The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-05-19

years of service he has seen human nat
ure in pretty nearly all its phases, and
has had one escape from death that he
regards as little less than miraculous.
1T happened several years ago." said
ne, when pressed to tell the story. L
was running the flyer and one night we
left Atlanta about forty minutes late.
The engineer was wneeling her up at a
siNty-five mile an hour clip and as we
struck a reverse curve one of the forward
trucks on teh engine collapsed. Natur-
ally everything jumped the track. The
engine struck the ground with such force
that 1t was turned completely around
ana came to standstill facing opposite
to the direction in which it was going
Wnen the accident occurred. The tender
was smashed, the baggage car went one
way, the express another while the four
Passenger coaches went through the de-
bris and finally landed alongside the
track Tho miraculous part of it is that
with the single exception OF the engineer,
VINO was seYerelyS bruised, not person
on the train was hurt
Conductors are funny sand their wives
| are funnier. TneyS can tell stories until
you can't rest. Itis one of their diver
sions. They like t. And there is a lot
OF juice in their stories which they spit
out (the cons, of eourse9, with as much
ease as they would wad of cut plug
Tnere is certain conductor of the
Fort Wayne road stopping at the Ryan
motel who tells story about another con-
dnctor on the same road that tickles one
just little. He SAYS the man gets up
some time before dinner and takes good
drink of whisky. AZ the meal he eats
half dozen onions and wnen he goes CD
the train he chews tobacco.
one day he had been following the
usual programme and a passenger on
MS train said ne didn't have a ticket
but would pay his fare. Just then the
conductor leaned over the passenger, who
got Whit of his fragrant breath
NO, I've changed my mind" said the
passenger; Il viii not go the whole dis
tance. I'll get off at the next station and
walk"
The conductor wondered what allied
him.
Mexico IS queer place for railroad
ing. For many years it was the custom
IN that courstry to put a whole train
crew under lock and key indefinitely
whenever Mexican run was ever That
Is hardIy ever done now. Incidents turn
up almost every day, though, that would
seem very strange in this country. A
Jackass there is called burro. A Mexi-
can once was moving from one town to
ehAlo. All QDInS Sc, lie -SnlppeQ
his burro with his household goods. Ac-
cording to the conductor at the Ryan
VINO tells the story the receiving agent
read the word burro as bureau" and
in making his report. he wrote:
One bureau short and enc jackass
over"
AT another LINE in the town of Quere
tero Mexico. a large mortar was left
lying near stamp mill. 1t had just
been brought to the town by the local
railroad One morning a train was stor-
, ped outside Of the stamp mill, and 1t was
found that a number of Mexicans had
attempted to steal the mortar. 1t weigh
ed couple of thousand pounds In some
manner the Mexicans had managed to lift
the mortar to the back Of burro and
the poor beast was just getting ready
to drop under the weight when the train
! arrived and put an end to the great
undertaking.
There is a cnductor on the 500 road Git
would anger officials to print his name)
who had an experience some time ago
that will not soon be forgotten An old
man boarded his train, and when the
conductor came around he was present
ed with an old s5-bill that looked as if
II had been through half dozen wars
and was all punctured with holes. The
conductor looked at 1t for awhile, and
| then said: =
Haven't you got anything else:''
Nope"
81 can't take this
We'll. turn it into the company, Them
Charlie X. Langan. of the Milwaukee
road, has been a frequent visitor at ths