The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-10-29

superstishus" and would run her as
long as she has a pound of steam up"
and so started out into the night with
his trainload of provisions. He got
along famously until between Green
Springs and Cherry Run, when they
came on "the ghost" A half-hour be-
fore jerry had been talking to his fire.
man about the peculiar appearance OF
the woods along the road that night,
and while he vigorously protested when
Mike said he believed he was little
afraid, he nevertheless had q vague pre-
sentiment that some thing was going to
happen. They were just a few miles out
of Green Springs, when they came upon
a curve in the road, and as they round
ed it there was a flash of light ahead,
a whistle as of steam Kissing out of the
cylinder, and the steady thump, thump
of an engine that was making its best
time. Mike looked over from the fire.
box and Jerry was standing at the lever
perfectly paralyzed. His face would
never be whittier when he was dead, for
there, coming down the track with a
full head of steam on, was the BLACK
Molly" and, what was more, she was
alone, without car behind her. He
knew her. Every bolt in her he had
frightened at one time or another, ev-
cry oil cup he had placed oil in, and
every rod on her he had polished. He
could not be mistaken, for there she
was in full view. The paralysis lasted
for two minutes, when he suddenly
shook himself free from the spell and
closed the throttle. whistled for down
brakes, :" and then reversed his engine.
1t was too late. They were together
with rush before he had time to Jump.
There was a Earring and a grating!
there was the sound of all the cars COM
ing together as with great surge they
were piling themselves one on the other.
and Jerry fell against the front of the
cab. He said afterwards that while he
was sure there was a collision he be-
lieved the other engine had been COW
cred with felt, for he seemed to glide
right into her and then stop.
There wasn't anything there, to be
sure, but jerry could never be made to
believe that BLACK Molly did not
walk the rails that night. They got off
and they searched at the siding; they
looked in the trees for some
signs that would show what had caused
the delusion, but until Jerry passed
away a number of years after, he was
never able to account for it. He was
pulled off the run that night and given
a weeks rest and was soon all right,
but he was never again the fearless
engineer CIldI ne Qdu IOGuIeIly DecIl.
When the old l., B. & w. was run
ming on strap rails on a corduroy road,
they had these appearances quite fire.
quently. The brakemen used to get
down on their knees on top of the cars
when their trains pulled out of Spring
field and pray give us this day our
daily accident" and they got it. One
time a whole train went off of the track
for a very mysterious cause. 1t was
l, /, Df
on the track, just out of Urbana. He
had struck some cattle there several
weeks before, and as it was bad place
for cows to get out, he had been watch
ing it very closely. This night he had
been watching closer than ever, for
there had been, a high wind all day,
and the prospects were that the rail
fences that abounded through that dis
trict then, would be torn down. AS he
came to the crossing he had been dread
ing, sure enough there were the cows,
a half-dozen of them, asleep on the
track. The whistle screamed for
down brakes" and the men, knowing
what might be expected, sprang to the
brakes with their clubs and threw all
the weight they had into them. The
fiat rails would not stand the jar they
got, and some of them were twisted off
of the sleepers, and the whole train was
thrown into the ditch A search for the
cattle proved futile In fact since the
accident a few weeks before, it was
learned the cattle had been moved
away, and there was not COW, as far
as any one knew, within miles of that
spot. This same kind Of a story could
be told of where engineers had run
through imaginary people. on the iden-
teal spot where some one had been
killed in days past.
These. experiences are now fading
into memories En- gineers who. are fun
ming fast trains have everything now to
their hand. The signal lights warn
them a good distance ahead when any
thing is wrong, and they have powerful
brakes and all appliances that can stop
trains within their own length, so that
the nervous strain Is not so great. Then
there is the block signal system that is
cutting away the danger, and the al
most perfect dispatching system, that
has made travel safe to the very last
degree. The nearest thing that has
approached a ghost" in this territory
for these many years, is the occurrence
the other night, when Engineer Tufts
jumped from Lake Shore passenger No.
3 to his death near Toledo. The rail-
road men are, a good many of them,
firm believers in the statement that
what Mr.. Tufts saw that night was
nothing more than a ghost light which
he had been dreading. Whether this be
true or not will rot be determined I'M
til the officials complete their investiga-
fl,.p