Evening journal., 1897-08-21
A PECULIAR TRAIN.
A Travelling Mans Experience in -
Georgia Country House.

to me, either, but IL was in my hearing.
had attempted to drive across country
to catch "A train at a station which
could not have reached otherwise, ex-
cept by long and tiresome detour over
a miserable piece of road-and when
railroad in Georgia is bad it is bad
with any sort of an adjective for en-
phasis you choose. IL was ~ miles
and through a mountain gap. end it
was nearly dark when ! wound up by
getting lost and going the Lord knows
where till / struck a very fair two
story house that looked like it might
have been a summer hotel once upon
time.
81 asked the man who responded TO
my call how far it was to the railroad,
and he told me ten miles. and had bet
ter light and stay all night. light
cd and after a bit of cold bread and
meat and a drink of 'moonshine' went
TO bed, tired enough to have slept on q
picket fence. 1t was then IL o'clock.
and about two hours later l was
awakened from my slumbers by hear
ing a train whistle apparently a mile
or less away, and then rumble along,
coming nearer and nearer until sud
denly it stopped. and ! heard no more.
1 was too sleepy to give it much
thought. and rolling over 1 went 10
sleep again, wondering why my host
had told me it was ten miles to the rail-
road, unless it was to deceive me out of
the price of a nights lodging.
In the morning at breakfast l mem
toned the fact TO him, and he laughed
in an uneasy kind of a way and assured
me that it was ten miles to the railroad,
and l would think it was three times
that far after ] had driven over it. The
noise l had heard, he said, was probably
the wind blowing down the chimney
and banging around the house, which
was old and open in many places.
hadn't any more to say, and went on my
way to the railroad, reaching there in
three hours, and noticing all the way
that an old roadbed with the ties and
rails still on it in places lay near the
J wagon road all the way to the station
AT the station. while waiting foI
my train, got to talking with the sta
q ton agent, who was a bright, sharI
chap, and incidentally 1 asked hin
about that railroad train. He looked
at me quick as a wink. and asked m'
the particulars, which told him.
"'It's ha'nt.' he said. Last nigh
r was the night Il always comes. WheI
. the road was first built there was f;
branch that run back up in that coun
. try to a place about two or three miles
beyond that house, to a kind of 1
summer resort up there. Minera
springs and a waterfall. Excursion
, for a day used to go up there from
. towns down the road here and up tn
q other way. Ten years ago tonight Al
i excursion was coming back from ther
= and Just about the neighborhood o
l. that house the engineer saw an oil
struction on the track that was goini
q to throw the whole shebang over th
y bank. and whistling down brakes an
cutting his engine loose he wen
straight for it and knocked it off tn
" track. OF course he and his engin
q went with it, and neither of them wa
r ever more used after that racket bu
v the train was saved, and that wa
enough for a man to die for, becaus
there were 200 women and children
/ the excursion.
"'It was shown that some of the pee
y pie in the neighborhood had attempte
n to wreck the train, and it spoiled th
= excursion business. There was co;
). on the branch that kept the last mir
4 ior ten miles of it in operation for fe'
T. years longer, but there was never al
v. other passenger train to go over I'll
he place where the engineer was kille
~ That is to say, never another train thi
"a ANYBODY ever saw; but there has bee
I one go over the spot, or rather so to
\ and stop, one night in every year f.
~ the past ten years. ! have heard it, az
g so have the men in that house and yo
ne but no more that ] know Of. becau
i" his nearest neighbor is three mill
of away and nobody ever gets in tn
T.. neighborhood to stay all night. su
r. pose / would not lave been there if
er had not asked me as a friend to con
ID up on one of the anniversary nights al
hear il, so he could talk 10 me about
and advise with me whether to mo
" away or stick it out. ] advised him
de stay and had very near forgotten 1
ne about it, for really the subject hasi
as come to my notice in four or five yea
he and you can wager money l never we
as back there to listen to it any more.
nd be blamed If / couldn't see that c
Gle gineer and his engine whirling TO {
us struction the night ! stayed there,
ns cause I knew what to expect and S
ate up to wait for it with every nerve at
,,t highest tension. Darn queer kind
as ghost, isn't it,?
to II told him l thought it was &C
es- cluded the drummer. land when l 81
m gested TO him that might perhaps {
to the story to some one else and it mig
get into the newspapers, he laugh
and said that was just the same
keeping it a dead secret. for nobody
that neighborhood took newspaper
ON could read one il he Washingi
Star.
not FuIGlIment Deferred.
for There is an old prophecy, much ch