The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-11-03
A Runaway Train.

Speaking OF experiences on the rail-
road" said a New York travelling man
TO "A Washington Star writer, I had
slight scrape one time on a mountain
road in Tennessee that may be worth
the hearing"
Anything you tell will be worth that"
complimentary bow.
II / were selling you a bill Of goods
said the drummer, you might think diff
ferenty."
But you are not doing that"
NO, and therefore snail resume AS
was saying, IL was close scrape- We
M Were coming down a long grace o. zen yen
miles IN mixed train. Ihat IS, We haa
a gondOla loaded with ties as the end car
with our two passenger cOacnes ana Dag-
gage car, and 1 should say we were
making about twenty miles an hour on
a track that would De treating us very
kindly if il didn't sling US into eternity
II we dared to add five miles an hour
TO our speed, when / happened 10 look
out Of the rear door and saw Wlld
train Of loaded coal cars swinging down
after us. They had evidently started al
a tippie which We had passed only a rev
minutes before, and when / saw them
they were just about under headWay
'At least they We're going so fast that
they distanced the men on the 5fouhG'
who made a run 10 get on ana stop their
further flight. i made a wild rush for the
conductor. but before / reached him ne
had ordered the engineer TO let out MS
engine for all she was worth, and IN TINS
way keep ahead OF our chasers. Fortu-
nately We had no women aboard ana the
men could be kept in better control
though IL was all we could do to keep
them from jumping off.
1T was only a short time until We be-
gan to see that our salvation lay IN the
pursuing train flying the track, because
we had reached our limit ana our train
was sW2yiDg and tossing so Jhal every
body was scared out Of his wits. know
/ was. and L lust sat in my seat and held
on, waiting and listening TO the thunder
OF the train behind US, which was NOT
$50 yards away and gaining every second
J was far heavier than ours, anu knew
that if anybody went OF the track ll
wasn't going to be the coal train. said
a moment ago we had no women aDOaIu
L meant we had none to speak OF.
There was one, but she was a nomely
mountain girl, who didn't seem 10 kLQW
anything, ana because she sat quiet IN the
corner and didn't scream. we tnou6at she
didn't amount to enough TO count. 1 was
looking at her in a cazed kind OF a way,
when all of a sudden she 1T out OF her
seat as if she had been shot out of it,,
and knocking everybody out OF the way,
she dashed out of the rear door befQre
anybody could touch ner, and we tnought
she had Jumped of, but She hadn [. she
jumped for the open car, hanging on
like a cat, until she got to the end OF II,
and in a second she was tumbling those
ties off at the rate of a dozen 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 couple OF them
stuck up in a cattle guard, and the next
thing we knew there was terrific crash,
rails and ties and tracks and coal flew
and the coal train rolled over itself and
went down the hill in a heap. By George,
as that girl stood there in her plain calico
dress and her old sunbonnet, and watched
that train pile UP at her feet, l thought
that Joan of Arc, Cleopatra, Queen Eliza
beth, Grace Darling and the lot of them
weren't a patching to her, and, as far as
We were concerned, they weren't.
"She had saved our train and our lives,
and we took her on with us in triumph.
Then we made up a purse for her big
enough to buy farm with, and I'll bet
she's got more good clothes and jewelry
and books and trinkets and things than
any girl in the mountains, for we never
forget her. She doesn't quite appreciate
some of the fine things she has but what
Just the SAME" and the Star man could
scarcely refrain from rising and giving a
whoop or two for the mountain lassie of
Tennessee.