The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1895-12-05
SHE THOUGHT OF SOMETHING.


A Mountain Girls Bright Idea That Saved
the Lives of Passengers.
Speaking of experiences on the rail-
road" said a New York travelling man,
81 had slight scrape one time on a
mountain road in Tennessee that may
be worth hearing.
1--WE were coming down long grade
of ten miles in mixed train. That is,
we had a gondola loaded with ties as
the end car, with our two passenger
coaches and baggage car, and l should
say we were making about 20 miles an
hour on track that would be treating
us very kindly if it didn't sling us INTO
eternity if we dared to add five miles an
hour to our speed, when happened 70
look out of the rear door and saw o
wild train of loaded coal cars swinging
down after us. They had evidently
started at tipple which we had passed
only few minutes before, and when
saw them they were going SO fast that
they distanced the men on the ground,
who made a run to get on and stop their
further flight. l made a wild rush Tor
the conductor, but before l reached him
h. had ordered the engineer to let out his
engine for all she was worth, and in this
way keep ahead of our chasers. For
tunately we had no women aboard, ard
the men could be kept in better control
though it was all we could do 10 seep
them from jumping off.
at was only short time until we
began to see that our salvation lay in
the pursuing train flying the track, be-
cause we had reached our limit, and our
train was swaying and tossing so that
everybody was scared out Of his wits.
and held on, waiting and listening to
the thunder of the train behind us,
which was not 500 yards away and gain
ing every second. 1t was far heavier
than ours, and knew that if anybody
went off the track it wasn't going to
be the coal train. 1 said moment ago
we had no women aboard. l meant We
had none to speak of.
There was one, but she was a homely
mountain girl, who didn'ts to know
anything, and because she sat quiet in
the corner and didn't scream we thought
she didn't amount to enough to count.
l was looking at her in daZed kind of
a way, when all of sudden she lit out
Of her seat as if she had boon shot out
of it, and, knocking everybody out of
the way, she dashed tot the rear door
before anybody could touch her, and
we thought she had jumped off, but she
hadn't. She jumped for the open car,
hanging on like a cat, until she got to
the far end of it, and in a second she was
tumblng those ties of at the rate of u
dozen a second.
'They would hit the track and bounce
every which way, but she kept piling
them off, the coal train getting closer
every second, and at last a couple of
them stuck up in L cattle guard, and
the next thing we knew there was ter
rife crash, rails and ties and tracks and
coal flew, and the coal train rolled over
itself and went down the hill in heap.
By George, as that girl stood there in
her plain calico dress and her old sun
-hSfSnst and watched -+Lnt trni : pfSe w
a. her feet, thought that Joan of Arc,
Cleopatra, Queen Elizabeth, Grace OAR
ling and the lot of them weren't patch
ing to her, and, as far as we were con-
cerned, they weren't.
'She had saved our train and our lives,
and we took her on with us in triumph.
Then we made up purse for her big
enough to buy farm with, and I'll bet
she's got more good clothes, and jewel
ry, and books, and trinkets and things
than any girl in the mountains, for we
never forget her. She doesn't quite APP
preciate some of the fine things she
has, but what do we care for that? We
appreciate her just the same."-Wash-
ington Star.