Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1897-10-15
RACING WITH FIRE.

4hc tidid Nuo oiOoollS a NuaU pEtlfl6s
The single line of rails ran as straight as
If it had been drawn with a ruler from
one horizon to the other. On each side the
coarse grass green with the tint of spring,
waved breast high. There was no sound
except the monotonous beat of the wheels
as they passed from one rail to the next
and the steady swish of the grass as it bent
before the rushing wind of the train.
was sitting on the platform Of the OBJ
servation car with half dozen other pas
sengers. The conversation fell upon prairie
fires, and each man had his say
1T was along in 1874 when this road
was building and / was one of the engi-
neer's assistants" spoke up grizzled,
hard featured man who had taken but lit
tie part in the conversation. "We began
at the western end, down by Bucephalus,
and we had laid out about 40 miles of
track In straight line right across the
prairie, and had got to within, say, ten
miles from whore we are at this identical
minute. 1t was an easy job, for we just
laid the sleepers down on the ground and
spiked the rails to them, calculating to
ballast the track when we got good and
ready. had big gang of Irishmen un
der me, and we used to average mile a
day Of track laying. One July we had a
strike among the laborers, and all hands
quit work. was down at Bucephalus at
the time, and the chief engineer asked me
to take locomotive over the line and see
II the strikers had done any damage before
they left us.
II started out in the morning with no.
body except the engineer in charge of the
locomotive, agreeing to take turns with
him in shoveling coal and watching the
engine. We came along slow and easy, for
the track was too rough for any fast run
ming, and about noon we got to where it
ended. There were no signs that the strik-
ers had meddled with the track, and as
it was pretty hot day Sam and /, after
we had had our lunch, lay down alongside
Of the engine in the shade of the cab and
took nap.
II woke up little before O'Clock, and
as was filling pipe and making up my
mind to wake Sam and to start for home
big wolf bolted out from the high grass
and ran across the track not two yards
from u.s. His tail was between his legs
and the foam was dripping from his
mouth, and he was making about as good
time as any wolf ever made before or since
He never SO much as looked at me, and
when he had vanished 1 called Sam and
told him had seen a mad wolf. While
was speaking about dozen prairie dogs
rushed past us, and then there came an.
other wolf and couple of hares. All of
them were doing their level best, and they
paid no more attention to us than II we
had been a couple of oorpses.
What on earth is the meaning of this
circusf' says l. Are those animals just
racing for the championship, or is there
somebody after then?'
"Sam didn't answer but saw that he
looked scared He sprang up. and climb
ing on his engine looked over the prairie
to the eastward Then he sang out to me
to get into the cab quicker than lightning
and started to open the draft and set the
fires blazing.
what is it9' I began to ask as l
climbed into the cab. But didn't need
to finish my question. could see for my
self what was the matter. The whole
prairie east Of us, as far as / could see, was
in blaze, and as there had been strong
east wind all day, and the fire wasn't more
than three or four miles away, calculat-
ed 1t would be down on us in very few
minutes.
60 Hadn I'VE better start fire and burn
some of this grass off before the fire gets
here?' asked Sam. You see, had read
about that way of stopping prairie fire,
and knowing that Sam had been born and
bred on the prairie calculated he would
know all about it.
Better start HE'LL! says Sam. Can't
you see that the wind has all gone down
here, though it's blowing a gale where the
fire isP Hold on now, for I'm going to
open her out, and we're going to do some
tall running
With that he pulled open the throttle,
and the engine started with big jump,
as if she had just seen the fire and was
badly scared. We went down the track
for about a mile at pretty good gait, and
then we had to stop while Sam frightened
a nut in the connecting rod.
Do you mean to run away from the
fre?' asked
! calculate to try it, said Sam, since
It's our only chance, but don't much be-
lieve that we can run as fast on this track
as the fire can. That fire Is coming on at
the rate of 90 miles an hour, and whether
this engine will keep on the rail at any
such rate as that have my doubts. HelloI
Here come the snakes \
"Well, we started on again, running
over snakes by the dozen. We had lost
only about two or three minutes by stop
ping, but the fire seemed to have gained
on us about half the distance that it had
been when we first saw it, and we were
near enough now to hear the cracking
and the roaring Of the flames. saw the
fire strike a big tree, and If you'll believe
1t that tree burst as If it had been filed
with gunpowder and vanished clean out
Of sight in less than minute after the
leaves began to frizzle. The wind was
drawing toward the fire, but we could see
by the way the flames acted that a high
east wind was bringing the fire down on
us at an awful rate. The flames would
shoot up 80 or 40 feet into the air and
wave just as II they were hurrahing at the
Of catching us.
"Our engine was doing at least % miles
an hour, and was swinging from side to
side and humping over the Johnston we
didn't have any f1shplates in those days
as II she was bound to jump the track. We
had 0utrun the snake procession, and the
only live thing we could see was coyote
who was Looping down the track 80 yards
ahead of us without so much as turning
bis head to see what was after him.
How long will the track stand this
tort Of thingp' says ! to Sam as he finished
fresh coal into the fire.
Don't know says he. It's 10
miles from here to the Wachusetts river,
and II we can get across the bridge ahead
II the fire there Ia fair chance that 1t
won't GROSS. don't much believe that we
will fetch the bridge, but II we don't 1t