Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1894-06-01

going "a the office / set e for the side i
track. Entering the office, found what
appeared to be 14-year-old boy lying
sound asleep On the table. Beside him lay
the order had heard at Galva, properly
%. KID, but no flag out. Our conductor,
Ed Finn, I think, came rushing up ex
citedly, inquiring where, for heavens
sake, we expected to go ahead OF No. 4 at
that rate. My only reply was to point to
the order on the manifold book. The
fyoungster slept on, oblivious Of the racket
we were making, and Finn shook him,
inquiring, Young Teller, what's your
board for?' s3= 81
s I'm holding seven forty, began the
little fellow in piping, childlike voice.
ss1Why in - amt your board out?'
beloved the conductor, interrupting him.
oh, my, forgot it, said the boy, his.
teeth chattering in terror.
Here was nice state Of affairs. The
lives of 90 men had been jeopardized by
the irresponsiblenes of small boy, and
still we could not blame him His place
should have been in rundle bed by his
mothers side, instead of bearing response
bilities which should only be intrusted to
men. -
Meantime had notified Galesburg
that we found no board out on arrival at
Duggans and was instructed to close
down the office and throw the boy out.
While engaged in strengthening out this
hiatus headlight appeared far down to-
ward Kewanee, where the long curve west
Of the town turns to the west Another,
another and still another, four trains, and
had it not been for the accident Of my
hearing the order sent while at Galva we
would have been whirling along to what
might have been certain death to some of
US, for a head end collision between our
trains and Lafferty's extra would have
'nosed' Merrill into the rear OF Lafferty S
train, No. Al into Merrill and No. IS into
41-three hind end and one head end col
isions. Verify, my lucky star was in tho
ascendant.
Speaking about nerve and Indifference
to bodily harm, the most astonishing in
stance ever saw was at Maiden, Ills, in
1879 or $780, Conductor Johnny O'Shea
was going east one night, with Jerome
de Jarald pulling him. Between Prince
ton and Maiden the train passed into a
haze of smoke and swamp fog which ex-
tended clear over to Maiden. -
when almost up the station at Maiden,
out through the fog suddenly doomed up
the red tail lights Of train ahead, at a
standstin inside the switches. Jerome had
no time for anything but to reverse, drop
some sand and begin to plug, when he
was upon the hind end just ahead of him.
His fireman and the forward brakeman
jumped off, but jerome staid right there.
With a heavy crash the engine nosed un.
der the caboose, hosting it high in the air,
and falling on top of Jerome's engine ii
completely dismantled her. Half a dozen
cars ahead were reduced to kindling wood
and the cars behind the engine ran through
the tank nearly up to the boiler head
There was great excitement The Other
trafnmen were preparing to search for tho
remains of poor old Jerome when, from:
a space barely large enough for man tt
| crouch, came Jerome through his shattered
! front cab window. He was somewhat
grimy and scratched up, but not seriously
hurt. Above him. were the shattered tim
bers of the wrecked caboose, around hin
| the splintered ends of car stills from thu
| first car of his.own train. He had escaped
/ death by miracle In his hand, as he
leaped from his ruined engine, he held hi
dinner pail.
| Looking curiously at the wreck, he re
marked, Boys, we did good job then
and as we can do nothing till a wreckine
outfit gets here we better adjourn fo1
lunch With these words hewalked ove1
and sat down by the fence along the righ'
Of way, leisurely ate his lunch and dranl
his coffee, the while good naturally ban
tering the other trainmen for being rat
tied Then he lighted his pipe, and saun
tering down to the telegraph Office wiret
Bob Colville, the master mechanic, of tn
extent Of the damage.
"Another mishap, showing the ute
recklessness with which section men an.
others run hand cars on the main track a.
the imminent peril of their lives, occurred
about this time, the damage, however, be
ing insignificant. I was going east on
dark, foggy night, and having heav,
train was letting it down Neponset hill
pretty lively, trusting to luck and DR.. La
\ moreux to get us through without acci