Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1899-09-08
SIZE NO HINDRANCE.
DIG THINGS THAT LOSE THEM
SELVES.
Railroad That Lost a8-TOn Steel
Bridge - Boiler Disappeared from
Twenty Men-An Absent Minded Train
Dispatcher.

Human nature will insist on losing
and mislaying things, but when the
articles get to be as big as boiler
or bridge, human ingenuity fails to
understand how 1t happened. A short
time ago the Cincinnati, Hamilton &
Dayton railroad had to Issue pa
thetic advertisement In the LEGAL pa
pers. They had fixed twenty-eight-
ton steel bridge on three fiat cars
chained together and dispatched 1t to
Dayton, Ohio, with their blessing. At
an intermediate station the bridge was
observed to be bearing the journey ex-
tremely well, and was seemingly in the
best of spirits; nevertheless, when the
train arrived at its destination not a
sign Of the bridge could be discovered,
and, owing to the inability of the COM
pany to discover any trace of their
lost property, the advertisement was
ISSUED. begging the public, should 1t
meet with a wandering bridge, to re-
turn 1t to its owners with all dispatch,
when substantial reward would be
given in exchange. On the Belgian rail-
way line between Antwerp and Ter
monde a catastrophe was thought to
have occurred early In the spring Of
1897. The passengers at the inter-
mediate stations between these places,
after waiting for some time for the
train due to leave the former place at
eight minutes past seven In the even
lng, were not little alarmed when no
train was forthcoming. Many people
Thought an accident had happened.
Others shook their heads and thought
OF all the kidnapping stories they had
ever read, while the light-hearted sug-
gested that the Grant train had lost its
way. AS a matter of fact, there was no
accident and no train-napping, nor did
the engine lose its way; indeed, the
only individuals who lost anything
were the officials who lost their heads,
and, by an unaccountable oversight,
forgot to dispatch the train.
Railway wagon No. 60,474 is the
property of the London and North
Western railway, and fifteen months
ago it was missing, with its contents,
consisting of one ton of copper. To-
ward the end Of August the wagon
turned up on a siding at Leicester, but
how 1t got there passed the under
standing Of all railway men. A year
ago an advertisement appeared in an
English country paper stating that
reward Of fifty pounds was offered by
q great engineering firm to anyone who
produced a full grown torpedo that
had been lost about mile and half
east Of the Trow Rocks. It was COM
forting to learn that there were no ex-
plosives In the torpedo. Strangely
enough. month later, similar fish"
put in an appearance at Aldeburgh, in
Suffolk. This torpedo was marked
with crown and numbered 2414 x,
and though originally charged with a
working pressure Of 1850 pounds, when
It was recovered 1t was exhausted.
Early in 1897 q peculiar case was tried
at W0olwich regarding an extraordi-
nary piece Of lost property. 1t appeared
that man bought for els a boiler
whose size can be estimated from the
fact that it took six horses and twenty
men to move it. While this operation
was being carried out the boiler, by
some remarkable freak, managed to
lose itself, and where it went to no
man knew, nor could they find out,
though the police were put on its track
and 1t was reqested to return to it's
sorrowing friends. Some years elap-e1
and then, when a surveyor in the office
of works was estimating the value of
a fine crop of scrap iron that piece
of ground. known as "No Mans Land"
had yielded, he spied the boiler; but
being ignorant of its history, ordered
It to be sold by auction, at which sale
It realized SO los. Then the original
owner recognized his long lost prop
erty, and sued the surve or for the ELS
It cost him. Eventually the Judge
awarded him ten guineas, while the
surveyor received five shillings for the
trespass. 1t was learned that the
three-years-lost boiler had hid itself
on piece of land quite near its own
er's residence.