The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1895-01-08
our FAMIL Y S7ORY.
ON THE DOWN GRADE.

good terms with ali hands, said all
hands numbering a gray-haired driver,
o regular 0ld-timer, by whose side l
sat as he stood at his levers, and q
young slip OF 3 fellow, very handy with
HIS fire.
when we were well up in the noun
Htains, and just after the old man had
9 pulled the wh~istl-elever we'll down, and
Sfent out a blast which resOunded
among the hills like a oar from q fog
horn, he turned, babe me look from
the cab window, out and down upon
the track. We were crossing the
Frankenstein t~restle, $50 feet highly
the guide-book-andit looks all of that
from the cab window as you cross.
Then he told this story:
"F you look sharp down in thu bot
tom oflth' gulch there. young fellow,
you'll see, piled up, q heap of wrecked
fiat cars, pretty we'll covered o by
the growth Of young trees, but still to
be seen u you've got good eyes.
well! why my old bones amt lying
down there under that wreck, stead
Of my sailing up here like q bird, 3 q
miracle done by o woman, tn smartest
woman and TIL bravest in the whole
mountains.
like this on tn whole Maine Central,
dyer see, and there's precious few in
this whole country l tell yer.
"You see me hittin' her hard as |
can. along here, and she s%tranglin' fit
s~to burst, up these grades, with the
lever way down in the corner, the
whole machine red-hot and crying for
nor steam, and at the same timo we
movin' SO slow that you'd swear If one
OF the brakeys lbrakemen) were ter
get out behind and drag his feet he'd
stop her dead, or another pound OF
freight would throw the machine down,
stall her, see?
Then again you sec us coming
back, down the hill, head up and tail
over the dasher, SO to speak just
droppin' thro' space th'out O pound OF
steam bein' used, fire-box wide open,
fireman singin' Rock Me to Sleep,
Mother" and admiring the scenery.
There's nothin' like your flat
footed Mogul (the central pair oil
drivers on the Mogul pattern locomo-
tive have no flange) for this noun.
tain business; o four-foot-eight wheel,
gives such a space for friction that you
can't help. slip egaA Many's the time,
when ~ you was handlin' u high.
= &SP6rdinary, six-ioot driver, you'd
oDe fumin' and frettiu,' and she u.
dancin' and s%tumblin, and you lucky
If you could slack ZEN over the top OF
tn divide and not have to dUubler; il
twas q Mogul she'd be churning her
steam, calm as n Juno morning, and
walking that procession up the hill.
slow, mebbe', but with no signs of g
spasm.
"When I blew that whistle back
there for the t~restle, my memory
Stacked back to that incident / started
to tell you of, and now, pardner, being
as this story will go into print, l will
begin at the first, when my boy and ]
were newly como into the White
Mountains. | as an engineer of the
mountain freight, and he telegraph
operator m agent at the little station
just under the cliffs there at thu end OF
the trestln.
~ dislike to speak of what followed,
but it's past and for& o ten. The boy
went wild. You'd think he'd have
had hard work to find boon companions
in the regions, but I've noticed q man
can find fellows to help him spend his
money Almost anywhere country or city.
II was about to ask the super to
transfer him to some other station and
get him away from his tempters when
| noticed a change in the boy himself,
and you can bet 'twa'n't long fore /
got onto the reason. There was q
woman's gentle face leading him from
ruin.
Although he had none of the usual
chances for his counting, way up here
in the hills, he kept the odd times and
evenings between the mountains and
the seward plains, until finally he
brought the plains to the mountains
fer keeps, and then, n mornin', when
| steemed up to the station, there was
the hoy and Princess Alice SO he
named her, and so the boys always
called her.
Though 1 say it, you may believe
she deserved the little and 1t did me
. proud to know the boy had won for his
s,wifo..
"Well This relieved my mind Of
most of its load concerning the boy
twice each day as [ passed up and
down the line saw them, this happy
pair, keeping house among these
peaks, high above the valley, happy,
on the modest salary of $50 a month.
Next on the programme came the
baby, q little m%ountaineer. In a short
time @ iusty little fellow toddle6 about
tn station platform holding up his
hands to me to take him into tn cab
Vi many's tn time The pair of 'em,
NPrince and the Princess Alice,
II 9Th mountains and sped away to
q claims but always to return next day
\ Ut was On one Of these l got the
D NSret. Things were going wrong at
cliffs. The gay Summer hotels
SLOW in tn valley, and farther on
%Summer company, were alluring, and,
Z as the Princess was an expert opera
tor, full many q day she was left alone
with the wires while tn boy was chas-
ing pleasures below, unmindful OF
home
SNot that tn boy was vicious, for
he wasn't that; he had q r~ollicking
disposition, too easily led, perhaps,
which needed just the check it got to
show him tho worth of what he held
above tn shadows he was chasing.
"Of course l tried to brace up the
Princess, and l talked to tn boy, but
Mother did much good. AT last he
was relieved from duty at She cliffs by
my own request and came with me
upon tn engine, where / figured hard
work would show him his folly.
HE made u great balk at this, al
though tn boy wouldn't wilfully dis
obey me, bein' as I'd raised him from
th' babe his poor mother left, but what
panied me most of all was his unkind-
ness to Princess Alice.
The boy was sore. He would have 1t
that the Princess had turned him
down and l gave him some mighty
-AUg6rous language that didn't seem to
help the case @ bit, though it relieved
my mind. Alice still held the station
-she and the baby with the wife OF
q Ahn nnnf{np hnno xyh@ lg.,Al " -