The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-10-11
THE A
A Sight That Is Interesting to Young and
Old Alike.

My youthful son." said a father.
said to me the other day: Il love to
watch the cars!' We were standing on
a bridge where many trains pass, see
ing the cars go under; trains going
one way and the other. and engines
backing down and hooking OF to the
trains. cars and locomotive all the
time in motion. Even in its most COM
monplace aspect a fascinating specta-
Gle. and I told the boy that I loved to
watch EN-. too. and so we stood there
a long time and looked at EN-.
1T made me think of a time when
I was young. about ia million years
ago. though l feel young still for all
that. when 1 used to watch the cars
myself. Locomotives burned wood in
those days, and the tenders were stack
ed up high with cord wood. The en-
gines were not half so big as they are
now. and they had great fu~nnel-shaped
~smokestacks. fiaring wide at the top.
but they were fascinating just the
same.
in the town I lived in then the en-
gines waiting to couple on to trains
to take them along their stretch of the
road from that point on. used to back
down from the oun house and wait
in a cut a block or two from the rail-
road station. This cut was walled up
on the sides, and the outside tracks
vi the iDntS dlu III the cut came ClOSt
to the wall, the top of which was about
on a level with the top of a locomotive
tender.
Sometimes there would be three en-
gines waiting In this cut for trains.
And hat always made an interesting
scene. the three engines standing close
together, all breathing in the peculiar
way that have. more like a short reg
ular cough than IL is breathing, but /
WAS a1xVaVS the most infaraQfoA In tho
one on the track nearest the wall
where / went.
Every once in a while I Used to 90
down there on that wall and stay there
and watch the locomotive. right close
by. until IL went out, and. sometimes.
II its train was late. that might be
half an hour or more. but / never tired
Of Ii. I used to see the engineer pick
up his oil can with the Ions spout and
swing down out of the cab to the
ground and walk all around the engine
very deliberately and oil everything
everywhere. and then he'd seem to
sort Of take a look all around and then
he'd limb up in the cab again and
put the can down and get some cotton
waste out Of the box on the tender and
rub the oil of his hands. All this
time the fireman would be doing some
thing. shining the brass for a last
touch maybe-they used to have more
brass on engines then than they do
nowadays-and all this time. quiet and
still as II was in the cut. all three en-
gines would be breathing in that slow
sort of a cough-like breathing-seemed
as though they were breathing just as
slow and easy as they could, and sort
OF saving themselves up for the time
when they have to stretch ut.
Pretty soon the other engines would
back down, one after the other, n
then h time would come for my en-
CINE to 60. I used TO see the engineer
touch h throttle gently. starting the
engine backing down. and then in two
or three minutes I'd see him coming
up the track again hauling the train.
Running slow through the cut. but
picking up a little all the time. sitting
with his hand on the throttle and look
ing u ahead; fireman sitting now
on the seat over on the other side OF
the cab. looking ahead. too. and keep
ing the bell going. II was a great de-