The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1896-01-15
SHE THOUGHT OF SOMETHING.
A Mountain Girls Bright Idea Saved thu
Lives Of Passengers.

SHE THOUGHT Or SOME HlN1.
A Mountain Girls Bright Idea Saved the
Lives Of Passengers.
Speaking of experiences on the
railroad" said New York travel
ing man, II had q slight scrape one
time on mountain road in Tennes-
see that may be worth the hearing.
1--WE were going down a long
grade of ten miles in mixed train
that is, we had a gondola loaded
with ties as the end car, with our
two passenger coaches and a baggage
car, and I should say we were max
ing about 20 miles an hour on q
track that would be treating US very
kindly if it didn't sling us into
eternity if we dared to add FIVE
miles an hour to our speed when l
happened to look out Of the rear
door and saw wild train of loaded
coal cars swinging down after US.
They had evidently started at tip
pie which we had passed only few
minutes before, and when saw
thom they were going so fast that
they distanced the men on the
ground, who made a run to get on
and stop their farther fight. ! made
a wild rush for the conductor, but
before reached him be had ordered
the engineer to let out his engine for
all she was worth and in this way
keep ahead of our chasers. Fortu-
nately we had no women aboard,
and the men could DO kept in better
control, though 1t was all We could
do to keep them from jumping off.
lit was only a short time until we
began to see that our salvation lay
in the pursuing 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. know I
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 500 yards away and
gaining every second. 1t was far
heavier than ours, and knew that
if anybody went off the track it
wasn't going to be the GOAL train. /
said moment ago we had no WON.
en- aboard. ! meant we had none to
speak of.
There was one, but she was q
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. 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 it, and knocking everybody
out of the way she dashed out of the
rear door before anybody could touch
her, and We thought she had jumped
off, but she hadn't. She jumped for
the open car, hanging on like a cat
until she got to the far end of it,
and in second she was tumbling
those ties off at the ratio of dozen
q second.
"They would hit the track and
bounce every which way, but she
kept piling them off, tho coal train
getting closer every second, and at
last a couple of them stuck up In a
cattle guard, and the next thing we
knew there was a terrific crash.
Rails and ties and track and coal
cars flow, and the coal train rolled
over itself and went down tho hill
in 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 ]
thought that Joan of Arc, Cleopatra,
Queen Elizabeth, Grace Darling and
the lot Of them weren't patching
to her, and as far as we were con.
cerned they weren't.
She had saved our train and our
lives. and we took her on with us in
triumph. Then we made up purse
for her big enough to buy a farm
with, and III bet she's got more
good clothes and jewelry and books
and trinkets and things than any
girl in the mountains, for we never
forget her. She doesn't quite appre.
ciate some Of the fine things she has,
but what do we care for that? We
appreciate her just the same. -
Washington Star.