The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-01-26

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 to sleep in, for
the bed-clotleS were as damp as If
they had been left out in rain storm.
Where the water had come from that
had soaked them ] couldn't imagine,
for it hadn't rained any for week.
and it stood to reason that the snow
couldn't have drifted into the car. shut
up as tight as it was. Then it puzzled
me to imagine why the porter hadn't
taken the wet clothes away, and what
had become of the niger anyhow
The whole business was enough to
throw a man off his balance, and I
gave up thinking about it, and, going
into the wash room, sat down in the
wash basin, which was the only dry
seat in the car, and, leaning up against
the corner, tried to get a nap.
by this time the train had left the
station several miles behind, and was
running at d rate that / knew would
have been risky on any road, let alone
as rough a road as the one we were on.
At first I didn't mind this, the run
ming of the train not being my bust
ness. but pretty soon I found that I
could not keep in my seat without
holding on with both hands. I've been
in cars that have done some pretty tall
running, and [ never before or since
knew a car to jump. and roll, and
shake herself generally as that car
did. began to think that the engineer
was either drunk or crazy, and that
the passengers had got so scared that
they had all left the train. To tell the
truth. I would have been glad to have
left the train myself, but I never was
fond of jumping, and if there is any
man who says that he likes to jump
from train that is doing forty or fifty
miles an hour, why 1 just don't be-
lieve him.
IAN of sudden I thought of the
bell cord. and 1 decided that [ would
pull it and stop the train. Then if any
conductor appeared I would tell him
who 1 was, and inform him that if he
didn't make his engineer run the train
in a decent way, [ would take good
care that the division superintendent
should know all about the thing So
1 got hold of the bell cord and gave it
a fairish sort Of pull-not the very
hardest sort of a pull, you understand,
but Just a moderate pull. The cord
broke in my hand as easy as if it had
been a piece of thread and all chance
of stopping the train that way diSap-
peared. I looked at the bell cord and
saw that it was as rotten as a poll
tician's conscience. so I just broke off
a piece of it, about two or three yards
long, and put it in my pocket, intend
ing to show it to the division superin-
tendent as a specimen of the way in
which Pullman car conductors at
tended to their business.
"All the time the train was rushing
ahead at a speed that would have been
counted worth noticing even on the
New York Central When she struck a
curve-and there were lots of them
she just left the track entirely, and
swung round that curve with her
wheels in the air. And when she did
strike the track again you can bet
that things shook Of course I don't I
mean that the train actually did leave
the track, but that was the way it
would have seemed to you if you had
been aboard that car. I went to the
forward door to see if there was any
chance Of getting into or over the bag
gage car and so reaching the engineer,
but it would have taken q monkey in
first rate training to have climbed over
that baggage car without breaking his
neck at the rate at which we were
running. / went back into the sleeper
again, and, holding on to a berth tried
to light up a cigar, but somehow the
match didn't seem to take much inter
est in the thing. I felt confident that
in a few minutes more the car would
leave the track and go to everlasting
smash, and remember feeling thank
full that / had gone over my accounts |
just before leaving Jericho, and that !
nobody could fail to understand them |
Just then / thought Of the brake |
If / should go out on the platform and !