The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1896-01-24


Strange Freak.
''It isn't likely that there is any Of
the Coe Little breed of cattle left in the
upper Delaware valley" said veteran
railroad man, because, by this time,
their identity must have been destroyed
though mixture with other breeds. It
doesn't matter, for there was nothing
of particular note about that breed Of
cattle, except the way they happened to
be introduced into that locality.
"In those days live stock transporta-
tion was one of the Erie's big items Of
traffic Trains half mile long, loaded
with horned cattle, horses, sheep and
hogs, used to pass over the road two or
three times day. Such a thing is al
most curiosity nowadays. Coe Little
was conductor of one of these stock
trains between Susquehanna and Port
Jervis. He left Susquehanna one night,
in those good old days of railroading,
with long train of cattle cars. Those
trains were next to passenger trains in
class, and were run over the road ahum-
ming. Conductor Little delivered his
train at Port Jervis on time, and hand
ed over his way bills, which he had re-
ceived at Susquehanna, and on which
the number, character and contents Of
every car in his train were recorded.
When the agent at Port Jervis compared
Little's train on this voucher, one car
was missing. The car was entered on the
way bill as having left Susquehanna all
right, but it wasn't in the train. Its
place, according to the bill, was about
in the middle of the train.
"Well, here was a situation. Coe
Little declared that every car was in
the train when he left Susquehanna, for
he had checked the number Of each one
on the way bill himself. He certainly
hadn't delivered the missing car to any
one on the way, and he couldn It see how
any one could have sneaked in and sto-
len it, especially as the train had been
on the move pretty much all the time
between Susquehanna and Port Jervis.
A telegram was sent to the agent at Sus-
quehanna, asking for information about
the missing car. The reply was that
nothing was known there that could
throw any light on the subject; quite
the contrary, for the agent corroborated
Little's report. The car was in the train
when it left Susquehanna.
During the efforts Of the puzzled
railroad men at Port Jervis to solve the
mystery of the lost car, some one dis
covered that the Car that should have
been just behind the missing one was
coupled to the one that should have
been just ahead of it without the aid Of
q coupling pin, the link being broken in
such a way that it had become hook,
which was fast in the pinhole in the
coupler of the other car. This didn't
help matters little bit, and rather
deepened the mystery.
'They were still deep in efforts to
solve the mystery, and car tracer was
about to be sent back over the road to
see if he could find the car, when tele-
gram came from Shohola, station 16
miles west of Port Jervis. The agent at
that station said in effect that some
body's cattle car was astray in field
along the Delaware river just beyond
Shohola station, and that somebody had
better come and look after it. The
wrecking gang was sent up from Port
Jervis, and, sure enough, in the middle
of field, 100 feet or more from the
railroad, stood the missing cattle car,
right as trivet, except that its doors
were open and its cattle gone. To get
where it was the car had run down a
ten foot embankment, across a wagon
road and through stout rail fence.
"There was only one way to explain
the freak of the car in quitting its train
SO unceremoniously. Going east along
that part of the Erie the track is on
heavy down grade. Just before reaching
Shohola the coupling pin that held the
car to the one ahead of it must have
broken. This divided the train in two
parts The head car of the rear part
jumped the track, and breaking the link
that held it to the car behind it, went
on down the bank, getting out of the
way of the cars following on the track.
"When the leading section of the di-
vided train got to the foot of the grade,
caught up with it, and ran into the
rear car, but not with force sufficient to
do any damage or attract attention.
The broken link, then hook, happened
to fall into the pinhole of the coupler
ahead of it. The train was thus recou-
pied and went ON to Port Jervis without
the loss of car right out of its very
center having been discovered by any
one. There is no parallel to this one in
the record of mishaps to railroad trains,
and it has never ceased to be a wonder
to all old time railroad men.
"Well, whether the doors of the fugi-
tive car were broken by the jar and jolt
of its trip down the bank, through the
fence, and across the lot, or whether the
cattle inside kicked them open, can't
say. They were open, and the cattle
jumped out. 1t was winter, and the
Delaware river, only few feet away,
was filed with running ice. The cattle
must have been in panic, or must have
known that they were in Pike county,
Pa, or something of that sort, for they
plunged into that icy flood and made
their way across the river into Sullivan
county, N. Y. Searchers, accompanied
by the drover who owned them, found
and recovered them all. One COW,
deep red animal with white star in
her forehead, took the fancy of farmer
on whose premises some of the cattle
were found, and he bought her. She
had twin calves in the spring, each
marked exactly like the mother. One
was bull calf, one a heifer Because