Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1876-1904, 1901-04-26

What Kind of Clinging Game ii
and Hi. Fast Freight Train Ha
Buited Into During the Fogg
| Night.
lone pitchy dark night early las
summer" said the fat engineer, wipini
his long necked oil can with piece o
waste, Il was coming east with a fas
freight. As we were approaching tn
top Of Pecano hill | noticed some kin,
OF light moving way up in the sky
First | thought ii was a new star. bu
as the sky was all beclouded and
could see no o. her stars l concluded
that ! was mist 1ken. The light seem
ed TO be descending. but as we pitched
over the top Of the hill | dismissed the
matter from my mind, having more i'm
| portant matters to attend 10.
| THE farther along we got the dark
| ness and fog seemed 10 thicken.
| was a little bit skittish about going
| down the hin with that heavy train
| such night. and as the train dropped
| c fer. the top of the decline l soaked
| the air on a little 10 ease 'em off. Then
| l thought ii was no use slowing up.
| IL | didn't make time with the fast
freight. they'd take me off and put me
on the pick up again. So | put the air
brake handle back in running posi-
ton again and let the cars behind me
set the pace
After we got about a mile down
the grade we were going a clip that
would make the Empire State express
nIl ~.
comparison. Then | got cold feet
once more and thought it was up TO
me TO jack em up again. According
~ l put the air over in the service
position; but. by thunder. it had no
more effect on those flying cars than
thimbie of whisky on Il kentucky
colonel They just kept on coming
and showing my Mother Hubbard en-
CINE along ahead of 'em at about a 20
mile an hour pace. | reached up for
the whistle rope To pass tip to the
train crew in the doghouse that they'd
better get out and twist up a few
brake wheels when ca-smash we went
into something.
Some darned kind of a rubbery
blanket enyeloped my cheese box cab
and came down over the windows, Just
as If some one had lassoed us with a
big rubber bag. l made a frantic jerk
at the whistle valve, but instead of
the sonorous sound it usually handed |
off the noise 1t gave out then was like |
the shrek of penny horn. You
couldn't hear it for a car length. /
slammed the air over into the emer-
gency notch. but l had kept it on so
Ions, for a Spryicp apnlication tbot Tho
pressure was all out of the train pipe.
and it was like thro wing straws under
the car wheels. There was nothing
doing with the air
Il was getting mighty scared because
l didn't know what kind of a game
we'd butted into. The rubber covering
had settled down over the cab windows
and was shutting off the outside atmos-
phere from me so that | could hardly
breathe, and l surely thought | would
suffocate unless l got relief somehow.
No one on the train, not even my fire
man, knew what dire straits / was in
made several Intellectual attempts toI
ket had me completely cut off
Il tried the whistle again, but 1t was
smothered so by its covering that il
hardly gave forth any sound at all.
had about given up hope when l heard
the pop valve on the dome commence
to blow off steam. At first this added
greatly to my discomfort, but l realized
that my only hope would be in having
the safety valve blow off steam with
sufficient pressure to lift the rubber
covering.
After two or three minutes had
elapsed. during which time steam had
been blowing off steadily with a heavy
pressure. the rubber bag began to lift
and finally tore itself away. although ii
took with it large section of the cab
roof. l was pretty nearly exhausted.
but I managed to reverse the engine
and call for brakes. With the assist
ance of the brakemen the train was
brought speedily under control and
stopped. We made an investigation,
but it was SO dark we could not find
out what had hit the cab and chung so
tightly TO it.
I'm reading the newspaper advertise
ments the next morning l saw an ad
vertisement which stated that the pro
prietors of a big wagon circus would
pay a libelOl reward for information
concerning their balloon, which had
been lost. strayed or stolen from lit
tie village In the vicinity of which
had my queer experience the night be-
fore. Their swell parachute jumper
had let the balloon get away from him.
1t flashed through by mind right away
that II must have been the descending /
balloon 1 had run into. and on my next
trip out l saw the battered remains of /
a big balloon lying at the foot of the |
embankment where it had been loosen
ed from the cab.'-New York Sun.