Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-01-14
DUE TO A DREAM.
To What q Railroad Man Attrfbutel
His Rise,

From the New Orleans Times Democrat
zone OF the most successful railroad men
In the United States" said we'll known
local official, claims that he owes his start
in life to a dream. Several different YER
sions Of the story have been current, but
some years ago 1 heard the facts from his
own lips. He entered the service originally
as a wiper in a roundhouse, then got q
flreman's billet and eventually became an
engineer. where he bid fair to stick indefl-
nitely. As I remember his narrative he had
been holding down the Job for two three
years, when he was greatly disturbed one
night by a hideous dream. He thought he
was on his engine. going at full speed over
q section Of the road that was strange and
at the same time, familiar. after the fashion
of things seen in Nightmares. when sudden
ly rounding a curve he caught sight of
man lying, face down, across one Of the
rails. The man had his head on his arms
and was in the exact position of one who
had fallen asleep, overcome by fatigue. The
engineer was tranSfxed with horror, and,
before he could seize the reverse lever, he
felt the sickening scrunch of wheels passing
over q human body. The sound was still in
his ears when he awoke. Naturally enough
the vision preyed on his mind and when 1t
began to repeat itself at intervals of two or
three nights, he soon became thoroughly
unnerved. The dream was always pre-
| CIScly the same, anu dtteT StNcIdi WechS
Of mental torment he walked into the su-
perintendent's office and threw up his job.
To have assigned the real cause might have
laid him open to suspicion Of insanity, so
he merely said he was tired of place
which promised no promotion and let 1t go
at that The higher officials had already
observed his superior intelligence. and the
reason he gave for his resignation rather
raised him in their opinion; so few months
later. when they needed yardmaster at an
important point they set regulations aside
and gave him the place. From that he
climbed to train dispatcher. then assistant
division superintendent. then traffic agent
and so ON up, until he is now general man
ager of one of the best lines in the north, at
a salary Of $4,000 year. II he had stayed
at the throttle he might have risen in time,
but the chances are that he would have
missed the foodtide Of fortune. A singu-
lar feature Of the story Is that his old en-
CINE really did kill man about three weeks
after he left 1t. The poor fellow was lying
on the track in a good deal the way the fig
ure appeared in the dream. and it was
bagged or had dropped there from exhaus-
ton. In looking up his history 1t was
found that he was an old tramp who had
once been men of means, and years be-
fore was stakeholder in that very road.
OF course, that circumstance has no par
ucular bearing the other facts. but 1t
adds to the general strangeness of the case.
| In relating the story In my presence, the
general manager remarked that Is was a
long time before he venfured to tell any
body the true reason why he had quit his
engine. Dreamers are not especially popu-
| lar in . practical business like railr0ading.'