Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1899-01-07

the most terrible experiences in the
history of railroadlng in any land,
and he was the hero of the occasion
yet he was so simple minded and un-
affected that he wondered why the
people We're talking about him.
Then he told me, amid winces of
pain, something of the danger he had
passed through.
He was the engineer on the after
noon train which left Duluth on the
first day of September. From Duluth
southwark the railroad passes
through a denuded forest region, once
covered with a heavy growth of pine.
All the merchantable pine had been
cut away, leaving much underground
and many small trees.
As the whole Northwestern region
had been without rain since April, the
woods were like finder. Some one
had set fire in them, and for miles ont
OF Duluth the train ran through dense
smoke. I quite we'll remember riding
through the same region the year be-
fore, when the woods were on fire.
The air in the car was sitting with the
pungent pine smoke; the burning
trees here and there along the track
were standing like slender pillows of
fire, their trunks cracking in the
flames, while the heat was so intense
that the coaches became almost unin-
habitable.
But this was as nothing beside the
fire through which this engineer drove
his train on that smoky SeptemI er
day. When he was about seventy
miles from Du, nth the air became so
thick with smoke he could hardly see
his way ahead. The lamps in the
cab, and in the passenger coaches as
we'll, were lighted, although it was
still early in the afternoon
James Root had passed through the
same country many times before in
very similar circumstances, and he
saw no unprecedented danger until he
neared the little town Of Hinckley.
There the heat became SO intense -
much as if it were being driven from
the throat of some vast furnace-that
his apprehension was aroused. Still
there was no unusual sign of fire in
the immediate vicinity, and he knew
these vast smoke clouds might be
carried scores of miles from the actual
scene of the fire.
But as his engine was slowing up
near the little town, several men came
running as if for their lives out of the
wall of smoke. They cried that the
town was on fire, and begged him to
take them ON board. Ahead of him
the engineer could now see the red
flames.
His first impulse was to open up tie
throttle and send his train through the
town at lightning speed; but in an.
other instant he saw that this would he
fatal rashness, for as the smoke cleared
away for moment, he perceived that
the bridge which was at hand was
crowded with people running for their
lives-a wild, shrieklng throng com.
ing toward him out OF the flames with
all possible speed.
Men, women and children were in
the crowd-at least two hundred oil
them--and as they reached the train,
they swarmed up into the coaches and
begged to be carried to place OF
safety. There were about one hundred
and fifty passengers in the coaches,
and they were now TANNED to suffoca
ton by the frenzied refugees.
The engineer was placed in a mos
peri'ous position just at this instant
for dreadful thing happened, one
which was many times duplicated in
this terrible fire; the very air above
his cab seemed to explode, as if by
spontaneous combustion, and his train
was well-nigh enveloped in the flames
A friend who was caught in this fire
and who walked along the railroad
track for miles through the burning
woods, told Inc that he saw many such
vast explosions in the air in the midst
of the awful heat
The heavy glass in the side of the
cab bent in with the great heat, and
then burst in pieces, some OF which
cnt gushcs down the face and neck oil
the en4ineor He saw that he could
not advance; he did not dare to wait
to extinguish the fire, which was burn
ing the cars and the engine in all ex
posed places; he feared to start back
ward, for it seemed like running into
an awful furnace of flame to reverse
his engine and seek safety in that di
rection.
But it was certain death for all tt
remain where he was. Like an cleo
trio flash the thought came to his mine
that there was n dark, foul-smellins
pond of water and mud backward
few miles. On that instant his level
was reversed, and his train began
race with the flames of death.
AS the train got under way, severa
persons fell from the front of the en-
CINE, where they had been piteousl.
pleading for their lives, aud Root TOLD
mo his first impulse was to try to saw
them; but he could not wait-the re
morselcss fire swept over and engulfet
them. He hal three hundred live
behind him: to have tarried for thu
few would have been to sacrifice tn
many.
Now fame was around them, abov
them, over them, under them; tn
very mir seemed fire, and the roaring
was dcafening. In the cab the hea
was intense. anI it became unbear
able as :hc engine got under way TIL
flesh OH the faithful hands that graspe'
the hot lever was almost cooked, an,
<bav war, ~ swollan flint Root coul,