Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-10-28

name. He didn't carry the same engine
all the time by any means. for he would
often send her into the scrap pile; but
when he mounted another engine for his
regular runs he would announce that It
was a new Socrates. The best engine
he ever had or the one he considered the
\ luckiest machine was the one he handled
the night he pulled Lead engine in the
fated train which W~entdoWn in Ashtabula
creek. 1t was a double-header and be-
hind Socrates was the Rambler. They
had a long train and We're behind time.
Everybody knows the story of that wreck
which numbered among the victims T.
p. Bliss, the sweet singer.
1.-The heavy train swung round the
curve onto the bridge With Dan hanging
almost half way out Of the cab window.
Slowly she creDt across until the COW
catcher Of The Socrates was within two
engine lengths Of the further end. Then
Dan felt something give. He felt the
Socrates sinking and like a flash he tore
his throttle wide oDen. The Socrates
! bounded like q rubber ball and broke her
couplings, shooting away from the heavy
train, which Ven down With the brlIge
a fraction of a second after Dan had felt
the bridge sinking under him.
'sThe Socrates landed clear on the
bank, and almost before she was brought
I to a dead stop Dan was out. running
back to peer down into the abyss where
the Rambler and the train lay crushed
on the rocks 100 feet below. His fireman
was badly injured and jumping from the
engine from fright after she had cleared
the bridge. Dan, however, always kept
his head. and he was the first to reach
the train belo w. In the darkness he
clambered down the steep bank, and
worked at getting the bodies out OF the
wreck. He had been in some ugly
smashes before, but this one, it was
thought, would send him to a shifter or
yard engine, where engine drivers who
lose their sand are usual placed. Those
who thought this figured without old
Dan. Within two days he was tearing
along With the flyer as if he had never
been in a wreck. On the night of the
Ashtabula wreck Mcclure advanced a
theory, which was laughed at then. but
since his death it has been accepted as
correct. He said the bridge was blown
down by a tornado formed by two cur
rents of air meeting at the mouths of two
rayines ending there. 1t had been a
sisted that the wind had struck the low
er part of the heavy bridge, and this is
now believed to be the fact.
Old Dan was sunerstitious to a GER
tain degree. He would not get out of
the road if he didn't feel right, and more
than once this DremonitiOn saved MIN
from ugly wrecks. Old railroad men
about Cleveland will never forget the
death of Johnny Lace, who ran the OPP
posite run from McGuire. Dan would
take the flyer out to Erie one afternoon
and Lace would go out the next day,
meeting Dan along the road With the
up train. Dan had laid off one day, and
went down the following afternoon to
get his ngine out for the run. Dan
looked over his engine and said he didn't
feel light; so he asked Lace to take the
run out for him and in return he would
carry Lace's train over the next afteSs
no on. Lace leased Mcclure not a little
about being afraid of his shadow and
losing his nerve, but he finally climbed on
board Macs engine and started down.
THE boys at the roundhnuse never be-
fore saw Dan so nervous as that evening
Instead of staying up town With his fam
lily, as was his custom, he loitered aroun
the place. and seemed greatly relieved
when he heard from Erie that Lace had
arrived on time with the train. The ole
engineer had felt that something was &c
happen to that rum, and he had feared
to pull out, and the next days event
showed that he was not mistaken.
Mcclure got away on Lace's run the
following afternoon in good spirits. and
miles out on the road footed the whistle
j, gayly to Lace as he shot by him. h
never saw Lace alive aRain. At Collin
wood. about five miles out % Cleveland
f We're the Lake Shore shops. Seyera
, hundred hands We're employed here. and
!. it was the custom for the boys to stel
to the windows each afternoon to see the
flyer go by. Lace and MCCLURE always
went through CollinWood at frightfu
!, speed, giving a blast from their whistles
/ at the boys who watched them. This
; afternoon Lace appeared to be under
, greater Roadway than ever before, ant
{ he hit an open switch with a crash tina
could be heard for miles and went into {
| long row of ears on the siding.
!. How many persons Were killed in tn: