The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-02-09
RODE ON A GHOST TRAIN.
THE CARS DREW UP AT 4 STATION
IN AN EVERYDAY FASHION.

There Were no other Passengers on
Board and Everyth Had n NIusty
Damp smeIl-PrOOfs Submitted by
the Ridcr-It All Happened Near
the Place where Train Fell
Through "A Bridge Into "A Rushing
River.
From the San Francisco Examiner.
"Have you yourself ever seen a ghost
train?' l asked.
The station master chewed his cigar
for moment in silence. and then said
Seeing as it's you that asks me, I'll tell
you something that 1 haven't told any
man for more than ten years unless he
happened to be an experienced railroad
man. You see, l got tired of having peo-
pie doubt my word, and insinuate that
I was a lunatic, or had been drinking
too much whisky. You'll perhaps think
the same, but what Pm going to tell
you is a cold fact. and there amt bit
of lying. or poetry, or political argufy-
ing or any of those sort of imaginative
things about 1t.
You know the road from here to IT.
berus Center? It's pretty near
straight line, but when l first came into
these parts the trains used to run from
here to Tiberius Center by mighty round
about way. The line, as it was originally
laid out, ran in a sort of semi-circle, TAX
ing in half dozen small towns lying
northwest of this place. After a while
the company surveyed the new line and
bored the big tunnel through the Blue
Eagle mountain. The old line wasn't en-
tirely abandoned until about two years
ago, but after the tunnel was finished
there was only one passenger train each
way daily on the eldrline, and freight
train three times a week.
81 had a brother who lived up at Man
Illus, a town on the old line, about sew
enty miles from here. That is to say, Man
Illus was his postofiice address, but he
lived in a house that was three miles from
the station, and there wasn't any town
of Manlus, except the station house and
office. l was kind of a general assistant
at this hyer station where we are now,
and there not being very much work on
hand / got two days leave and took
the train up to see my brother. 1t was
just about year after the new line had
been opened, and as the company meant
to abandon the old line they hadn't put
any repairs on it worth speaking of, and 1t
was about the toughest road you ever
Travelled over.
Il was a little scared myself, though, as
a rule, l never troubled myself about rail-
road accidents, knowing that they re
bound to come, and you can't help your
self. There had been terrible bad acct
dent on that very road just before the eX-
presses quit running over 1t. A train
with a Pullman car full of passengers
went off the track just as she had struck
the bridge over the Muskahoot river, and
as the bridge was over sixty feet high.
and the river was over twenty feet deep,
nobody ever saw hair or hide of that
train, or of anybody connected with 1t
from that day to this.
well, l got up to my brothers long
about g. or mebbe half-past s o'clock in
the evening, and found him gone away,
and the house locked up. / hammered on
the doors and tried the windows until 1
had settled that there wasn't any one at
home, and that / couldn't break in, and
then l meandered back to the station,
calculating to pass the night in the wood
shed, and take the train back to Jericho
the next day. 1t had been showing hard
and there was near a. foot of snow on the
level, let alone the big drifts that were
here and there. / was pretty well tagged
out when l got to the station, which, Of
course, was shut up for the night and If
it hadn't been that | had a quart flask
of whiskey in my pocket should have
come near freezing to death.
81 went into the woodshed, and got
around behind the wood, where the wind
couldn't reach me, and after cussin my
brother for spell, on account of his
having gone off and shut up his house, 1
made my preparations for taking a nap.
Just then / heard the rumble of a train.
This naturally astonished me, knowing g
/ did exactly what trains were running
on that road, and there wasn't any sort
or train due at that station for the next
fifteen hours. However, the train kept
coming nearer and nearer, and pretty
soon l heard the grinding of the brakes
and understood that the train was com
ing to a stop. / didn't lose any time in
getting out OF that Woodshed and going
for that train. 1 could see it standing
close to the water-butt about fifty yards
down the road, and knew, of course, that
the engineer was taking in water. When
/ reached her 1 saw that the train con-
sisted only of a baggage-car and a Pull
man sleeper. l swung myself on the rear
platform of the sleeper, and pushed the
door open with a good deal of trouble, for
the woodwork seemed to have swelled.
and there wasn't anybdy to help me from
the inside of the car.
When l got inside looked around for
the passengers, but there wasn't a single
one. Neither was there any sign of the
niger porter, who ought to have been
there to ask me for my ticket and to pre-
by asking for q bed. You know the ways
Of niger porters and how they always
make you feel that II you don't give
them pretty big tip you are a good deal
worse than a slave driver. The car was
lit up after fashion by a single oil lamD
and all the berths looked as If the pas
sengers had just jumped out Of them and
the porter hadn't been round to make
up the beds. ] couldn't think what had
become of the passengers, seeing as they
couldn't have gone into the baggage car.
and 1t didn't seem probable that a whole
car full could have distributed themselves
at way stations. However that wasn't
any affair Of mine. l opened both doors
Of the car to let a little air blow through
for it was very musty, and then / picked
out a good berth and calculated to turn
in for the night. / soon found that those
berths weren't fit for any Christian 10
sleep in, for the bed clothes were as
damp as If they had been left out in a
rain storm. Where the water had come
from that had soaked them / couldn't inn
agine, for it hadn't rained any for q week.
and II stood to reason that the snow
couldn't have drifted into the car shut
UP as tight as It was. Then II p1zzled
me to imagine why the porter hadn't taxi
en- the wet clothes away and what had