The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-04-23
POWER FROM OYSTER SOUP.
no" an Ingenious Locomotive EnsInes,
saved His Train and Passenger.

saved His Train and Passeuxer..
he was more than an ordinarily ac.
complished liar for an amateur and
they all knew it when they asked him
for a story.
Il can tell You how once ran an en-
CINE and saved trainload of peonle
with all oyster stew if you want to
know, but / don't think of ANYTHING
more exciting than that" 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
long distance through the forests of
northern Wisconsin, and we were fire.
quently bothered by forest fires. They
were particularly bad at the time |
speak of. One day had run through
one big blaze only to find that there
was bigger one ahead. The worst of
1t 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 awhile. 1t 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,
guess, he answered. Why do you ask
Never mind, says |. What's that in
those cans i'll the corners? Oysters, he
answered But why do you want to
know Never you mind, told him,
and then | ordered the other train hands
who had come up to see why we had
stopped to tote that milk and those oys
tiers up to the engine.
"They did it in spite of the kicking
of the milkman, and when they hat
brought them up | ordered them al
chucked into the tank. The conducto
came up, too, and declared it was ;
funny notion to be making oyster stew
in an engine boiler, when we were II
danger of being burned alive, but
soon convinced him that it was neces
sarv if we did not want TO stay ther
and roast.
"Well, we finally dumped in all tn
milk and all the oysters and starte
ahead. You ought to have smelled tn
steam that came back into that engil
cab. 1t would have made you think
an old time church festival. Nhov
How that soup did smell! 1t made Il
engine Jump, though, and that was Il
5 we wanted We got up great head
u steam in no time, and the way v
plungcd through that next fire belt VI
d a caution. As we pulled up at the st
y ton lust beyond opened up and beSi
s TO whistle. a great cloud of oyster sol
II or vapor shot into the sky, OF cours
e and didn't come dowu till we were
|. out of sight. Then it settled like
J, thick tog-oystus, soup and all Ever
re hody noticed it, of course, and the
s. was country scientist III the 10,
%ho was sure it was the greatest pil
N nomeuon OF the age 1t was ram
g oyster soup up there he was sure' a
n t6e next issue Of the weekly papers We
< fpll of it-not the soup, but the news
n it. After the residents up that way i
IN all swallowed it-not the soup but
T. storv-we told them about It, ana u
IL was the silliest looking scientist G.
IL saw. Chicago Times-Herald.