Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-07-04
TRUE TO \ TRUST.

TRUE TO \ TRUST.
Mine is a railway family. One
night when it was just time to get out
of the shed and take the { o'clock eX-
press, one of the cleaners comes to NE
to say: Jim Old So-and-so's took sud
denly bad, and the doctor says he
won't do any more engineering FOR
days to come. You'd better see the su-
perintendent."
Well, | trOtS off to he office. and
when l got there, to my big surprise,
| found the boss talking to my brother
Jack. He'd just come in off journey,
and the superintendent was telling
him he'd have to work the express
through that night. Here's your
nrOther." says he. will be with you,
and you both of YOU know the road
thoroughly Well You're about the
only man on the spot that / can trust
and when | tell you that my own wife
and little ones are going down by the
I O'Clock you'll see how much conf
dence [ have in you"
Now, .IacN, he'd never run an express
before, but orders were ORDERS and we
We're nearly Il minute behind as it vas
SO off we goes TO the shed, Jack put
ting Oh the pea jacket he's Just taken
off and shouting to one of the lads 10
get him 4 tin bottle of tea and a
crust. When We started out we were
nearly three minutes over the time.
and it was one of those journeys
where we had to look lively at ordi-
nary times. We had to pull up those
minutes somewhere on the line. and
we went in to make the engine do her
level best over a bit Of straight road
when we knew everything would be
clear for a run of fifteen miles.
We had got her UP to a speed of
over sixty miles an hour. We wee
fairly flying, and the old lady went
leaping along like a greyhound. It's
laundering hard work, let me tell you,
is firing on a job like that. You'd
hardly believe how the Goals are COB
bled UP before you've hardly got them
into the furnace.
And an engineer wants just two
pairs of eyes and three hands, besides
a cool brain. to look after his work,
let me tell you. 1t looks easy enough
to stand there and hang on to lever
and just keep your eyes open for sig
nails, but an engine wants Just as
much humoriES as a race horse, and
the quicker yoI go the more she wants
watching.
Well, Jack had just started the
whistle in the usual way as we IAN
into a tunnel two miles long when a
dreadful thing happened. The connect
ing rod on the right side of the engine
broke, and l just heard Jack give one
terrific yell as he saw it fly UP and in
ward, when something seemed to come
down upon me like forty thousand tons
of pain and blackr eSs, and [ knew no
more about it. | never heard exactly
how it happened, but Jack said that
everything seemed to go to pieces in
front and around him, and he lost his
senses too.
He woke UP presently-it could only
have been second or two-in awful
, agony, burned and scalded and almost
blind to find himself lying on the ten
der, with the flesh all peeled on mis-
hands. And then he remembered how
the engine was rushing away to Ger
tain smash if he could not manage to
get to the valve and shut off steam.
He said afterward that he could see
the whole of the people in the Car
riages, like as in a mental photograph,
laughing and chatting and carrying
on, unconscious of the danger in front
of them, and especially he thought Of
the superintendent little yellow
haired baby and his good natured wife
cuddling up in each others arms as
| we had seen them just before We
started.
How he did it he never could tell
! for besides the rest of the damage one
of his legs was badly broken, but he
crawled down from the top of the
Goals. right into the binding steam
that kept ON escaping from the broker
gauge, and shut off the steam anC
wound down the brake. There was III
Westing house then, and all we'd so
was the old-fashioned style OF thing.
= When the front guard jumped out tC
see what was the matter, he found
that Jack had fallen insensible in The
six foot way. AS fCr me, they picked
me up nearly a mile back of where The
train came to a stand, and the two Of
Us Were taken away to the neares
house, while the guard went to the
next signal box and got them to tele
graph for help.
\ 1t was many a weary week before
i was able to get about, and poor Jack
! he lay between life and death fol
weeks longer. But he pulled through
i and [ must say that all the time WI
lay sick nobody could have been kinder
than the officials of the company. A:
! soon ii we could go they sent Us dow
) to Sea town. and there We lived Iikt
! fighting cocks till we Were on the up
ward grade again.