The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1901-03-09
A Midsummer Nights Trip.

the little incident happened that I All,
going to tell you about. After the
stristrike of IT, I went into exile in
the wild and woolly west, mostly in
"bleeding Kansas" but often in Colo
RADIO, New Mexico, and Automatic
Santa Fe goes almost everywhere in
the Southwest.
One night in August I was dropping
an old Baldwin consolidator down a
long Mexican grade, after having help
ed a stock train over the division by
Misunderstanding. 1t was close and hot
on this sage-brush waste, something
not unusual at night in high attitudes,
and the heat and sheet lightning around
the harizon warned me that there was
to be one of those short, fierce storms
that come but once or twice a year in
these latitudes,. and which are known
as cloudbursts.
The alkali, plains, or deserts, as they
the often enormously called, are great
stretches of adobe soil, known as "dobie'
by the natives. This soil is yelloWish
brown, or perhaps more of a gray color,
and as fine as flour. Water plays sad
havoc with it, if the soil lies SO as to
oppose the flow, and it moves like dust
before q slight stream. On the hard
baked plains, the water makes no i'm
preston, but on a railroad grade, be it
ever so slight, the tendency is to dig
pitfalls. 1 have seen little stream of
water, just enough to fill the bitches on
each side of the track, take out all the
dirt, and keep the ties and tract afloat
until the water was gone, then drop
them into hole eight or. ten feet deep,
or if the Wash-out was short, leave
them suspended, looking safe and
sound, to lure some poor engineer and
his mate to death.
Another regularity of these storms is
that they come quickly, rage furiously
for Il few minutes, and are gone, and
there lines are sharply defined. 1t is
not uncommon to find 4 lot Of water,
or a Wash-out, within a mile of land
so dry that it looks as il it had never
seen drop Of water.
All this land is fertile when it can be
brought under irrigating bitches and
watered, but here it lies out almost like
a desert. 1t is sparsely inhabited along
the little streams by a struggling off
shoot of the Mexican race; yet once in
a While a fine place is to be seen, like
oasis in the Sahara, the home of some
old Spanish Don, with thousands of
cattle or sheep ranging on the plains,
Or perhaps the headquarters of some
enterprisng cattle company. But these
places were few and far between at the
time of which I write; the stations We're
mere passing places, long side-tracks,
with perhaps a stocl-yard and section
house once in a while, but generally
without buildings or even sWitch-lights.
Noting the approach Of the storm, I
let the heavy engine drop the faster,
hoping to reach a certain side-track,
over twenty miles away, where there
was telegraph operator, and learn
from him the condition of the road.
But the storm was faster than any
consolidator that Baldwins ever built,
and as the lightning suddenly ceased
and the air became heavy, hot, and alb
solutely motionless, I realized that we
would have it full upon us in a few
moments. I had nothing to meet for
more than thirty miles, and there was
nothing behind me; SO 1 stopped, turned
the headlight up, and hung my white
signal lamps down below the buffer
beams each side of the pil0t-this to en-
able me to see the ends of the ties and
the ditch.
Billy Howell, my fireman, and good
one, hastily went over the boiler jack
ct with signal oil, to prevent rust; we
donned our gum coats; 1 dropped lit
tie Oil on the MARY AIMS gudeons,
and we proceeded on our way without
word. On these big consolidators you
cannot see we'll ahead, past the big
boiler, from the cab, and I always ran
with my head out Of the side window.
Both OF us took this position now
standing up ready for anything; but
we bowled safely along for one mile
two miles, through the awful hush.
Then, as sudden as a flash of light,
''boom!' wen peal of thunder as
sharp and clear as a signal gun. There
was flash of light along the rails, the
surface Of the desert seemed to break
out here and there. with little fitful jets
OF Sreenish- blue flame and from every
side came the answering reports from
the batteries Of heaven, like sister gun
boats answering q salute. The rain
fell in torrents, yes, in sheets. l have
never, before or since, seen such a
grand and fantastic display of fire.
works, nor heard such rivalry of can
nonade. ] stopped my engine, and
looked with awe and interest at this
angry fit of nature. watched the balls
of fire play along the ground, and real
lied for the first time what a sight was
an electric storm.
AS the storm commenced at the sig
nal Of a mighty peal of thunder, so it
ended as suddenly at the same signal,
the rain changed in an instant from d
torrent to a gentle shower, the light
ming went out, the batteries ceased
their firing, the breeze commenced to
blow gently, the air was purified. Again
we heard the signal peal Of thunder,
but it seemed a great way off, as if the
piece was hurrying away to more ur-
gent quarter. The gentle shower
ceased the black clouds were torn as
under overhead; invisible hands SEEM
ed to snatch a gray veil Of fleecy clouds
from the face of the harvest moon, and
| it shone out as clear and serene as be-
| fore the storm. The bitches on each
| side of the track were half full of water
! ties were floating along in them, but