Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1899-09-21
Circus Tain Hoodoo
'IXTE were up against a queer
An Engineers Story Of Air Brakes
That Would Keep Getting Set.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
IXTE were up against queer
wv kind of lunch the other Fri
day night" said the fat engineer to
circle Of his friends. 1T was the night
of the big circus in town and we had
the job of towing the circus train over
the division. When I met Murphy. my
side partner, in the round house that
night, he says to me:
Say, Bill, are you superstitious?
Do you believe in signs?'
Nary I said; mot unless it's res
taurant sign or a sign for the pay car
.s'I'vc had all sorts of queer things
,iappen to me to-day he says. First,
I got up on the wrong side of the
bed, and then I got my shirt on hind
side foremost. I took it off and changed
it, and my wife says that's the worst
thing I could have done. She said if
I wanted to break the hoodoo should
have left it on. But didn't want to
come downtown looking like a ferry
boat and have people ask me which way
I was going. Then to keep the good
work going broke looking glass this
afternoon, and everything seems to
have been going wrong all day. I've
got creepy feeling like I lister have
when l buried cats in graveyard at
midnight to kill warts. The folks
wanted me to lay off this trip, but I
thought it was all foolshness, so here
I am
Huh I said; you didn't see a cross
eyed black cat with crumpled tail or
fat niger with white spots, did you"
emo
Or dream your mother-in-law was
dead?' He answered in the negative.
Well I says, Il guess We'll go through
O. X. with nothing more serious than
Dustin a water glass i
'''What train we going to catch out
tonight? he asked
''Circus train answered, 'as that's
about our turn out
'''Gee whiz! he said, L knew we'd
be up against a hoodoo. That's the
worst that could happen. Circus train
and Friday night
oh, gowan,' broke in, maybe the
number of our train orders will be 10
and We'll have 10 cars. You give me
pain in the neck with your hoodoos.'
CT wish you We're a giraffe, so s you'd
have that pain good and hard was his
rather unkind remark.
My guess had been correct, and
about 1880 we got orders to proceed
down to the yard for the circus train.
We got down there all right and the
show people were all ready to start. It
was good heavy train for one engine,
and 1 said to Murf: I'll take the creepy
feeling out of you before we get very far
with this train We got away, and
after we'd passed out of the yards I
commenced to swing 'em along pretty
good. felt little drowsy, and like
all good, trusty engineers, with my
hand on the throttle and my eyes on
the track, thinking of home and the
old, oaken bucket, dropt into doze.
81 was about half asleep when phut!
phw-i-s-t! I heard something 60 and
I brought up i'll the front of that cab
and hit my head on the door frame. I
shut her off and we stopped very sud-
den, just like we had broken in two or
the train air hose had separated, set
ting the air brakes. The head brake
man came running up and says:
".Wotl you think yer doin'? Tryin'
to play snap the whip?'
"'You tend to your biz and I'll look
out for the locomotive saysI. The air
pipe has busted somewhere near the
engine; heard her go?'
s.'This trains branded with a hoo
doo,' said Murf. I wish I had laid off
tonight
eyes, by thunder, wish you had!
I thought. You make me feel like a
walking dreambook.'
1.-THE brakeman gave me signal to
20 ahead.
".It's all right he hollered; hose
lust parted between the fourth and
fifth cars
II tried the air, and as it worked all
right in minute we were Off again
and hitting it at respectable clip.
"'Wonder what made the hose part p
Murf hollered over to me.
L duS"cIcU. L suppose
those darn nincompoops in the yard
didn't have them connected good.
They
''But my little speech was here in
terrupted by my head bringing up
against the cab window again. Murf
stuck his head clean through the glass
on his side. The fire was flying from
the set brakes like a Dewey celebra-
ton. I shut off steam, and we made
another Rough Rider finish.
"'Train pipe has parted again, and
guess the way we stirred things up
this time must have made the fat lady
glad that Providence has been so good
to her as to give her soft place to land
on says l.
'sMurf's teeth were chattering, and
he says: Bill, I never expect to get
home alive again. There's hoodoo on
this train