The Savannah morning news., 1901-05-19
BY Herbert f. Hamblen.
Author of "On Many Seas" Etc.

wonder what was the first, instantane-
Gus sensation of that Canadian engineer
who ran down Jumbo in the fog. Prob
ably no engineer ever had a stranger
shock; but shockc, strange and otherwise,
are the portion of every man who stands
at locomotive throttle. He must get
used to them and stand them as best Re
can--or find some occupation with less
nervous s:raIn on it. Most of them in
the business get hardened TO the unex-
pected. which is always happening on the
rails.
One of the worst starts I ever had was
due to a large, lazy pig who had got
on my mind. Nothing will slide a train
more easily and destructively from .e
rails than live pork. This particular spec
linen had habit of burrowing alongside
the track, and it was a fair presumption
that sooner or later he would find some
thing to interesa him between the rails,
and somebody would go down the bank.
| was coming down the hill one day at
high speed, and craning my neck for
Comforting sight of piggy in his accus-
| toned place, when, as L popped around
tie curve. a bright red flag assaulted my
anxious SAFE. The connection between
that flag aLG the pig was only a bit of
| mental alteration on my part, but it was
very vivid. l shut off and grabbed the
whistle cord, but before 1 could even
screech Tor brakes, / saw that the flag
| was only a red flannel shirt, which the
good woman of the shanty to which The
pig belonged had hung on an improvised
| clothesline between the telegraph poles
| That may not sound like much of a scare,
| hut it represents a type that turns the
| railroad mans hair to delicate ash color
Railroad men have supplemented the
| rules with additions of their own, for the
| sake of convenience. and to expedite the
work. When a man is sent out to flag
he gets instructions. Perhaps he is told
to let all regular trains pass, but to hold
| everything else; then he understands that
mis- conductor will have his train in the
siding when those trans arrive.
freight train had occasion to cross to
the other track, but there wasn't time to
cross ahead of the limited. A man was
sent ahead with orders to let the limited
by and hold everything else until he
should be called in. l was fireman on the
limited that night, and the place 1 write
of was in the middle of a twenty mile
run. where the engineer made a practice
of "ketchin' up" any little time previous
ly lost.
l heard sudden exclamation as George,
my engineer, shut off and snapped on the
air. l stepped 20 the gangway and
caught a glimpse of a fellow waving
red light frantically as we few by. In
another instant we rounded the curve,
and there was headlight, right in our
face and eyes. George ''horsed 'er over,
and l thought he would surely pull the
| sand lever out by the roots, but in spite
| of ALL that headlight came up on us like
| a comet. OF course, we thought the other
| fellow was crossed over on our track, or
he wouldn't have tagged us; II didn't
make any difference that he had no right
to be there, there he was. George yelled
for me to git off," but a single hasry
glance at the ground satisfied me with
my chances where 1 was.
moment later we rolled past the en-
CINE and half the train-whch was on
It's own track. The freight conductor
climbed up on our engine and asked
George If that BANKED fool had tagged
him. George muttered and stsmmered
with nervousness before he found his
tongue, but when he did that con-
ductor heard some thing that was
well worth listening to. Such a salvo of
verbal pyrotechnics-George expressing
! himself about the conductor. and he about
the fiagman-one hears but once in a life
time.
A newly located watchmans shanty-
looking exactly like the end of box
car-set my scalp to tingling one night.
There had never been anything there but
the river before, and when the headlight
glared on that very substantial structure
was sure nay call had arrival. Another
time a tool bcx In a tunnel, partly COW
cred with oVerciothes and a coil Of rope,
started me for the step. under the i'm
preston that it was a rock fallen rom
the roof. Hut these are mere, harmless