and said :
| ''Well must get to work now" Then he
/ opened the firebox door and
called out TO me: More coal
Shovel il in" he roared. with
an oath ~I'm going to make her travel :"
To pacify him ! took up shovelful and
| managed to upset a good deal of it before
! reached the fire box. you clumsy fool :"
he called. out; here, give it TO me :" and
snatching the shovel out of my hands, he
crammed ON as much coal as he could get
in. In few minutes our speed increased
enormously, and | calculated we were
travelling at the rate of seventy miles an
hour. l thought it was time TO remOn-
strate. and turning TO Morgan, l noticed
that the indicator showed fun speed l
called his attention to the fact "Ha
hal" he cried in reply. "Stopl I'm
never going to stop again. ! told YOU I'd
make her travel. What do you want to
stop forl Get on. old wench, get on T"
Then he burst into hideous peal of
laughter
A cold sweat of absolute terror broke
outOn me as realized the state of things
Here was a raving maniac, far stronger
man than myself, in charge of a train
full of people. | tried to collect my scat
tered ideas and decide what was best to
be done. Meanwhile, Morgan sat on
rail near the boiler 1ourishing a shovel
and shouting uprOariously. The train
rushed on with incredible speed, not
steadily and evenly, but with leaps and
bounds that threatened to throw the en-
CINE of the line at every yard. There was
no doubt the man was as mad as a man
could be, and he was also master of the
situation. | made one effort to reach
the handle by which the steam is
turned off, but the mailman was
too sharp for me. mo. you don't!" he
shouted He brought his shovel down
with a tremendous blow on the rail at my
side, just missing my head. We were not
more than twenty miles from Blinton
Junction, and If we did not stop there the
whole train must inevitably be wrecked
and probably not one passenger would es-
cape uninjured, and but few with their
lives. 1 looked back to the train. Out
side the windows were hands gesticulat-
ing, and frightened, alarmed faces At
the end of the train the guard was way
ing q red flag Something must he done
and by me, or we should be all inevitably
lost. made up my mind. 1 turned to
Morgan with smile on my face and l
said:
"Old boy, you're quite right, this is a
fine pace, but 1t amt quite fast enough
Look herer' and l caught him by the
arm and led him to the side of the engine
next to the double rail. See" | cried
there is another train coming up faster
than u.s. and she will pass us we must go
faster. but let's see first who is driving
her; lean forward and look. Can you
| see2 -
The poor maniac stepped outside of the
rail and leaned forward to look for the
imaginary train, when ! gave him sud.
denrpush and he fell in heap on the side
rails and was killed on the spot. With a
gasp of relief sprang back to the engine
and turned OFF the steam. It was not a
| moment too soon. We were well in sight
| of Ilinton Junction before l had the train
| properly under control. l pulled up at
| the platform all right and then tainted