Evening journal., 1896-09-28
TRIES THE NERVES.
AN OLD FIREMAN ON THE EFFECT
OF A SERIOUS ACCIDENT.
The Thoughts That flash Through the
Engineman's Brain just before Col
lisbon Occurs-A Smash Up Makes Man
scary Ever Thereafter.

ter5 IL. Ihe railroad companies rarely
give up reliable, faithful man. He
may become manned and unfit for the
most remunerative positions and be
forced to accept some humber place
with smaller salary attached to it,
but it is an unwritten law with most Of
the great rnilroad companies that the
man who is injured in their service
shall be placed in some position where
be may obtain his livelihood.
Thus it may happen that when you
fall in conversation with the man who
occupies a humble switchhouse or q
fiagman's shanty you are talking with
one who has had his share of excitement
and been through experiences that
would make the hair Of the average man
stand upon end. A reporter met a
switchman the other day the pathos of
whose life was expressed in the wooden
leg which he used. and as the Empire
dashed by he looked up and said:
Yes, like railroading. have been
In the business alF'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 10 my flag
ging 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
mile a minute, but tell you the man
carries load Of responsibility on his
shoulders which / would not want on
mine and which the average man knows
very little about. know something of
ii, for was fireman some years ago on
one Of the fast ep9ines and lost my leg
in an accident between here and AL
bany. But if I had come ont Of that &C.
cident as sound as you are l never
should have been able to hold my nerve
for any more fast trips. That finished
ME for that work. F"
'Then IL a man has been hurt in a
railroad accident it makes him scary
Of shat kind of work, does it?'' asked
the reporter.
"You bet it does" answered the
switchman with emphasis, ''and don {
let any one fool you that it doesn't. The
man who was running that engine the
day / was burt escaped with hardly a
scratch, but he never could keep his
time up the way he did before that and
finally was put ON freight engine,
where the RAINING was a great deal
slower.
II shall never forget the way he look
ed the afternoon the glaaah up occurred.
just before tho crazy car'c looked Mt
him. We were rounding curve down
~ Ctri, H. I,mfr
was flowing in the breez@ 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
startled TONE MY God, we are
caughtp II was probably not more than
half minute after when / was lying
beneath the engine with my leg crush
ed, utterly unconscious Of the fact that
a great wreck had occurred, but every
movement and occurrence Of that half
minute is rs vividly impressed upon my
mind as il ID had taken weeks Of time
TO impress it there.
''As he spoke 1 looked through the
cab window ahead Of us, and there,
within 20 rods, was a freight engine
! coming straight at us, and there was no
| possible chance TO escape q crash. The
J engineer was doing his duty. knew
that. He was reversing the lever, apply
\ ing the brakes and doing his best to
avert what he knew was inevitable, but
had nothing to do. and il seemed as If
\ everything in my life was before me in
those few seconds. 1 felt absolutely sure
/ was going to die Strange as it may
seem. the thought did not seem horrible
TO me- A whole lot Of the slang say
ings, such as, You are learning to fire
here IN this world so as to be prepared
for the next, and You won't mind q
hot Job over there, and q number Of
those stale things which n fireman has
TO take, came into my head, and ever
in that awful position it occurred to me
in humorous sort Of way that I had
made good start here below, or here
above, as I might say. The next mo-
ment was thinking of my wife ant
children-yes. and Of mother, too, who
had been dead a number Of years a
man always thinks Of his mother at sucf
time. But don't think l had par
llClt oI ltdI VI Otdtls 4ut lttot ihAAli
that was ON mysmind was the question
, Who was TO blame for the accident
j And that is the last remember
"When came to my senses, 1 wa
, in a hospital and was minus a leg
Since then have been constantly EN-
ployed one way and another by the rail
road company, but ] never see one o
the fsst trains 90 by without thinking
Of that wreck. The engineer miraculous
I 1y escaped with scarcely a bruise, but j
4 finished him for that kind of work II
I was always seeing engines ahead of hin
e after that, and 1 have heard that NOR
than once he has slowed up his train il
order not to collide with an imagipar
engine, which have no doubt was a
real to him as it was ON the afternoo
the wreck 1 speak Of occurred. As sal
before, he was transferred to a freigh
engine, but even there he was timi
and finally left the road altogether.
"You can put it down as prett
n sure thing that when an engineer ha
D | t.,a 1,r Sc,