The Dakota chief. (Gann Valley, Buffalo County, S.D.) 18??-1913, 1896-11-05
TRIES THE NERVES..
AN OLD FIREMAN. ON THE EFFECT
OF A SERIOUS ACCIDENT.
The Thoughts That Flash Through the
Engineinan's Grain Just Before q Col.
iision Occurs-A Smash Up Makes q Man
Scary Ever Thereafter.

There IS something attractive about
railroad life 70 the maj who once cu.
tiers it, The railroad companies rarely
give up a reliable. faithful man. He
may become manned and unfit for the
most remunerativc positions and be
forced 70 accept some humber place
with a smaller salary attached to it,
but it is III unwritten law with most Of
the great railroad companies that the
man who is injured IL their service
shall be placed III some position where
he may obtain his livelihood.
Thus it may happen that when you
fall in conversation with the man who
occupies a humble switchhouse or q
fagman's shanty you are talking with
who has had bis share of excitement
and been through experiences that
would make the hair Of the average man
stand upoo enc. A reporter met a
switchman - other day the pathos of
whose life ~ Expressed in the wooden
leg which he used. and as che Empire
dashed by he looked up and said:
eyes, l like railroading. I have been
in the business all my life and expect to
spend the rest Of my days over the rails,
but ! am quite content to remain here
in my little cottage and tend to my flag
cling rather than have the position Of
the man who holds the throttle on that
big engine which just whizzed by here.
You may think it a snap to sit there
and ride over the country at the rate of
a mile q minute, but l tell you the man
carries a load Of responsibility on his
shoulders which l would not want ON
mine and which the average man knows
very little about. l know something Of
it, for was fireman some years ago on
one of the fast engines and lost my leg
in an accident between here and AL
bany. But if l had come out Of that &C.
cident as sound as you are I never
should have been able to hold my nerve
for any more fast trips. That finished
me for that work"
"Then if a man has been hurt in q
railroad accident it makes him scary
Of that kind of work, does it," asked
the reporter.
"You bet it does" answered the
switchman with emphasis, land don't
let any one fool you that it doesn't. The
man who was running that engine the
day / was hurt escaped with hardly a
scratch, but he never could keep his
time up the way he did before that and
finally vas put on a freight engine,
where the running was a great deal
slower.
II shall never forget the way he look
cd the afternoon the smash up occurred.
Just before the crash came / looked at
him. We We're rounding IA curve down
by Schenectady. His long gray hair
was flowing in the breeze, his face was
set and his eyes fixed on the track
ahead.
"All at once he jumped to his feet
and reversed the lever and exclaimed in
q startled tone, My God, W % are
caught 1t was probably not more than
half IL minute after when l was lying
beneath the engine with my leg crush
cd, utterly unconscious of the fact that
a great wreck had occurred, but every
movement and occurrence Of that half
minute IS as wildly impressed upon my
mind as if it had taken weeks of time
TO impress it there.
As he spoke / looked through the
cab window ahead Of us, and there.
within 20 rods, was u freight engine
coming straight at us, and there was no
possible chance to escape a crash. The
engineer WAS doing his duty. l knew
that. He was reversing the lever, apply
ing the brakes and doing his best to
avert what he knew wa inevitable, but
I had nothing to do. and it seemed rs if
everything ii my life was before me IN
those few seconds. / felt absolutely sure
/ was gCina 10 die. Strange as it may
seem, the thoU4ht did not seem horrible
to me \ Whole lot Of the slang say
ings, such az, bou are learning 10 fire
here III this world 50 as TO be prepared
for TIE next and 'Iou won't mind q
hot JOB over there and Il number Of
thoAB stale things which Il fireman has
to tnAa, came into MY head, and even
in thM evful position 1t occurred to me
in a hnmosouA sort of way that 1 had
made a good start here below, or here
above, as ] might say. The next mo-
ment / was thinking Of my wife and
childron-ycs, and of mother, too, who
had been ccad a number Of years. A
nan always thinks Of his mother III such
II time. But | don't think l had u par
ticlc of fear If death. The last thing
that was Oh ny mind was the question,
Who was to blame for the accident?
And that is the last | remember.
when | came TO NY senses, | was
in Il hospital and was minus "a leg.
Since then l have been constantly IN
ployed one way and another by the rail
road company, but | never see one of
the fast trains go by without thinking
Of that wreck. The engineer miraculous
II escaped with scarcely Il bruise, but it
finished him for that kind Of work. He