The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-07-31
A PECULIAR TRAIN.
A TRAVELLING MANS EXPERIENCE IN
A COUNTRY HOUSE.
The spook Special That Makes an Annual
Trip on an Abandoned Track-A Brave
Engineer Who Saved a Trainload OF
Excursionists.

Speaking of things" remarked
philadelphia drummer, 81 had a
strange thing happen to me about "A
month ago in Georgia. 1t didn't exact
" happen to me either, but it was in
my hearing. / had attempted to drive
across country to catch train at a sta
ton which | could not have reached
otherwise except by Il long and tiresomo
detour over a miserable piece Of road
and when a railroad in Georgia is bad
il is bad with any sort Of an adjective
for emphasis you choose. II WAS ~
miles and through a mountain gap, and |
as it WAS nearly daIl. when | started |
wound UP by getting lost and going TIC !
Lord knows where till | struck a very |
fair two story house that looked as II it
might have been a summer hotel once !
upon time.
al asked the man who responded 10
my call how far it was TO the railroad,
and he told me ten miles, and J had
better light and stay all night. /
lighted, and after bite of cold bread
and meat and drink of 'moonshine' |
went to bed. tired enough to have slept
on picket fence 1t was then IL
O'Clock, and about two hours later |
was awakened from my slumbers 10y
hearing train whistle apparently
mile or less away and then rumble
| along, coming nearer and nearer and
nearer until suddenly it stopped, and
heard no more | was.too sleepy to give
| it much thought, and, rolling over,
went to sleep again wondering why my
| host had told me it was ten miles 10 the
| railroad, unless il was to deceive me
out of the price of nights lodging.
SIN the morning at breakfast | men
toned the fact to him, and he laughed
in an uneasy kind of way and assured
me that it was ten miles 10 the railroad,
and would think it was three times
that far after had driven over II. The
noise | had heard, lie said, WAS probably
the wind blowing down the chimney
aud banging around the house, which
was old and open in many places. L
hadn't any more to say and went on my
way to the railroad, reaching there i'll
three hours and noticing 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 station.
sat the station, while waiting tor
; nv train, got to talking with the sta
ton agent, who was q bright, SHARP
chap. and incidentally | asked him
. about that railroad train. He looked al
, me Quick as IA wink and asked me the
particulars, which told him.
- | a. ha said asst NIGH
was the night it always comes. Wher
the road was first built here, there wa
a branch that ran back up in that coun
8 try to place about two or three mile
: beyond that house to kind OF a sum
o mer resort up there-mineral spring
IS and waterfall Excursions for da
A used to go up there from towns dow
IS the road from here and up the othe
a way. Ten years ago tonight an excui
d sion was coming back from there, an
= lust about the neighborhood or tina
It house the engineer saw an obstructlo
10 on the track that was going to thro'
l. the whole shebang over the bank, ano
ID whistling down brakes and cutting hi
1t engine loose, he went straight for
s. and knocked il off the track. Or cours
Q, he and his engine went with 1t, an
IS neither Of them was ever any more us
le after that racket, but the train WI
IN saved, and that was enough for ma
I'd to die for, because there were 200 won
c. en- and children in the excursion.
ig "It was shown that some OF the PEI
ne nile in the neighborhood had attempte
rt TO wreck the train, and it spoiled ti
8. excursion business. There was coal {
a the branch that kept the last nine or tt
a miles of it in operation for rev yea
ed longer, but there never was another pa
ok senoer train to go over the place whe
he the engineer was killed-that is to sa
never another train that anybody ev
saw, but there has been one go over {
spot, or, rather, go to it and stop o.
'or night in every year for the past q
id, wears. / have heard it, and so have
a men in that house and you, but no mo
ers that know of because his nearest nelg
d. bor is three miles away, and nobo
ever gets in that neighborhood to 81
Try all night. / suppose / would not ma
to been there if he had not asked me al
nd friend to come up OH one OF the AM
u versary nights anu near ~ 81 h0 w.
,ed talk to me about it and advise with
for whether to move away or stick 1t o.
He advised him to stay and had W
vas nearly forgotten all about it, for rea
oss the subject hasn't come to my notice
four or five years, and you can wal
ed. money I never went back there to lis
US to it any more. I'll be blamed
lud couldn't see that engineer and his
at CINE whirling to destruction the nigh
staid there because / knew what to
ing pect and sat up to wait for it with ev
lou nerve at its highest tension. Darn gu
kind of O ghost, isn't it?'
az told him 1 thought it was" Q
oluded the drummer, land when s.
his pested to him that might perhaps
the story to some one else and it mi
get into the newspapers he laughed
ow- said that was just the same as keep
Of il a dead secret, for nobody III I
neipbborhood took newspaper or co
read one if he did. Washington 81
Built Up Wood.