Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1896-05-15
BREAKING A G O
BY ROBERT BARR.

gov air line railway, Mr.. Swipes, sent
me an invitation marked private" say
ing that he was bound to beat the rec
ord made by the Lake Shore G. Michigan
Southern railroad now that they had
come out in print about it. He added
that he thought record breaking in the
night time all right enough, if the
record breaker did not say anything
about it in public, but if newspaper ac-
counts were to be written then the
race should be open to outside parties
who might wish to know the time with
out asking q policeman. He added that
when the New York Central broke the
English record they did so with their
Empire State express, which anyone
could have Travelled on who had the
money to pay his fare. This, he
claimed, was the right way of breaking
a record if you are going to write about
1T afterward. Nevertheless he was GO
ing to follow the Lake Shore g. Michi~
gan Southern fashion, just to see what
his railroad could do, and he invited me,
as a person owning an American watch,
to come upon the trip, but begged me
to say nothing whatever about it, for,
he said, instead of breaking the rec
ord, we might perhaps break our necks.
liz added that he regretted that he
owned only IN old silver turnip OF a
watch himself which wouldn't split the
minutes, let alone the seconds, and SO
he would like to have a really good
watch with which to keep the time.
l was to meet him at the London ter.
minus of the London & Glasgow air
line at exactly 10, midnight, three
weeks ago. There wa some little risk
in going out at that hour, for it is we'll
known that MI of the most obnoxious
and oppressive laws made by Queen Vic
toria herself is that every man in Lon
don must be in his own house at $40
o'clock, and have lights out and be in
bed ut nine. Anyone out after that
hour is liable to arrest, so L stole up and
down through by streets and lodged
the policemen until l came to the ter
minus. Here / was amazed to find nm
immense locomotive and one flat car
with two camp stools on 1T.
Whats this for?" I said to Swipes.
Were going to break the record
with this train" he replied. 81 WANT 10
have it as light us possible, for an ordi-
nary carriage meets with such resist,
in passing SO quickly through the
atmosphere that | concluded to take a
freight car, and if we have u smash-up
IT won't be so expensive"
but you don't expect me to sit on
II OF those stools in the open air from
here to Glasgow?" | cried, aghast,
ooh, that's all right" he said. "rhe
r fastened to the floor of the
car, and l have shawl straps with which
you can fasten yourself to the stool,
There won't be any trouble on that
score"
Where are the other fellows?" T
asked.
There aren't any," he answered..
When you are going to break a rec,
ora the fewer you have on board the
better; watches differ, and it would be
pad II there was a quarrel about time;
Your watch shall be the only official
time piece in the company; mine, as
l think l told you in the letter, general
ly loses two hours out of the "a. so I
think we had better not trust to it,"
l strapped myself to one stool and
Swipes strapped himself to the other
II at 1915 we pulled out of Maryle.
bone terminus. 1t was agreed thai. we
were not to begin the record until we
had passed Highgate, and were thus
safely out OF the influence of London,
The distance from London to Glas-
gow is 4o1.5 miles. We had for engineer
Peter McGump, who was a Scotchman,
II therefore knew the road to Glas-
gov well, and Billy Jones, of White
chapel, did the firing. We had no
brakeman, because, as swipes said, it
was not on the brakes we We're going TO
depend for breaking the record,
The engine was known as the Mary
Jane, and familiar to all the operators
on tho road a "IIcr Golden Hair Is
Hansin' Down 'er Back" She gets this
nickname from her great speed. and
from the fact that the smoke with the
sparks in it trails out behind like a
SANSS c'lAlSA
After leaving Highgatc Potter gave
her more steam, and the speed began to
be something appalling.
"Oh, It's nothing t. what we'll have
by and by" said swipes, as he watched
me making an Intellectual grab at my
hat, which disappeared in the darkness,
Swipes counted the mile-stones while
] licked Off the seconds on my watch,
and before long we We're going 10 miles
IN hour. We had the advantage over
the American road in the fact that
there are rarely any level road cross
lnss in England, and that one rail-
way is never allowed to cross another
on the level. BY the time we passed
Toad-in-the-Hole we were doing IS
miles an hour, but as the Lake Shore
train has attained q speed Of 02.3,
Swipes yelled to Peter Us we'll as he
could to give her more speed, because
If she didn't put in her best ticks now,
what could we expect when we came to
the high grounds and the stiff grades
of the midlands? This shouting of
Swipes, however, had no effect, be-
cause we were going SO fast hat his
words never reached Peter, who stood
with his hand on the lever, watching
ssrilrly the track in front. AS Swipes
continued to shout out the mile posts,
l cried:
Hold on, it's the telegraph poles you
are counting"