, 1897-04-29
POWER From OYSTER SOUP.

How Al Ingeniocs Locomotive Engineer
Saved His Train and Passengers.
He WAS more than an ordinarily a.-
complished liar for an amateur, and
they all knew it when they asked him
for a story.
II can tell you how l onre ran an en-
CINE ind saved Il tr;inload of PEOPLE
with an oyster stew if you want to
know, but l dent think of anything
more exciting than that" he said anolc-
getically.
"That's good enough" they all de.
clared. 'Giye US that"
"All right, then, here goes" he said
as he settled back in his chair. 81 was
once engineer on II road that ran for n
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 l had run through
Ii big blaze, only to find that thcre
was 4 bigger II ahead. The worst of
it was we were low on water, and there
was no chance to fill the tank without
dashing through the fire ahead of us. l
Nht tHN L'iili put W Sbt IL We lilu
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 I knew to stay there,
but how to get out was the question.
Suddenly a happy thought struck me.
There was a milk car just behind the
first baggage, and l made for it. How
much milk have you got:' l says to the
fellow IN charge. About 40 cans, |
guess, he answered. Why do you ask?'
Never mind, says l.. What's that in
those cans i'll the corner Oysters, he
answered. But why do yon want to
know?' Never you mind, l told him,
and then l 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 had
brought them up l ordered them all
chucked into the tank. The conductor
came up, too, and declared it was Il
funny notion to be making oyster stew
in an engine boiler, when We were in
danger of being burned alive, but l
O o convinced him that ii was nccCs-
sary if We did not want to stay there
and roast.
well, we finally dumped in all the
milk and all the oysters and started
ahead. You ought to have smelled the
steam that came back into that engine
cab. 1t would have made you think of
an old time church festival. Whew!
How that soup did smell! 1t made the
engine jump, though, and that was all
we wanted. We got up II great head of
steam in no time, and the way we
plunged through that next fire belt was
u caution. AS we pulled up at the sta,
ton just beyond 1 opened up and began
to whistle. A great cloud Of oyster soup
or vapor shot into the sky, of course,
and didn't come down till we were far
out Of sight. Then it settled like Il
thick f~os-oysters, soup and all. Every
body noticed it, of course, and there
was a country scientist i'll the town
who was sure it was the greatest phc.
nomenon Of the age. 1t was raining
oyster soup up there he was sure, and
the next issue of the weekly papers were
full of it-not the soup, but the news of
it. After the residents up that way had
all swallowed it-not the soup, but the
stOry-we told them about it, and that
was the ~sil1iCst looking scientist l ever
saw. '-Chicago Timcs-Hcrald.