River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1900-08-02
MAKING UP LOST TIME.
One Passenger Who Wa @iad TO See
the Miles Covered in Less
Than n Minute.

that left just after Il o'clock and seated
herself in the rear of the buffet car
and looked out of her glass Enclosure
at the disappearing city on the Mis-
sissippi. The train, says the Chicago
Times Herald. was just the ordinary,
comfortable American express kind,
with a good many places to be easy
in, and the usual curious American
way of getting over the rails at high
rate of speed without seeming to be
moving very fast. That's a trick Cur
ley can tell you about. The woman
had been married to this man that was
dying about 20 years, and their life
had been of the agree-always kind. If
the man had been in the railroad BUSH
ness his associates would have called
him "a double compound" and the wom-
an ga pusher." The train seemed all
too slow TO the woman as it slipped out
of East st. Louis and headed for De-
catur.
The engine was No. oil and the engi-
neer a man by name J. Curley, other
wise known as the "Comanche Indian
This title has come to him through his
manner of holding his head high and
of running his engine at extraordinary
speed when occasion demands. His run
to Clinton, where his division ends, is a
fast one under the most ordinary cir
cumstances. When few minutes time
is lost it becomes the duty of Curley
to make it faster and to always keep
on time. This day he knew nothing of
the woman back in the buffet car nor
of her passionate eagerness to reach
home swiftly, and if he had it is doubt
full if he could have done more than he
did. For some unexplained reason aft
er he left Alton he lost ten minutes in
time, with Clinton 1877 miles away, with
about eight stops to be made. The
woman in the buffet car noted the loss
of time and suffered pondingly.
In time a gentleman who knew her
came and sat by her side, and TO him
she lamented over the delay.
at is nothing" said he. "We are
travelling now a mile minute"
They took out their watches and
timed the mile posts. The roadbed is
one of these high-graded, ballroom
floor affairs; the train, vestibuled and
solid. There was no swaying or jar
ring as Curley knocked off his mile
every minute Inside the car, unless
one timed with watch, the speed
did not seem greater than 40 miles an
hour. The man with the woman sud
denly said:
This last mile we've travelled in 81
seconds"
She studied her own watch, occa-
sionally looking up to watch the gyra-
tions of the rolling ball of dust in the
rear of the train. Suddenly she called
out:
And that mile in 81 seconds"
This was near Nokomis. The dust
ball in the trains rear grew larger and
larger and revolyed more rapidly. The
little stations. embowered in trees. be-
came but dots upon the plain. The
"Comanche Indian" was making up
time Now came ten swift miles-the
first in SO seconds, the second in 81, the
third in 81, the fourth in so. the fifth
in 40, the sixth in Al, the seventh in so,
the eighth in as, the ninth in AZ and
how this safe. easy swing through
space was comforting to the woman in
the buffet car. She wished the engi-
neer in front on the flying machine
could just understand how much she
appreciated what he was doing. Every
mile gone was one nearer the man who
was waiting her in Chicago-the man
who was going on another and still
more swift journey.
The "Comanche Indian has curious
but skillful way of handling his throt-
tie. He coaXes it as mother leads
on child. He draws it on easily,
gently, without jerk or jar. So he
handles his air. giving all the leeway
in the world for the application, but
calculating with such nicely his dis
tances and the necessity for a stop or
slow-up that the train is at a stand
still before the diminishment of speed
is noted or felt. There are engineers
that handle their air throttles rudely,
and every passenger knows by the I'M
pleasant sensations just what is go
ing on in the cab. But the hand of
Curley is as velvet covering stesl, and
so he brings OIL on to Clinton. The
woman kept checking off the miles
The train shot over the brow of hill
and out into an open. There was fury
and furies in its wake, the atmosphere
rushed into a whip that beat the bal
lasted way and swirled the leaves and
dust into tornado of rage. The wom-
an clapped her hands gleefully, exclaim.
ing:
THAT mile was travelled in 40 sec.
ondsl"
And so it was-5,2s0 feet in two.
thirds of minute. The speed but shows
the possibilities of American steam
railway equipment upon a perfect road
bed and in the hands of tried men
Curley was doing only what his duty
called upon him TO do when time was to
be made up. He was coming up the his
toric way where the slaves of so years
ago found the underground railroad
and chance for freedom. He was
chasing miles in 40 and so seconds in
territory where Logan and Lincoln, and
long before them Pierre Menard and
the Jesuit fathers, had made history
with saddle and horse or the slow canoe
of Indian days.
A mile in Al seconds, another in As.
another in so, one more in So seconds,
and OIL came into Clinton on time
The woman in the buffet car coming
to the man waiing for her in Chicago
laid back her head on the pillow of
her chair and said:
81 can sleep the rest of the way"
But of all this Oil and the "Comanche
Indian" knew nothing.