The Van Buren press., 1897-11-20
ECONOMY AT THE TRoTu
Runnfn. a Locomotive on a sean4
Supply of Water

supply of Water,
"Say," said the old engineer "whepa
did ye get a-hold of all those stories a.
the old R., W. & o., anyway? That one.
We had last, about Dan Gfonan. MAKE.
me think of another old-timer wba
useter work on that road, an tbat wa,
old Levi Young, the engineer
"Knew Levi, did ye? Well, by oosh
is that SO? Say, WANT he great onee
Dye ever hear O. his economical turn
Well, III tell ye.
"Ye see, twas this way: Levi wasa
purity fair runner, but he belonged to
the time when there was two kinds .,
enginemen-those who could run. hnt
didn't know much about the machine
an those who could take one apart an.
put her together agin, but couldn't null
milk train on time. It's different
nov, an every runner has got to know
something about his machine.
"Welf, as | was a-tellin' We, Levi eonla
run all right. He'd make time with
any sort O. old machine, but be was a.
few chips shy on the mechanical part of
1t. 1t useter be said that once when
he was stalled in snewstorm down
about the Oswego country hills an run
short O. water, he tried ter fill the
boiler by shovelin' snow down her
| smokestaek.
Levi got kinder old an they put
him to runnin' the Rose accommodation
| That was train that usefer consist of
one combination car, and it ran from
Rose into 0swego in the mornin' to pick
up what early passenger traffic there
was.
''They put an old engine, No. I, on
her that was built way back in the COS.
She had been fixed over, but her boiler
was loose. an she was light an it was
all she could do to pull tn one car. She
| had an old-fashionea injector that you
had to shut off from the runnin' board,
out alongside her steam dome, which,
bein' she was an old-timer. was just be.
hind her smokestack.
"Well, the master mechanic gets fit
on one day. and be gets out an order
that we must all Of us economic in our
running expenses. Old Levi studied
over il and concluded that he could.
$50, one mornin'. when they was
a-startin' out o Rose. his fireman, who
was poor Martin slattery, noticed that
the water was bit low, an says SO to
Levi. Levi he says. have ye got
enough water TO get over the grader"
e.Grade be hanged says Levi; we've
got ter be eckernomieal.' An along he
goes. till he gets up purity near to the
top o. the grade, an then he turns on
the water, runs little into her, an then
tells Martin to go out an shut her of,
which Martin does.
AN just as he was gettin' back
through the front window o the cab
that old boiler Just ripped open at the
bottom an, rolled off ter one side. Blew
m. an when Levi an Martin realized
what had happened. there they was,
sittin' on the coal in the tender, an
lookin. foolish. while the old engine
was slidin' down grade with her tubes
bare. for all the world like one Of these
pictures in the back part O. the die
tionery.
well. they stopped her an then they
took stock. The smokestaek had been
thrown away over In the eornfeld, the
headlight was stickin' up in a tree, an
there wasn't enough glass left in the
cab to serape a drumstick smooth.
''They never found the bell, and the
boys say that once in awhile when they
run past there they can hear the ghost
o. the bell o. No. ringin But guess
some farmer got good bell for moth
, in'."~~Betroit Journal.