The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1896-04-23
FIGHT ON A LOCOMOTIVE.
An Engineer's Desperate Struggle with q
Drunken Fireman.

fiGf ON n IOSOMOi
An Engipcer's Desperate struggle with .
Drunken Fireman.
Crazed by liquor. Barney Long OF
Schuylkill Haven, fireman on Read
ing coal train, the other night attempted
to murder the engineer and steal the
locomotive.
The crew, with W. 81. White as con-
ductor. started from Port Richmond.
where Long, unknown to the crew, took
on several bottles of liquor. On coming
up the line the engineer, noticing that
the supply of steam was getting low,
demonstrated with the fireman for his
negligence, when it was seen that he
was intoxicated.
The steam becoming very low, the
engineer cut loose from the train at
Monocacy, three miles from Birdsboro,
and started for the latter place to tele-
graph for assistance. Fireman Long
was then crazed by the liquor, and, no.
ticing that the engine was running
empty, he climbed ON the footboard Of
the large coal dirt burner and started to
creep into the engineers cab to stop the
engine. On the narrow footboard Of the
rapidly moving engine the fight began.
The struggle was fierce and the en-
gineer grasped monkey wrench and
commenced striking the fireman with it.
He was unable to entirely subdue him,
and when Birdsboro was reached, the
engineer saw that switch was thrown
and that they were running into sid
ing. The locomotive was stopped and
the engineer ran back.
Then the fireman. seeing the engineer
off the engine, reversed it, but fortu-
nately the switch was thrown again in
time and the only damage done was the
running Of the engine off the track. The
fireman was seriously injured, and it is
thought his skull was fractured by the
terrible beating. Philadelphia Press
The Mercenary.
The mercenary fighting man is a per-
son who seldom receives his due reward
during his lifetime or his just need Of
fame after his death. The character is
one so alien to the age in which we live,
1t belongs SO entirely to the days when
fighting was the only occupation for q
gentleman, that it has forfeited alike our
study and our sympathy. Volunteers we
understand, but mercenaries we do not.
The world apparently has grown to
think that fighting as profession-tbe
bare trade Of arms unconsecrated by
any sentiment o. cause Or country-is
not noble thing and should not, how
ever ably and gallantly followed. be ad.
judged the highest praise.
Possibly the world is right, but we
suspect that change Of system in the
training Of fighting men has bad far
more influence than mere abstract hu-
manity in creating this opinion. In
these days Of short service and swift
wars the old type Of professional fight
ing man has become extinct. In every
country the recruit is forced through 9
soldiers education at high pressure and
returned to civil life as speedily as pos
sible that be may earn money to pay for
the education Of others. No man, unless
he be an officer, devotes his whole life
time to the military calling, and conse-
quently the few mercenaries-the name
is too ignoble for them-who are known
to us in these later times are without
exception Gordon, for instance,
Valentine Baker and Hobart. It was not
90 Of old, when the rule was once a SOL
dier always soldier, and the only
school was war. Then few men dreamed
of rising to command except through
the ranks, and many gentlemen preferred
to stay all their lives in the ranks or at
highest to carry the ensigns Of their
companies. Veteran soldiers were worth
their weight in gold, and though by no
means innocent of rapacity followed
their calling from sheer devotion to it
and thought themselves unlucky if they
died in their beds-Macmillan g Maga-