Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1899-03-16

up in white when he said this to me.
1t was on September day in 1894, in
humble little home in White Bear,
Minnesota, not far from st. Paul.
Root had just passed through one of
the most terrible experiences in the
history of railroadlng in any land,
and he was the hero of the occasion !;
yet he was SO simple-minded and un-
affected that he wondered why the
people were talking about him.
Then he told me, amid winces Of
pain, something of the danger he had
passed through.
He was the engineer on the after
noon train which left Duluth on the
first day OF September Fre.n Duluth
,lsouthward the railroad passes
5ythrough denuded forest region, once
covered with heavy growth of pine.
All the merchantable pine had been
cut away, leaving much underground
and many small trees.
AS the whole Northwestern region
had been without rain since April, the
woods were like tinder. Some one
had set fire in them, and for miles out
Vi DulubA blC lltlI IdA bll OlSn Nt6lioC
smoke. I quite well remember riding
through the same region the year be-
fore, when The woods were on fire.
The air in the car was sitting with the
pungent pine smoke the burning
trees here and there along the track
were standing like slender pillows Of
fire, their trunks cracking in the
flames, while the heat was so intense
that the coaches became almost unin-
habitable.
But this was as nothing beside the
fire through which this engineer drove
his train on that smoky September
day. When he was about seventy
miles from Duluth the air became so
thick with smoke he could hardly see
his way ahead. The lamps in the
cab, and in the passenger coaches as
we'll, were lighted, although it was
still early in the afternoon.
James Root had passed through the
same country many times before in
very similar circumstances, and he
saw no unprecedented danger until he
neared the little town of Hinckley.
There the heat became so intense
much as if il were being driven from
the throat Of some vast furnace-tha1
his apprehension was aroused. Still
there was no unusual sign of fire il
the immediate vicinity, and he knew
these vast smoke-clouds might be
carried scores of miles from the actual
scene of the fire.
But as his engine was slowing uI
near the little town, several men came
running as if for their lives out of the
wall OF smoke They cried that thu
town was on fire, and begged him tc
take them on board. Ahead OF hin
the engineer could now see the rec
flames.
His first impulse was to open up the
throttle and send his train through the
town at lightning speed; but in an
other instant he saw that this would bt
fatal rashness, for as the smoke cleared
away for moment, he perceived tina
the bridge which was at hand was
crowded with people running for theii
lives-a wild, shrieking throng com
ing toward him out of the flames will
all possible speed.
Men, women and children were il
tho crowd-at least two hundred O
them-and as they reached the train
thew swarmed up into the coaches an(
begged to be carried to a place o
safety. There were about one hundred
and Fifty passengers in the coaches
and they were now iammed to suffoca
ton by the frenzied refugees.
The engineer was placed in mos
perilous position just at this instant
Tor dreadful thing happened, on
which was many times duplicated Il
this terrible fire; the very air aoov
his cab seemed to explode, as II D
spontaneous combustion, and his trai
was well-nigh enveloped in the names