Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-10-06
A BRAVE BRAKEMAN.
Saved Grant and Sheridan From N
Awful Death.

saved GI0Ht ana 9neT100n FE0n IN
Awful Death.
From the Chicago Inter Ocean.
"All the heroes are not to be found In the
ranks OF the army and navy" said q. s.
Graves Of No. 4481 st. Lawrence avenue
the other day as he commented upon the
story Of railway wreck printed In the
Inter Ocean. II would not detraot one little
bit from the glorious records Of our SOL
diers and sailors" continued Mr.. Graves.
Il fully appreciate what they have done In
the past, and what they are doing nowj but
at the same time there are other lines Of
occupation in which humble toilers do hero
ic acts that the public seldom hears Of
Take the railway business, for instance
Reading Of this wreck and the presence Of
mind and bravery Of the trafnmen that
saved hundreds Of passengers from death
or mutilation recalls sensational Incident
of similar nature not O word Of which has
hitherto reached the eyes Of the reading
public
Railways. as newspaper men well know,
are averse to letting details Of disasters get
Into print, If they can avoid it. OF course,
when serious accident occurs, 1t is almost
impossible to smother all mention of 1t, but
the inside facts are seldom given out vol
unfairly. In cases where grave disasters
are narrowly avoided, especially If promi-
Eent people are on the train, studied
silence is preserved by everybody in the
companys service. from brakeman UP to
general manager. One of the worst breach
es of discipline railway man can commit
Is to give out Information of some act of
carelessness on the part of an employee that
might have led to a bad smashup. Conse
duently, unless newspaper man happens
to be around at the time. or some lynx
eyed passenger notices the trouble and
makes report of 1t to the press, there is
small cha ice of the publics ever hearing of
it. 1t was an incident of this kind that
am about to relate. No accident occurred
thanks to the bravery and presence of mind
of a quick-wftted employee, but it was an
exceedingly narrow escape from q disaster
that would have caused a worldwide sem
sation, owing to the international fame of
those who would have been among the vic
Tins.
Some years ago-I forget the exact date
but 1t must have been in the early eighties
the Grand Army of the Republic held it's
rational reunion at Milwaukee. Among the
invited guests were Grant and Phil Sheri-
dan and lot of other famous men The
Grant party was made up in Chicago under
the pilotage of Gen. Sheridan, and taken to
Milwaukee on special train over the MIL
waukee and st. Paul road. Orders were
given for a clear track, all other trains be-
ing run on sidings, in an effort to give the
distinguished visitors a record-breaking
ride. The regular Milwaukee passenger
train. under charge Of Conductor Frank
Tiers, started from Milwaukee,, as usual,
that morning, and was sidetracked at Wads-
worth, about half way to Chicago. in or
der to get 1t out of the way of the special.
AS general rule, the rear brakeman on
this regular train was Milton Clark, one of
the coolest-headed men in the companys
employ. On this day, however, the regular
baggageman happened to be sick, and Clark
was stationed in the baggage car. while his
place on the rear car was taken by another
member of the crew | was a passenger on
Tiers train and an eyewitness to the thrill
ing affair that followed.
Our train run on the siding at
Wadsworth. and Tiers. Clark and myself
got off and stationed ourselves on pile of
cord wood near the depot to watch the
Sheridan special run by. Presently Tiers
sang out, There she comes and looking
down the road. we faint column of
black smoke the far distance. About the
same time Clark moved, he afterward
told me, by some uncomfortable impulse,
glanced down at the switch lever at the
north end of the siding on which our train
stood. It was not his business to look after
the switch on that particular run, but he
simply couldn't help 1t. No sooner had his
eyes caught the position of the switch lever
than he jumped from the pile of wood on
which he was sitting and dashed down to
the switch. He found II locked open. There
was nothing to prevent the rapidly APP
preaching special from dashing in on the
siding. c0lliding with our train and causing
a terrible loss of life. He saw in an instant
that the new brakeman had neglected to
reverse the switch lever after our train had
run on the siding and had locked it open.
TO get IT back into place and prevent a
horrible accident required the quickest kind
of movement and cool-headed bravery
CLARK said nothing to alarm us. We saw
him dash down the track, but had no idea
of the significance of his action. A moment
later we saw him run quickly up to the
rear car of our train and heard him call
out to the brakeman, Throw me those keys
quick We saw the man toss out the KEYS
in a nonchalant manner and, catching
them deftly, Clark speeded down the track
again for the switch lever. BY this time
we were convinced something was wrong
and ir7 ,f.a 80
Tiers was cool enough. but was unable to
do anything. He looked around hurriedly
for a red flag. with the intention of flag
ging the special, but it was close at hand
that 1t would have been impossible to stop
1t before 1t struck the siding switch AS the
warning whistle for the crossing sounded
We took in the situation like q flash and
realized that nothing short of a miracle
could save Sheridan, Grant and the rest of
the excursion party. Clark was doing all
that any man could do, and a regiment Of
employees could not have expedited the
work
You can imagine cur sensations az we
saw the train racing on toward destruction
at lightning speed, and Clark trying to
beat 1t to the switch. By superhuman eff
fort he got there just ahead of the train
and unlocked the lever With a mighty
pull he drew IL over SO the rails were put
into position to give the special a clear
track. He had no time in which to lock it
down In the safety notch: the onrushine
train was even then flying across the rails
and he stood there, holding the lever down
by main force until the train had passed
1t was the narrowest escape from terrible
disaster l had ever witnessed, and the
strain on my nervous system was so in
tense that it was hours before 1 fully re-
covered.
1.-The engineer and fireman on the spe-
c!al had become aware that something was
wrong just before they reached the siding,
and as the train flew past could see their
white, scared faces peering cut of the cab
window. In a second the car containing
Grant and Sheridan went by, and 1 could
see them engaged in animated conversa-
ton, totally ignorant of the awful danger
to which they had been exposed
After the special had passed Clark and
Tiers both cautioned me not to say any
thing of the occurrence. and l have re-
manned silent for years. So far as l know,
no word of the affair ever got into the
newspapers. Our train pulled out in the
usual manner and proceeded on its way to
Chicago, finishing the run without further
incident. On the way down l had talk
with Clark, and asked him what prompted
him to look down at the switch. He said:
" For the life of me / can't tell. 1T may
have been force of habit, as it has been my
duty for long time to run as rear brake
man and watch the position of the switches
after We go on sidings But this morning
some unusual impulse controlled me. had
nothing to do with the switch on this RIM