Arizona republican., 1900-09-10

{ when it was a single track line and i when the whistle down brakes meant that the brakeman should hurry and ] set the brakes by hand. The night was ! very dark and stormy. The south bound train was belated and the dis ' patcher ordered the depot keeper of d flag station to signal the train to stop and have it take the side track until the nCTthbound train had passed, it then being at a station twelve miles be- low. The station keeper being in cups. neglected to throw out the green light, though he repeated the order to the dispatcher which was required of him. In a few minutes the train, composed of nine coaches jamned full of people, went laundering by. That sobered the keeper, and horror stricken he rushed to the keyboard to notify the station below what had happened and to hold the northbound train, but it was too late. The train had gone. The presi- dent, general manager and general su- perintendent had arrived on the north bound train to examine a lot of new siGings the next morning and Were in the office when the warning from the drunken keeper came in. No railway officials were got as close to the border land of insanity without crossing over, said the station agent afterward Bus two trains. carrying a total of 1,2OO passengers, rushing into a collision al a speed of thirty miles an hour, with out an opportunity under heaven to avert the disaster, was enough to make almost any man crazy. The dispatcher at Chicago knew what was going on. of course, but" said ha while I felt like turning gray and going crazy, l had to be calm and cool for there were other trains. both freight and passenger, to watch lest they should go piling into the wreck. My orders were disobeyed, and it was no fault of the drunken agent that hundreds Cf people were no- killed"
 But th-re was no collision. The dis p2tc&cr figured tha, the trains would cCr-r together nCG- q water tank situ- atsG in a hollow at the foot O. a north up and g s1uth-dOwn grade of more than nile each. Before reaching thc tank the engineer of the northbound train concluded to stop for water-an unusual thing. Upon leaving the tank he struck the up grade and the long and heavy train made the engine ex- haust with great force. At this mo- ment the southbound train began to descend the same grade. Why. nobody knew, but the fireman of the down en- zine went forward to oil the cups. but in a second he rushed back into the cab and said hastily to the engineer: There is something wrong. l hear an engine eXhausting heavily down the road In a flash the engineer reversed his engine and sent h!s train back over the read as fast as ever he could and reached the station where he should have stopped for the up train. thus aVertinG what might have been one of the most disastrous wr5cks in the. h.s- tory of railroading. Tn those days" said the old dispatcher, "a locomotive headlight was not much of an improve ment on the hand lantern, and the storm of sleet and snow and rain made 1t of little use ten yards away. So yod see the greatest accidents. the greatest slaughter of people and the most frightful wreck scenes do not occur at all. IL is just such mental strains as these that used to rake dispatchers gray headed in an hour, but double tracks and the block system relieves Us of all worry Of that kind"
 What 1 have said" continued the old dispatcher, about the two trains that came so near coming in collision Is merely a sample. so to speak, of hun dreds of accidents that never occurred, and but for the attention of the dis