El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-10-04
THE MAN IN THE CAB
Nervous Strain Endured By Engi-
neers On Fast Runs.

ST read piece in the Times-Demo-
era, the other day," said an old loco
motive engineer to New orleans
Times OemOcrat reporter. IN winch
New Orleans railroad man said I6O
miles an hour was one of the posslblll-
ties of future travel. L venture TO dis
agree with him, and I'll tell you why
he doesn't take into account the nu-
man 10 achine in tie cab. L don't doubt
but they will build engines that can
stand 15O-mils gait, but they cant
build the engineers. On fairly good
road bed one notices very little differ
ence between % and SO miles an hour.
Imean the strain on the nerves isn't
materially increased; but any
thing above that limit ls the
pace that kills. The sensation ia sim
DIV indescribable in words. 1t seems
TO jar every separate nerve in the
body, and the tension is SO terrible
that one is apt to feel the effect for
days. The average man can't stand
many spurst at even TO miles an hour,
let alone $50. He comes out OF such an
ordeal all broke up, and Jumps when
he hears unexpected noises, like hys-
tericsl woman. My own theory ls that
the effect is produced mainly through
the sight. You have to look straight
ahead. out at the same time you see
the things whizing past on both sides
out of the tail of your eye, and 1t Is as
If SON eth ing had hold of the optic
nerve and was pulling it out like
rubber band. That's a pretty clumsy
explanation, but it's as near as can
come to it. Many's the time I've stag
gered when l got up from my seat in
the cab.
That thing of staring straight
ahead" continued the engineer. lis
bourd to get any mans nerves in
night runs. One sees queer things,
and I've had some scares in my life
that would have turned my hair as
white as milk if hair really turned
white that way. The worst trouble
is with shadows. It's no uncommon
thing for bird to fit across the
headlight and throw a shadow down
the track ss big as boxcar. or
course it's gone in an instant, but in
Just that heartbeat the nerves have
been given shock that they may not
recover from in a week. I've had that
happen sseveral, times. l would be
tearing along at 30 or 6O-mile clip,
when all Of "a sudden something big
and black would loom out of the
dark night between the rails and
not four telegraph poles
ahead. Next second l would know 1t
to be the shadow of bird, but as far as
L was concerned the mischief was al
ready done. l had had vision of
sudden death and q sledge-hsmmer
blow on every nerve center in my sys-
tenn. The new elecr1c headlights are
worse than the others as spook-pro-
ducers. They cast such sharp shadows
that q bug moving over the glass will
make you think that COW is lying just
in front of your pilot. 1 owe electric
light bugs a number of grudges for lit
tie jokes of that kind, and my expert
ence isn't in the least unusual. All
engineers go through the same thing.
The man who was never scared is q
man who is careless of the lives en-
trusted to his vigilance. and such fell
low isn't fit to be in the business.
There are things that make me doubt
the practicability of 100 miles an hour
and the possibility of $50. God help
the engineer of such a train! he
would go mad in a week."