The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-03-01
The Train on Which the Gov
ernOr of Illinois
Was Speeding to Washington
Runs Its Nose
INTO BIG BOULDERS
In the Mountains of West
Virginia.
Saved From Dashing to Destruc-
ton by Aged Track Walker.

Washington, March 1.-The train on
which Governor Tanner of Illinois came
to this city came near being wrecked.
A little after o'clock in the morn
ing, just beyond Moundsville. a little
station seven miles west of BenwOod,
while the train was going forty miles
an hour, around a sharp cliff, the en-
gineer saw a small bonfire on the track
and in front of it a man waving frantic
directions for them to stop. He obeyed
at once, reversed his engine, as did the
engineer of the second engine behind.
put on all brakes, and both StrOve by
every means in their power to bring the
train to a halt.
For a moment, which seemed an hour.
the effort was fruitless. The heavy
train dashed through the fire and would
have run over the man had he not
stepped aside. 1t swept forward SEEM
ingly without diminution of speed for
awhile, and then the brakes caught, the
train slowed up and finally stopped
with the nose of the first coWcatcher
buried among a lot of boulders some OF
them weighing tons, which had slid
down from the cliff above and COM
pletely covered the track.
Had the train struck them with any
force at all it must have been derailed,
and that, in that place, meant hor-
rible accident. The roadbed is nothing
but a large cut in the face OF a. bluff,
to the left the cliff lowered hundred
feet, with hardly room between it and
the track for the man who gave the
went by. To the right was a sheer
descent of hundred feet or more in
the narrow gorge, at the bottom or
which rushed a mountain stream, swol-
len out of its banks by melting snow.
Had the train been precipitated below
into the gorge the fatalities which
would have resulted would have been
frightful to contemplate 1t would
have been almost impossible for anyone
on board to escape alive. When the
train was stopped the man who had
given the warning had a strange story
TO tell.
His name was John Fitzpatrick, and
heswas the section hand, whose duty Il
was to patrol that stretch of track he
Had come out without his lantern, as
he had neglected to procure any oil for
it yesterday. While walking along the
track in the dark, there was a sudden
noise up the cliff to his left, and with a
quick rush, huge powders came down
upon him, any one of which. had it hit
him, would have swept him into the
gorge below.
For a moment he was too scared to
even think, then he awOke to a realiza-
ton of what had happened, and the fact
that fast passenger train was due at
any minute.
CIambering back over the high bowl
down the track to meet the expected
train. He had no lantern to signal 1t
with, and so, going as far as he dared.
for the train was then an hour overdue,
he built fire on the tracks with sticks
he pulled off the bushes in the cliff at
the side of the track and used it for
danger signal.
When the passengers saw what had
happened they gave attention to the old
track walker and his thank you, sir,
was punctuated by the jingle OF some
thing that fell merrily into the recesses
of the bluest pair of OVerallS any West
Virginia track walker ever yet wore
Many of the women passengers braVed
the cold and came to the scene and they
ak things. ENifZDa1T1CK
Gov. and Mrs. Tanner, who were
asleep in the rear coach, were not ap-
prised of their narrow escape until
morning. They both expressed the
greatest interest in the affair and the
governor inquired particularly concern
ing old Fitzpatrick.