The morning news., 1899-11-19
SIXTY MILES AN HOUR.
Driving the Empire state Express.
How 1t Feels TO Ride ON Flying
Locomotive
From Leslie's Weekly.

LScoihottFe.
From Leslie's Weekly.
THE soldier is like an umbrela-one
thinks OF him only when il rains,"-Wel-
lington.
Say. young man, just tell me. are there
any of you folks riding up and down the
line between New York aud Albany, or
New York and Buffalo. on this train of
the New York Central as stops to think
for a minute just how much depends up
on the brain and nerves of the man with
the coal dust face aud greasy hands mop
ping the wheels of the engine with an oil
rag? Yet for the last four hours nave
held the lives of these 200 people right IN
the palm of my hand-so. Queer, when you
come to think of it, isn't it? Look at them,
going up that platform TO meet ther
friends. They have got SO used TO traV-
cling at sixty miles an hour that they take
1t all as matter Of course. III bet there
amt one of them ladies as looks at us,
dabbing over the engine, but Awonders
what dirty-looking creatures we are new
er dreaming perhaps, that rs we who've
brought them safely over the 1SO miles De-
tween here and Albany. It's a pretty
heavy responsibility, all things reckoned
up. But there it's always the case. The
public never think of us, except wheh
we've saved the train and saved them
from death by our nerve and wit"
The speaker is George Van Tassel
one of the group Of four engineers told Off
by the management of the New York Cen
tral Railroad to run the precious Empire
State Express between New York and Al
bany Mr. Van Tassell and his contem-
poraries, Messrs. Raymond, Buchanan
and West have only attained their emf
nent position among engine-drlVers by
reason of about thirty years experience
I lrsva n
United States. And they all agree that
the run between New York and Albany,
with its thousand curves and turns, is, at
top speed calculated to tax the coolest
steadiest hand that ever held a throttle.
Mr. Van Tassen only understates the
situation when he speaks of pretty
heavy responsibility The human freight
entrusted to his care is sometimes price
less beyond pearls and rubies. The EN-
pire State Express is the one train beloved
of the state politician. Ii IS the uhWrlt-
ten cardinal law that the legislator VINO
would maintain caste shall travel to ana
from New York by this train. Every lob
byist with a measure to manipulate, ev-
cry trust-owner with a mission, every mer-
chant interested in bill, every wall
street sharper on the watch for meas
ure which shall mean the rise or tall or
so many points in a stock, every and any
kind of man who has something to ask or
something to order at Albany, insists upon
the Empire State Express. Senator De-
pew, on his way to talk to Gov. Roose-
welt; Mr.. Croker, whipping the stray sheep
of Tammany into obedience; David B. Hll,
defying all, are one in bdndly trusting
themselves 10 the hands of Mr.. Van Tas-
sell
/ Above all may be counted that partie
uar Empire State Express which carries
the legislators back to Albany from the
weekend visit to their homes in New
York. 1t has frequently been Mr.. Van
TasselFs privilege to take charge of this
Monday morning train. Strewn about the
cars is one-half of the Republican ma
chine, two-thirds of Tammany to say
nothing of the attaches and officials of
the House, and yet no passes are ever
honored on this train. The slightest blur
of Mr.. Van Tasselfs sight a weakening
Of the wrist power in an awkward curve;
the miscalculat ton Of distance by about
yard the misapprehension of a signal; the
failure to respond to a whistle; the slight
est increase in speed at one point or de-
crease in another, and Tiger and Elephant
would lie in peaceful harmony at the bot
tom of the Hudson river, never again TO
I be troubled with the thoughts of deals
and combines. Mr.. Croker and Mr.. Plat
would be as fathers bereft of their fami-
/ lies, and the newspapers would unanimous
! ly use the Associated Press copy"
"And that's just the point" growed an
i other engineer, joining the group. That's
| just the point that the Old man-what old
man? Who do you think? There never
/ was but one old man in this company.
You chaps know him-says he to us, says
ne, in that nice, jollying way of his;
Boys, there's one thing you'll never for
get Every time you go out on the road
there's so many lives in your hands, so
many precious lives-some of them ex-
| tremely precious
THE engineer who tells you that he
| doesn't feel a thrill when he's rushing
that train along at sixty miles an hour is
a liar" said Mr.. Van Tassen. Il don't
mean scared--the man who's going to be
scared and lose his nerve has got no place
on an engine. He may as well give up the
road. It's bearing the sense of his re-
| sponsibility and being able to keep his
wits and his nerves under control
I've got used to that speed now, and
| think nothing of 1t. Take 1t as a matter
of course. But the first tme-well Ev-
cry yard with my heart in my throat for
fear anything got by me. 1t was at night,
too, with the red and green lights dane
ing a fandango before my eyes all the
way, and whistles seeming to blow a thou
sand different times in my ear That was
years ago, and now it's just like eating
my breakfast. I've had just one or two
firemen on these engines in my time when
we got up to the limit. I've seen them
turn as white as a sheet and tremble until
they fell on their knees.
NO there amt anything that scares an
old hand now. Well don't know. When
you swirl around a curve and suddenly
see a red tight before your nose and you
don't know whether you're gong to bump
into the rear of a freight or a local, IL
your heart doesn't so INTO your boots for
the moment you're a good 'un.
There's another thing that worried me
when I was a youngster, and VIII always
scare a younger hand-hearing the con
ductors ben ring, and you don't know
whether you've run over a man, or wheth-
er he's seen something ahead of you. or
whether there's murder or a hold-up, or
somebody has died en- board. Out West
the conductors bell always means mis-
chief.
ITO run over mau-perhaps that's the
only thing of all that shakes me. To see
him on The track within ten or twenty feet
of you; to know that you can't stop to
save him; to feel the wheels of the engine
20 over his body, crunch.ng out his lffe-a