The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-02-11
TRUE TO A TRUST.

4
old So-and-so's took suddenly bad, and
the doctor says he won't do any more en-
cheering for days to come. You'd better
-se the superintendent"
| Well, trots of to the Office. and when
I got there, to my big surprise, I found
the boss talking to my brother Jack. He'd
just come in off journey, and the super
intendent was telling him he'd have to
work the express through that night
Here's your BROTHER 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 lit
tie ones are going down by the o'clock
you'll see how much confidence have In
you"
Now, Jack, he'd never run an express
before, but orders were orders, and we
were nearly a minute behind as it was
So of we goes to the shed, Jack putting
on the pea jacket he's just taken off and
shouting to one of the lads to get him a
tin bottle of tea and 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
ordinary 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 bit of straight road when we
knew everything would be clear for run
| of Ii miles
We had got her up to a speed Of over 60
miles an hour. We were fairly flying, and
the old lady went leaping along like a
| greyhound. It's laundering hard work,
let me tell you, is firing a job like that.
You'd hardly believe how the Goals are
| gobbled up before you've hardly got them
| into the furnace.
| And an engineer wants just two pairs
| of eyes and three hands, besides q cool
brain, to look after his work, let me tell
you. 1t looks easy enough to stand there
and hang on to a lever and just keep your
| eyes open for signals, but an engine wants
! just as much humoring as a race horse,
and the quicker you go the more she wants
watching.
Well, Jack had Just started the whistle
| in the usual way as we ran into tunnel
two miles long when dreadful thing hap
| pened. The connecting rod on the right
side of the engine broke and I just heard
Jack give one terrific yell as he saw it fly
up and inward, when something seemed
to come down upon me like forty thousand
tons of pain and blackness, and knew no
more about it. I never heard exactly how
it happened, but Jack said that every
thing seemed to go to pieces in front and
| around him, and he lost his senses too.
have been a second or two-in awful ag-
ony, burned and scalded and almost blind,
to find himself lying on the tender, with
the flesh all peeled on his hands. And
then he remembered how the engine was
rushing away to certain smash if he
couldn't manage to get to the valve and
shut off steam.
He said afterward that he could see the
whole of the people in the carriages, like
as in mental photograph. laughing and
chatting and carrying on, unconscious of
the danger in front of them, and especially
he thought of the superintendent's 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 broken gauge, and shut off the
steam and wound down the brake. There
was no Westinghouse then, and all we'd
got was the old fashioned style of thing.
When the front guard jumped out to see
what was the matter, he found that Jack
had fallen insensible in the six foot way.
AS for 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 nearest house, while the guard went
to the next signal box and got them to
telegraph for help.
1t was many a weary week before was
able to get about, and poor Jack, he lay
between life and death for weeks longer
But he pulled through, and l must say
that all the time we lay sick nobody could
have been kinder than the officials of the
company. AS soon as we could go they
sent US down to Seatown, and there we
lived like fighting cocks till we were on
the upward grade again.
At last, when we were just beginning
to go for short walks together and pick up
bit, there came sudden message that
we were wanted at a meeting in the COM
pany's room, and off we toddled, wonder
ing what it could be about. When we got
there, the room was nearly full of folks,
and there was the chairman of the line
and the mayor of the town on the plat
form and whole crowd of directors and
other swells around them, with our super
intendent and his wife and daughter. AS
soon as we entered there was such hooray
as you never heard before, and we were
pushed along to the platform and helped
up the steps before we'd time to ask q
question. Then they gave US seat each,
and the chairman OF the line he got up to
speak.
Well, to cut it short, it turned out
there'd been collection made, and there
was gold watch and chain for Jack on
the table, and a silver ditto for me, and a
nice new silk purse chock full of money
for my brother, and a crisp $50 note fol-
yours truly.
Then Jack, he gets up and rubs the
tears away with his sleeve, and he lifts uI
the child and kisses her. But he wouldn't
take the money. Instead of that he takes
hold of one ringlet of her pretty hair and
says quite quietlike, Can 1 have this in
stead, ma'a mS'
And the superintendent's wife. she says
ITO be sure you CAMP
, And then they cheered again and again
J till you'd have thought the roof would
split, and Jack and me were driven home
to our lodgings in the mayors carriage
and there was no end of a to do. AND