Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1901-07-04
a NOVEL CIRCUMSTANCE.
row Locomotive Telescoped
Balloon.


summer, said the fat engineer.
wipihs MS iongnecked oil can with a
piece OF waste, Il was coming east
Wlll last freight. AS we were ap-
preaching the top of Pecano hill
notlced some kind of light moving
up IN the sky. First | thought il
was new star, but as the sky was ali
oeclouded and | could see no other
stars concluded that was mistaken.
The light seemed to be descending. but
as we pitched over the top of the hill
dismissed the matter from my nina,
having more important matters to at
tend to.
Inc farther along we got the dark
ness and fog seemed to thicken. 1
was q little bit skittish about going
ooWn the hill with that heavy train
such night, and as the train
dropped. over the top of the decline 7
soaked the air on little to ease 'em
OIL. Then thought it was no use
slowing up; if didn't make time with
the fast freight they'd take me off and
put me on the pickup train. So put
the air brake handle back in running
position again, and let the cars behind
me set the pace.
After we got about mile down the
grade we were going a clip that would
make the Empire State express look
like dingy old stage coach in COM
parison. Then l got cold feet once
more, and thought it was up to me to
JACK 'em up again. Accordingly l
put the air over in the service posi-
ton, but bthunder it had no more
erect on those flying cars than a
thimble of whisky on a Kentucky
colonel. They just kept on coming
and showing my Mother Hubbard
engine along ahead of 'em at about a
70-mile an hour pace. / reached up
for the whistle rope to pass a tip 20
the train crew in the dog house that
they'd better get out and twist up
few brake wheels, when casmash! we
went into something.
Some darned kind of a rubbery
blanket enveloped my chess-box cab
and came down over the windows,
just as If some one had lassoed us
with rubber bag. l made frantic
jerk at the whistle valve, but instead
OF the sonorous sound it usually
handed off, the noise it gave then was
like the skriek of penny horn. You
couldn't hear it for car length. 1
slammed the air over into the
emergency notch, but had kept it on
so long for service application that
the pressure was all out of the train
pipe, and it was like throwing straws
under the car wheels. There was
nothing doing with the air.
Il was getting mighty scared be-
cause l didn't know what kind of
game we'd butted into. The rubber
covering had settled down over the
cab windows, and was shutting off the
outside atmosphere from me so that
l could hardly breathe and l surely
thought l would suffocate unless l got
relief somehow. No one on the train
not even my fireman, knew what dire
straits l was in. l made several in
effectual attempts to get out of the
cab, but the rubber blanket had me
completely cut OF.
Il tried the whistle again, but 1T
was smothered so by it's covering thar
it hardly gave forth any sound at all.
i had about given up hope when I
head the pop valve on the dome COM
mence 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.
4 After two or three minutes had
elapsed, during which time steam had
: been blowing off steadily with
heavy pressure, the rubber bag began
to lift and finally tore itself away,
although it took with it a large sec
ton of the cab roof. 1t was pretty
nearly exhausted, but managed to
reverse the engine and call for brakes.
With the assistance 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 adver-
tisements the next morning | saw an
advertisement which stated that the
proprietors of a big wagon circus
would pay liberal reward for in
formation concerning their balloon.
which had been lost, strayed or stolen
from a little village in the vicinity or
which l had my queer experience the
night before. Their swell parachute
jumper had let the balloon get away
from him. 1t flashed through my
mind right away that it must have
been the descending balloon had run
into, and on my next trip saw the
battered remains of a big balloon
lying at the foot of the embankment
where it had been loosened from the
cab r-NeM York Sun.