The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-12-27

thought came TO aAss.lAo an inspiration
the power to save the village lies in your
hand. And my hand was on the lever Of
the engine.
Within a minute from the time when I
saw tho logs dart toward the opening in
the dam / had made mp my mind what to
do. The Colonel Merriam rolled off the
turntable and Began to puff down the
main track toward Jericho. Past the sta
ton and the side tracked coaches thun-
dered thesbig locomotive; and aswe passed
/ caught b glimpse Of the astonished face
of the conductor as he stood en- one Of the
platforms. Then, Wen OUT Of the Village,
I threw the throttle wider open, and the
Colonel Merriam began to.bdnBd over the
rails like a race horse.s Glanctng Back for
an instant, my heart almost stood still as
/ saw The fated dam rapidly yielding to
the water, while behind me tossed a dark,
boiling foam crested torrent, almost filling
the narrow gorge md rushing on with ter
rife speed.
Tho railroad skirted the bank of the riv-
er all the way to Jericho, and If the flood
should overtakc me both l and my engine
would DO engulfed in the raging torrent.
Could / keep ahead of that angry water2
Nay, that was not the question: Could l
distance it sufficiently to warn Jericho in
time? How many minutes would it take,
/ asked myself, to get the people out of
their houses and on to the higher land2
Five or ten minutes certainly, though the
village was SO Small that n might have
stood in the center Of it and made his cry
of warning heard in thefarthest dwelling.
I throw the throttle still wider open.
The Colonel Merriam was fairly flying al
ready, but tho great drive wheels spun
faster and faster, and the engine rocked SO
violently that the bell rang with it's sway
ing motion. Tho UNPUBLISHED roadbed and
( the newly laid rails made a track SO
treacherous and uneven that l feared my
engine would wrench herself to pieces as
she rocked along, bat | dared not decrease
the speed. Rather I must increase it, for
as yet I scarcely seemed keeping'pace with
the ever deepening and broadening flood
behind.
The time had come to venture all. I
threw the throttle wide open, and the en-
CINE leaped forward as if she had felt the
flashing of the torrent at horheels. Ii she
had been racing before like a wild horse,
now she was flying like a frightened bird.
The great wheels scarcely seemed to touch
the rails. The trees and fences beside the
track were all a blur, and the telegraph
poles flashed by SO fast that they looked
like the pa1ings of q fence. A curve would
have thrown the Colonel Merriam from
the rails in an instant, but fortunately the
track was straight from this point to Jer-
icho.
The village was now in sight, and
looking back I could see that l had left
the wall of water far behind. Still it
would. be upon tho village within five
minutes after Preached it. What could l
do to save the peopleP All at once it flashed
upon me that I could at least get the peo-
pie out of their houses before l reached
Jericho by blowing my whistle. Perhaps
they would see the dark wall of the ap-
preaching torrent and flee without further
warning. | seized the whistle cord and
began to send forth short, sharp, shrill
notes of alarm.
To me they sounded as if all ran together
in one shrek in the rush of the air above
the engine, but as l approached the village
[ could see the stir and alarm OF the villa
gers. Thoy were running here and there
as if distracted, but already groups of
them were clalnbering up the hills which
shut the village in almost as closely as a
wall about an ancient town. l was re-
joiced when I saw that they had discovered
the danger, for now there would be no
need to desert my good engine. I could
speed en- down the river with my warning
and gradually leave the torrent at a safe
distance behind me.
Below Jericho the valley widened.
Meadows stretched back from it OF either
side, and the farmhouses were built up on
the slopes beyond. Except to warn an &C.
casional laborer in the fields, my mission
as an i1npromptu engineer was finished.
The food, reaching that wide valley, I
knew would spread out and lose it's resist
less, overwhelming force. 1t would sim
ply be like a big spring freshet submerg-
ing the meadows.
All the way to Simondsville, however,
I kept blowing my whistle, and whenever
I saw @ party of men in the fields LEANED
out of the cab and pointed warningly up
the river. 1t was 90 miles from Stowe to
~Simondsville, and l made the run in just
1 hour and 40 minutes There wa no.
body to report to at the headquarters of
the La Platte Valley railroad in Simonds-
vile, for the officials were all at Stowe,
with q large portion of the track torn up
and the roadbea washed away and no
wire for communication. In a couple of
days, however, they managed to get
through with teams, and by that time /
was ready with a surprise for them and
for Mr.. Marsh. II was nothing less than
a flaming edition of The, Chronicle telling,
with a reporters natural modesty, how the
food came rushing down the valley from
the broken dam, and the writer, with the
aid of a stolen locomotive, oetraced it and
saved the village of yerioho.-Paul Past
nor in Philadelphia Times.