The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1897-06-11
POWER FROM OYSTER SOUP,
How an Ingenious Locomotive Enginees
Saved His Train and Passengers.


Saved His Train and Passengers.
He was more than Nh ordinarily ac-
complished liar for an amateur, and
they all knew ii when they asked him
for story.
"I can tell you how once ran an en-
Rine and saved trainload OF people
with an oyster stew if you want to
know, but I don't think OF anything
more exciting than that, I" he said apollo
getically. ....
"That's good enough" they all de-
clared. "Give us that. -
"All right, then, here goes, he said
as he settled back in his chair. II was
once engineer on road that ran for a
long distance through the. forests OF
northern Wisconsin, and We were fire.
quently bothered by forest fires. They
were particularly bad at the time l
speak of. One day had run through
one big blaze, only to find that there
was a bigger one ahead. The worst OF
it was we were low OIL 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. ... ... ,4
II was puzzled for awhile. It was
death to all of us 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 / made for it. How
much milk have you got?' says to the
fellow in charge. About 40 cans. l
guess. he answered. why doyou ask?'
Never mind, says I. What's that in
those cans in the corner?' Oysters, he
answered. But why do you want to
know?' Never you mind, I told him,
and then I ordered the other train hands
who had come up to see why we had
stopped to tote that milk and those oys-
ters up to the engine
They did it in spite of the kicking
of the milkman, and when they had
brought them up l ordered them all
chucked into the tank. The conductor
came up, too, and declared it was a
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 neces-
sary if we did not want to stay there
and roast.
"Well, 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 festival. 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 sta
tion just beyond 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 fa1
out of sight. Then it settled like a
thick fog-oysters, soup and all. Every.
body noticed it, Of course, and there
was a country scientist in the town
who was sure it was the greatest phe'
nomenon of the age. It 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
it. After the residents up that way had
all swallowed it-not the soup, but the
story-we told them about it, and thai
was the silliest looking scientist I evey
saw. Chicago Times Herald.