Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-06-09

would surely remark that it had been in a
nght and came out second best.
Great Damage Done.
you know, our road up In the West
Branch district skirts that stream for miles
and miles. and in many places high stone
abutments have had to be built SO as to
permit the road to skirt hill instead of
tunneling through it. These abutments had
pieces torn out of them in many places and
resembled an enlarged bite out Of q pie.
The logs would come down with terrific
force and simply wade right through the
stone and mortar. Then the water would
follow up the attack and eat out all the
stone anc dirt filling behind the wall, re-
quirng hundreds of car loads of stone and
dirt to fill up the hole That kind Of work
was repeated all along the line, and you
can imagine the time and expense required
to repair damage Of this kind.
"Up through the Juniata valley we have
bridges by the dozen, and while compare
lively few OF these were carried away, the
embellishments on both sides were eaten out
by the waters, and In many places the rails
and ties were left suspended in the air.
The Juniata has also been transgressed up
en- by hundreds of abutments and other OBJ
structions, and The flood there was I'M
doubtedly increased by this state Of things.
III course, there was a great flood OF water
from the heavens. but the Juniata, with it's
original bed undisturbed, could hardly have
caused SO much damage. OF course, the
railroad Is tranSSreSSOr IN this matter,
much more so than anybody else. Up around
Johnstown, on our main line, the havoc was
almost as bad as In 1889, but we soon set
things right by working night and day, and
the road, through ats entire length, Is now
in first-class shape again.
How Some Make Money.
"One point in this logging business on the
Susquehanna aptIy illustrates the old say
ing that what is one mans funeral is an
other mans wedding. When the logs come
down the river by the thousands the river
n en- along shore gather them in, and IL the
company that own the logs wish to recover
them they have to pay SO much per foot
One man that owns an island up near Har-
risburs has about $4,000 feet of logs on his
land. He will advertise the fact, as the
law prescribes. and is bound to make a nice
sum either by direct sale or the company
recovering their property. The same state
OF things exists down around Port Deposit
ana Havre de Grace, and Of course this
class OF people will hardly favor the aboli-
ton or rafting on thai river.
During the progress of the flood IL would
have been strange indeed If many thrilling
Incidents had not occurred. In my locality
they were Transporting so rapidly that many
nave escaped my memory. One case In par
ticular will remain in my memory. as /
took small part in II. / had been sent
with several men up to Lock Haven, the
next important city above williansport. to
collect cars and freight to place on the big
wooden bridge have been telling you about
at the latter city. The river was rising rap
idly when we were ready to pull out. and It
was a mighty risky job to pilot that train
along the edge Of that flood. 1t was about
10 o'clock at night and the darkness was
almost thick enough to cut, as the rain was
coming down in torrents.
My party had clambered up on the cars
and the engineer had received orders that
the track was clear and to make the best
time possible under the circumstances.
Those orders suit me-. sang out Jerry
LAWYER. the engineer. as he jumped into the
little cab. and think can do the distance
at a forty-mile clip easy
I'VE pulled out at a brisk pace. but the
rails were slippery. and steam hard to make
Fifteen heavfiy-faden cars were behind the
engine and 1t was no easy job to make her
cut the rind. Everything went well until
we struck a little station about ten miles
above Williamsport. called Niseet whereat
small crowd OF onlookers had gathered
As we pulled UP to the little telegraph cabin
Jerry saw the operator waving a paper
the bright light from the open door out
lining his figure against the darkness like
white chalk mark on a blackboard.
Got There just In Time.
Something's up called out Jerry a.
he slackened up his engine and got down on
the step TO grab the message
IT heard the little operator sing out
Pull her wide open,' as Jerry grabbed the
little white piece OF paper. and the engi-
neer. without looking at the missive, gave
the throttle vicious tug. and the engine
Strengthened the train out like a thing Of
life. and on We sped. After the tug az the
throttle, Jerry unfoded the little piece of
paper, which read:
90 The boom has broken. II you don't get
your train on the bridge 1t will be swept
away.
what a message for a thoroughbred en-
gineer. L noticed Jerry's' mouth twttch as
ne READ the message. and cultural sound
came from his throat. This was all the In
could read between the lines Then he set
10 work on his engine Two sharp blasts Of
the whistle resulted In a signal from the
rear end of the train that all was right and
the next instant We We're on a two-mile
downgr2de. Jerry never shut his engine
or for minute and We did the distance at
a terrific rate of speed. To add TO our ex-
citen1ent We imagined we could see the lam
or logs In the distance. coming down the
river with resistless force, and that was the
the bridge.
In many places the water had already
reached the track ahead Of us. and the
right-hand rail at different points was under
water several inches. BY this time we were
simply nying through space. Here and
OF track men, and we received a cheer Of
announcement as We passed by At last
the welcome lights of Wilnamsport came in
to view. and as Jerry shut OF his engine
was confident We had won the race. and
we naa by nfteen minutes. We got the cars
on the bridge in good time, and also placed
additional weights by the time the great
mass Of logs arrived The time sheet IN
the railroad office showed that we had done
the ten miles In fourteen minutes. which
was simply remarkable under the circum-
stances"