The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-08-16
TEXAS RAILWAY GHOSTS
THE MIRAGES THAT BOTHER EN-
GiNEERs IN THE PANHANDLE.
Phantom Trains Thnt Seem Rushing
to Run Through a Ghost.

Worth & Denver railroad. For years he
has been on one of the Pan Handle divi-
sions. and it Is said TO his credit that no
human being has ever lost life or limb on
his train during all that time. But he has
had adventures in the --LATEST country on
earth.
Sometimes the country / run through
is the g%randest, most beautiful in all the
world" he remarked recently. and some
times it's about the cussedest. In the
spring. when we've had plenty of rain and
the crops are all growing nice and the
grass is green as far as the eye can reach.
the Pan Handle seems as If 1t might have
been designed for a kind of earthly para
disc. In the summer, when there hasn't
been any rain for a long time and the
crops are dead and the grass burned brown
as far as you can see, and the hot, parch-
ing wind is sending the alkal: dust scoot-
ing everywhere, the country seems mighty
like a borderland of hell. The Pan Handle
engineers have lots of advantages over
the fellows that ran nglne over a coun-
try that amt as fiat as ours; but then we
have our disadvantages. too. One of our
advantages is that we can see far. There
amt a great deal of danger of our slip
pin up on something we can't see till we
get close to it.. OF course there are a few
places where there are hills and curves
and ever cuts, but there are mighty few
of them. One of our chief disadvantages
is that we see so darned many things that
"How's that?" asked an auditor.
Ghosts" answered Jink. Didn't you
die?"
Most of his listeners shook their heads.
but one or two of the older ones smiled
and nodded knowingly, and some one ut
tered the word:
Mirage
tinued the speaker. out in our country,
though, we Just call 'em ghosts. It's rath-
err disconcerting to look out of the window
some bilin' hot afternoon and see away
ahead of you a good big town where you
know there wasn't no more town than a
spirit. the last time you passed that way.
a big. cool-looking lake of water not very
far away. when YOU know the whole
cussed country for miles around is dry as
the inside of a powder horn. The scien-
tifc fellows call 'em mirages and have a
long rismarole to account for how they
occur, but that don't keep EN- from max
sees one. anyway. The worst thing on a
fellows nerves. though. are the ghost en-
gines. The first time you see one of them
you get shook up just as bad as IL you'd
seen a genuine spook.
HIS FIRST GHOST.
It'll be a long time before l forget my
first round with one. 1 had been running a
passenger on the road for some time then.
and had never seen anything extraordi-
nary. OF course 1 heard the other boys
guy each other a good deal about the
ghost, but / never thought there was any
thing in it. Finally my time came. though.
1t was one blistering hot August after
noon. and the whole country was parched
as brown as if it had been put on an
enormous skillet and set over a big fire to
cook it. The heat was rising up in great
weltering. skimmering waves from the
long double lines of cleaning rails in front
of me. hot enough and bright enough to
mighty nigh put out a fellows eyes. espe-
cially when he had to keep his eyes pretty
near glued to the track for hours at a
time. Worse than that. a seorchin. wind
was blowing like a fury, and sending the
alkali dust whistling in great clouds. III
there's anything In the world calculated
on fire, / reckon it's this same alkali dust
when a good big dose of 1t gets inside
them. Something called my attention in
side the engine for a few seconds, and then
quick as a fash l glanced at the track
outside again.
It'll take me a long time to forget what
! saw. There on the track right in front
of me and not a hundred yards ahead was
a big monster locomotive with a long trail
of black smoke pourin' out of her smoke,
stack. and bearing down on us with a full
head of steam on. In my excitement II
looked twice as big as any engine | ever
saw. The engineers head was sticking
out of the window. He had wild. star
ing eyes, but the rest of his face was like
a corpse. That face haunts me now, ike
was to jump-I don't deny that-but in
about a tenth part of a second 1 decided
to stick TO my machine and take what
would come. You'd better believe | swung
20 nv levers. though. anu got the thing
stopped so quick that they tell me 1T threw
half the passengers out or their seats. L
the smash to come: but 1t didn't come.
Then / looked at the track close in front
of me again-and there wasn't any more
rubbing my eyes and looking around in
a dazed sort of way. here came the con-
ductor and a lot of passengers running
up to the engine.
:. What's uo?' the conductor yelled.
'Suthin' on the track, I answ
"'You look like you might have seen a
ghost says one of the passengers.
" L amt sure but what ! have says l
MY fireman had been shoveling coal at
the time. and so had not seen anything I'M
usual. Just at this point he suddenly
glanced down the track. and then with a
start he pointed his finger in that direc-
.Thunderation," he yelled. see that.
will YOU? No wonder the old man got
ratified
rection. Sure enough. away down the
track in front of us there was an engine
with the smoke pouring out OF the smoke
Every man in the crowd could see 1T as
plain as YOU please. We waited and waited
for the ddrneO tnfnS 10 roIht up US cut
II never did come. and finally we could
not see IL at all. Then we all decided that
it was only a mirage, and so we started
on. didn't see any more ghosts that
trip. but was sorter trembly for weeks
afterward. The affair got into the Texas
papers. somehow. and one fellow in writ
ing about ii said that likely the engine |
saw was only my own reflected somehow
or other on a mass of heated vaDor Just
in front of me. and that II was a reilec-
ton of my own face that | saw sticking
out Of the cab. If il was. ] must have
been nearer dead than 1 hope soon TO
be again. judgin' from the expression on
the face"
II suppose next time you see a ghost on
the road you'll run right over it, won't
you. Jink?" suggested a listener.
RUNNING OVER A GHOST.
Not much.' answered Jink. decidedly.
lone fellow tried that once. You know a
big part of the business on our road is
hauling cattle. In the spring we haul hun
dreds of carloads of them from Texas to
the ranges in Colorado and Montana and
those States up there. and then in the fall
we haul them back to Texas again to win
ter there. In this way our freight traffic
is mostly all one way in the spring and
all the other way in the fall. Naturally
enough. our locomotives and eabooses all
get collected at one end or the other of the
line. The cars go on to different roads. so
IL don't make so much difference about
them, but every road owns it's own loco
motives and cabooseS. The result is that
they have to send lots of locomotives and