Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1895-02-28

we a-comlng-Wltn WOODS along the
inner side of the curve, so that moth
ing whatever could be seen of him or
his lantern at that point from either
train. Then suddenly he heard my
train rolling up in the distance.
"He started to run, Jimmy did, TO
get around the second turn in season
to signal me there. 1t seems that he
knew he had plenty of time to make
the bend, as he owned up afterward,
but he wanted to be mighty sure.
"Just as he started up, what do you
suppose happened? A stronger gust
of wind than any of the rest come
whistling through the scrub, and that
and the motion of Jilnmy's start to
run blew out his lantern. Then my
train coming along roared louder yet,
for the wind was coming to him from
my way.
Jimmy wasn't at all scared. He
knew he had time to strike light.
He put his fingers in his upper vest
pocket after matches No matches
there. That made him feel kind of
queer. Then he put his fingers in his
other upper vest pocket. None there,
either.
He heard my train roaring nearer
and nearer. 1t was coming around
the second bend. Then, he owned up,
Jimmy was a good deal scared.
He jumped right down the middle
of the track in the dark toward my
train, not knowing what he was going
to do, but feeling that somehow or
other he was going to stop the train
before it went OH and crashed into
the express. AS he run, my headlight
loomed out on him through the mist
coming up around the bend.
"He yelled like madman, but his
voice might as well have been the
squeak of a mouse. Not sound could
be heard through the racket that the
storm and the locomotive made to-
gether, as you all would know very
well.
Gas for me, never heard nor saw a
thing on the track before me, though
Jimmy stood straight in the middle of
it all the while, waving the lantern
with no light in it, and hollering TIL
he was black in the face. My head
light seemed to me to be shining about
dozen feet into kind of thick pud-
ding of rain and mist.
Jimmy told me that he stopped all
at once, when it seemed that my head
light was not fifty feet away from him.
Probably it was more than that. 1t
occurred to him that he hadn't time
to be scared He must take time to
think. SO he thought; and the lives
of two hundred people depended on
his thinking to good advantage.
"He wondered if it would be best
to throw himself down on the track
and let the train go over him. He
kwilling 70 do 1t, if it would do any
good. But he thought that the chances
were ten to one that his body would
throw the train off the track, whereas
there was at least small chance that
if my train went on | might bring 1T
to a stop some way in time to save a
bad smash-up.
Anyhow, he resolved not to throw
himself down, but to do the thing he
did do. He stepped off the track
and by this time l saw him dimly by
the light from the headlight and
measuring his distance coolly, he threw
his lantern with all his might straight
through the side window of the cab
"As luck would have it, the lantern
got free of the broken glass before it
struck me, and the bottom of it hit
me fair and square in the side of the
head, here, just where you see the
mark. For an instant it stunned me,
but by the time had got back my
senses found that l had reversed the
engine and put on the air-brake, and
the train was coming to a stop.
at was just second nature to any
engineer-and Jimmy Caswell knew
well it would be-to know that any
human being wouldn't do thing like
that unless there was good cause for
the engine to stop. My fireman would
have stopped the train if l hadn't
when he saw the lantern come in; but
he says that he hadn't more than
heard the crash of the lantern through
the window before he saw me jump
for the throttle and the air-brake.
after the train had come to stop,
and !, without knowing what had
really happened, was wiping the blood