The record-union., 1897-05-30
HE LOST THE TRAIN.
An Untraveled COuntryman's Ac.
count of a Tunnel

I'm from Missouri, and they'll have
to show me.''
That is what John Duffer, of Pike
County, Missouri, remarked one morn
ing as he was being patched up in the
office of DR.. Creighton at Manitou, says
| a Colorado Springs correspondent of
the Philadelphia Times" His face
and hands were badly scratched where
they had come in contact with the
sharp gravel, there was bruise over
one eye where his head had struck
against fragment of Pixies Peak, one
elbow felt like a tarnatiOn wildcat had
clawed it, and there was a general
feeling of soreness pretty much every
where as he explained it to the doc
tor, but he was alive and thankful.
John had jumped from the platform
of a Colorado Midland passenger train,
at the entrance to the first tunnel above
Manitou, While laboring under a mis-
take as to the destination of the train,
which appeared to be plunging into the
mountain side.
You don't catch me lettin' 'em run
| me into the ground with any Of their
darned trains, when I've got a through
| ticket to Cripple Creek in my pocket,
he remarked as the doctor took another
stitch in his scalp and adjusted an art
istic court plaster Shingle on the swell
| ing dome over his right eye
You see, Doc" said the Missourian,
Il was agoing over to Cripple Creek to
see what those gold mines look like,
where they shovel up the stuff into a
wagon and let her go at that, and find
chunks of gold in the rocks. / had
my grip and bucket of grub in the
car, and just after the train left the
depot 1 went out on the platform to
look at the mountains. Down on one
side was a holler, and up on tother side
was hill that I couldn't see to the top
of, and on all sides was mountains, and
/ couldn't see how the train was ever
going to dodge them all.
The little shelf the train was run
ming on kept wiggling through them
hills like snake in a plow field, and
then 1 looked ahead and saw where a
hill had been split plumb down to the
ground to let the railroad through, and
| that was all right, because I could see
daylight on the other side. And then
when the train went through that split
in the hill it switched around kinder to
| one side, and / could see the track
ahead of the engine, and then I saw a
| big white mountain all covered with
snow sticking clear up into the clouds,
and nobody knows how much farther,
and the next thing 1 knowed the engine
| give a screech like she was most scared
to death, and I looked quick and the
whole business was going plunk into a
hole in the ground And then l jumped.
Came near getting killed. but 1 fooled
! them that trip. You don't catch me
running up against any game that /
don't know nothing about, and l amt
going into anything that l don't know
| the way out of. Then l came down to
town to get patched up, and I'm going
to Cripple Creek some other way, even
if 1 have to walk
"And what became of the train ?''
asked the doctor, who had been feeling
of buffers ribs to see if they were all
in place. Didn't they stop for you?
Stop nothing. The last / saw of the
darned thing it was still going into the
| hole, and l didn't care whether it ever
stopped or not / wasn't on it. Say
do you reckon ] could get my bucket
back if they get them out?''
1t took considerable time and the
| testimony of several witnesses to con-
| vince Mr.. Duffer that the entire train
and its contents were not hopelessly
buried in the interior of Pixies Peak
and quite little crowd accompanied
him to the station, where Agent Dun
away telegraphed to Cascade to return
one lunch pail and grip labeled John
Duffer, Pike County, Missouri
| k,11 l1a lof+Q l,
on free soda billing right out of the
| ground" Mr.. Duffer explained once
more: when the train went into
| that hole I thought we'd never see day
| light again, and my only chance was tc
| jump, and so / jumped I'm from
| Missouri, and you'll have to show me!'