The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-03-15
It Rnined Oyster soun.

He was more than an ordinarily accom-
plished liar for an amateur. and they all
knew it when they asked him for a story,
says the Chicago Times-Herald.
''I can tell you how I once ran an en-
CINE and saved a train load OF people with
an oyster stew if you want to know, but
I don't think of anything more exciting
than that" he said, alphabetically.
That's good enough" they all declared.
Give US that"
"All right then; here goes,' he said as
he settled back in his chair. 81 was once
engineer on a road that ran for a long
distance through the forests Of Northern
Wisconsin, and we were frequently both
cred by forest fires. They were particu-
larly bad at the time / speak Of One day
L had run through one big blaze, only
to find that there was a bigger one ahead.
The worst of il was we were low on water,
and there was no chance to fill the tank
without dashing through the fire ahead of
US. sent the fireman out to see if we had
enough to make the run but he came back
and told me the boiler was almost dry.
Il was puzzled for while. 1t was death
to all of us I knew to stay there, but how
to get out was the question. Suddenly
happy thought struck me- There was
milk car just behind the first baggage, and
1 made for it. How much milk have you
got? l says to the fellow in charge. About
forty cans, l guess, he answered. Why
do you ask?' Never mind, says l. What's
that in those cans in the corner?' 'Oys-
ters,' he answered. But why do you want
to know? Never you mind told him and
then l ordered the other train hands who
had come up to see why we had stopped
to tote that milk and those oysters up to
the engine. They did it in spite of the kick
ing of the milkman, and when they had
brought them up ordered them ali chuck
ed into the tank. The conductor came up
too, and declared it was funny notion to
| be making oyster stew in an engine boiler
when we were in danger of being burned
| alive, but soon convinced him that it was
necessary if we did not want to stay there
| and roast.
We'll, we finally dumped in all the milk
| and all the oysters and started ahead. You
| ought to have smelled the steam that came
| back into that engine cab. 1t would have
| made you think of an old time church fes-
| tival. Whew! how that soup did smell. 1t
| made the engine jump, though, and that
was all we wanted. We got up great
| head of steam in no time and the way we
| plunged through that next fire belt was a
! caution. As we pulled up at the station
| just beyond 1 opened up and began to
whistle. A great cloud of oyster soup
| or vapor shot into the sky, of course, and
| didn't come down till we were far out of
sight. Then it settled like a thick fog,
| oysters. soup and all. Everybody noticed
| it, of course, and there was country scen-
| fist in the town who was sure it was the
| greatest phenomenon of the age. 1t was
raining oyster soup up there he was sure
| and the next issue of the weekly papers
| were full of it-not the soup, but the news
| of 1t. After the residents up that way had
| all swallowed it-not the soup but the story
| we told them about it, and that was the
| silliest looking scientist I ever saw"