The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-07-18

uneasy kind of way and assured me that
1t was ten miles to the railroad, and |
would think 1t was three times that far
after l had driven over to it. The noise
l had heard, he said was probably the
wind blowing down the chimney and bang
ing around the house, which was old and
open in many places. hadn't any more to
say and went on my way TO the railroad,
reaching there in three hours, and motto
ing all the way that an old roadbed with
the ties and rails still on it in places lay
near the wagon road all the way to the
sta ton.
"At the station, while waiting for my
train, 1 got to talking with the station
agent, who was a bright, sharp chap, and
incidentally / asked him about that rail-
road train. He looked at me quick as a
wink, and asked me the particulars which
/ told him.
It's a hant,' he said. Last night was
the night 1t always comes. When the road
was first built there was a branch that
run back up in that country to a place
about two or three miles beyond that
house, to kind of summer resort up
there. mineral springs and water fall.
Excursions for day used to go up there
from towns down the road from here and
up the other way Ten years ago tonight
an excursion was coming back from there,
and just about the neighborhood Of that
mousse tll6 engineer saw an Gus AutllOAl Otl
the track that was going to throw the
whole shebang over the bank, and whist
ling down breaks and cutting his engine
loose he went straight for it and knocked
it off the track. OF course he and his en-
CINE went with 1T, and neither of them was
ever any more use after that racket; but
the train was saved, and that was enough
for a man to die for because there were
200 women and children in the excursion.
vva gbOxtyn that of fha npnnIp
in the neghborhood had attempted to
wreck the train, and it spoiled the eXcur-
sion business. There was coal on the
branch that kept the last nine or ten
miles Of it in operation for few years
longer, but there never was another pas
senger train to go over the place where
the engineer was killed That is to say,
never another train that anybody ever
saw; but there has been one go over the
spot, or rather go to it and stop, one
night in every year for the past ten
years. 1 have heard it, and so have the
men in that house and you, but no more
that / know of, because his nearest neigh
Dor is three miles away and nobody ever
gets in that neighborhood to stay all
night / suppose / would not have been
there if he had not asked me as friend
to come up on one of the anniversary
nights and hear II, so he could talk to me
about it and advise with me whether to
move away or stick il out. l advised him
to stay, and had very nearly forgotten all
about it, for really the subject hash t
come to my notice in four or five years,
and you can wager money l never went
back there to listen to IL any more. IN be
blamed If / couldn't see that engineer and
his engine whirling to destruction the
night l stayed there, because knew what
to expect and sat up to wait for it with
every nerve at its highest tension. Darn
queer kind of a ghost, amt it,"
II told him l thought it was conclud-
ed the drummer, "and when 1 suggested
to him that l might perhaps tell the story
to some one else and II might get into the
newspapers, he laughed and said that was
just the same as keeping 1t dead secret,
for nobody in that neighborhood took a
newspaper or could read one IL he did"