Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-10-26
A RUNAWAY TRAIN.
And What q Plucky Man From the
Tenneaaee Mountnina Did.

Tennessee mountains Dlu.
speaking of experiences on the railroad"
said a New York travelling man to 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"
replied The Star man, with a courtly and
complimentary bow.
'1f were selling you bill Of goods
said the drummer, you might think differ
entity
''But you are not doing that
mo, and therefore I shall resume. As
was saying, 1t was close scrape. We were
coming down a long grade of ten miles in
mixed train. That is, we had gondola
loaded with ties as the end car, with our
two passenger coaches and baggage car,
and 1 should say we were making about
twenty miles an hour ON track that would
be treating US very kindly If 1t didn't sling
us into eternity IL we dared to add five
miles an hour to our speed, when I hap
pened to look out of the rear door and saw
a wild train of loaded coal cars swinging
down after us. They had evidently started
at tipple which We had passed only n
few minutes before, and when 1 saw them
they were just about under Roadway
"At least, they were going SO fast that
they distanced the men on the ground, who
made a run to get on and stop their fur
Their flight. I made a wild rush for the
conductor, but before I reached him he had
ordered the engineer to let out his engine
for all she was worth, and In this way keep
ahead Of our chasers. Fortunately we had
no women aboard, and the men could be
kept in better control, though 1t was all
We could do to keep them from jumping off.
1T was only a short time until we began
to see that our salvation lay in the pursu-
ing train flying the track, because we
had reached our limit, and our train was
swaying and tossing so that everybody was
scared out Of his wits. 1 know l was, and
I just sat in my seat and held on, waiting
and listening to the thunder Of the train
behind US, which was not five hundred
yards away and gaining every second. 1t
was far heavier than ours. and knew that
If anybody went off the track 1t wasn't
going to be the coal train. T said moment
ago we had no women aboard. I meant
We had none to speak of.
There was one. but she was homely
mountain girl. who didn't seem to know
anything, and because she sat quiet in the
corner and didn't scream, we thought she
didn't amount to enough to count. I was
looking at her in a daZed kind of a way,
when all of sudden she Lit out of her seat
as If she had been shot out of 1t, and
knocking everybody out of the way, she
dashed out Of the rear door before any
body could touch her, and we thought she
had jumped off. but she hadn't. She jump
ed for the open car, hanging on like cat,
until she got to the far end of it. and in
second she was tumbling those ties off
at the rate of dozen a second.
''They would hit the track and bounce
every which way, but she kept piling them
off, the coal train getting closer every sec
ond. and at last a 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 cars 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, 1 thought that Joan of
Arc, Cleopatra, Queen Elizabeth, Grace
Darling and the lot of them weren't a
patching to her, and. as far as we We're
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 trnkets 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
do we care for that; we appreciate her just
the same" and The Star man could scarce
ly refrain from rising and giving whoop
or two for the mountain lassie Of Ten
messed