The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-07-01

JULY l, 1897.
good hooker and said, "the rear man
has got tank load and gone to the
caboose.'
At $50 P. NJ. we started. Vernon
was the first water plug; there spied
pretty little lantern as l took my
second eye opener and I made up my
mind to confiscate that at the first op-
portunity. At Willimantic, tried to
get him to produce the stuff again but
he was sound asleep, so got spike
and drove it into the edge of the roof
so that 1 could swing down into the
car. l made step or two and raised
my hand to the lantern when bull
dog made his appearance on the scene.
1 sprang on top of a hogshead of wa
ter that had couple of boards across
and there l yelled to the man on the
hay but 1 might as we'll have tried to
raise ten dollars three weeks after pay
day. That dog just glared at me,
showed his worries in the dim light,
and bent short stubby tail right and
left, perfect master of the situation.
realized at once that here was a
dog call bite and no bark" At last l
knew we were on the top of nineteen
miles of grade ninety-four to one
hundred feet to the mile and 1 was the
| TO ho1 hn
must get out l tried to burst the roof
with my feet as 1 had an iron bar to
grasp but no, it was solid. Next [
tried the side. l must 60 around the
inside on the Stats up high to keep out
of the reach of that dog. 1 got to the
end of the car. BY that time we were
going by Arlington like whirlwind.
1 knew my engineer-he never played
with the whistle. Imagine my feelings
when 1 heard him scream for brakes,
and felt him throw that heavy engine
into the back motion on sanded rail.
The shock fioored the horses, and
almost lost my grip on that slat.
The door was reached at last; as l
swung out, that faithful dog gave one
rush and bounded into the air but he
just missed me and down he went over
a precipice fully sixty feet, down onto
the rocks below.
l was faint, but I just set brakes
from that car to the caboose. There
the other three were in the land of
dreams l dropped onto cushion, eX.
hausted.
BY dropping good deal of sand
and reversing the engineer managed
to stop for the n. and Z. crossing at
Putnam, all right. 1 let off my brakes
and went down to SPEEDY" as we
called the engineer for nickname. l
expected him to read the riot act in
good style. He simply said, 81 wish
that old cow doctor or whoever he was
that swung that lantern at me at the
road crossing, was in Iceland. Where
were you anyhow? That is too fast for
the hog engine to turn; see every driv
ing box on her is hot.
1 told him all; he laughed and said,
''go and get your lantern, believe you
deserve it after all that maneuvering."
went and got it, 1 planted it under
the depot platform at Putnam. The
next morning after we got to Boston
that horseman came to the caboose
and wanted to lick the best man on
earth if he was the one who took his
lantern and dog. How he ever man.
aged to get Lion out of that car he
could not understand. He allowed he
knew that dog too we'll to make free
with strangers.
He soon saw he had no crew to bully
or bluff; of course we denied it most
emphatically.
Now it is an undisputed fact among
: men that woman can cry whenever
she wishes. Well, I can do so. All L
have to do is to recall how that man
sat there till he grew pale as chalk.
At last he said, "bOys, was wrong to
J use harsh words, forgive me; but 1
. bought that dog when my little girl
was tiny baby and he grew up with
T her. She is now five years old; her
. mother died fourteen months ago and
I almost lost my little Minnie as we'll.
! She was not to be soothed for her loss