The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1894-12-11
THE LOST ENGINE.

u Wtt5 CJCtthAllS3 tliO OuhNi NetJ,
+ Snid the Jericho station master, "of
failroad ghosts--trains and engines
md such--and you didn't seem to
believe that there are any such
fhings. Now, just to show you that
il was telling the truth, III tell you
about the ghost of an engine that /
/. law myself, and that lots of other
men on this road have seen. just
MATT till that train starts along, and
1--WE have this here station to ourselves
as usual y
81 A way train had stopped at the
station, and as the station master
spoke there suddenly fell out of the
door of the baggage car q man curl
ously complicated with bicycle.
The man, who was the baggage mas
ter Of the train, had managed to put
his foot through the spokes of one
of the wheels of the bicycle and man
and machine were writing on the
platform, the one cursing loudly and
the other, giving forth the cracking
\ sound of swapping steel rods.
4 "There, " said the station master.
That's what happens twice out of
x<very three times that a man tries
70 handle one of those machines.
Mems to me that they were invent
ia just to make things miserable for
HE trainmen tried to wheel one
along the platform one day, and be-
fore / knew what was the matter tho
sfblained thing had thrown me and
was trying to break my legs and
gouge my eyes out. They're just
like coyote. You take a coyote by
the back of the neck and hold him out
at arms length, and he'll manage to
bite piece out of the calf of your
leg or some other place that's meb-
be ten feet away from his mouth. 1
never yet saw baggage master that
could smash bicycle without hurt
ing himself worse than the machine.
1t ought to be made illegal to send
bicycles by rail, and that's fact. :"
The baggage master finally extri-
Gated himself from the bicycle and
withdrew into his car to repair dam
ages. The train whistled and went
ON its way, and the station master,
seating himself by my side, proceed
ed with his story:
About ten years ago we had an
engine ON this road that you would
just have admired to see. She was
the Fanny Ellsler - that was her
name, being named after one of the
4 queens of France or some other
place. Nowadays we don t think that
so miles an hour is any very great
speed, but in those days the Fanny,
as we called her for short, was the
only engine in this part of the coun-
try that could do her mile in 60 sec
ppds. Naturally the road was proud
~ her, and the men Dragged of her
continually, especially when they
met any of the men that worked on
the Montana Southern road, that was
considered by some to be a sort of
rival of our road, though it was q
poor, half bankrupt concern.
1.-THE engineer of the Fanny was
an old fellow by the name of Grid
ley. He was allowed to be the best
engineer on the road at that time.
He used to be able to do anything
with that engine, and he was the
only man who could manage her.
There was always something queer
about the Fanny. She had trick of
getting tired, or of letting on that
she was tired, and refusing to work.
She'd be a-going along at her usual
gait, and all of sudden she would
slow down and pretty near quit max
ing steam. No engineer except Grid
ley could manage her when she got
s''.ese fits on. Other men that tried
to run her found that the only thing
they could do was to wait till she
got good and ready to move ON. But
Gridley, he Would just polish up her
brasses bit, whistling some cheer
full tune and now and then saying
something pleasant to her, and all of
a sudden she would hump herself
and travel alongas if there had new
er been anything the matter. After
the Superintendent got to know the
Fanny pretty well he would never
allow anybody except Gridley to take
her out of the yard. He used to run
her the length of the road twice a
day, except Sundays and when he
was taking holiday. You see, he
was a very peculiar man, was this
here Gridley. He never drank drop
while he was at work, and as a gen.
erai thing he would keep perfectly
sober for six or eight months. Then
- mother, or his wife, or his sister