River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1902-09-11
The Jaguar
Special
BY PAUL r. BULLARD.

| L y
duras. Hold-ups, collisions and rum
away trains are of frequent occur
renee on its so miles of length, but its
most extraordinary incident was that
in which George Powers took part.
It was in the 'dry season" when the
banana plants were weighted with
| their punches of green fruit, ready for
| cutting.
"One day'-as Powers tells the story
-"the fruit steamer Breakwater an
chored unexpectedly in the ofing of
! our Caribbean sea harbor Of Porto
| Cortez. Soon, at her agents orders,
there was hoisted at her masthead the
signal indicating Fruit, ready for a
quick cargo And when the ship had
reached the dock fruit train was be-
ing made up
'"fhen we learned that the Break
water was expected to sail for New
Orleans with a cargo of bananas early
! the next morning. Extraordinary eff
| forts must be made to load her with
suitable shipment in less than
days time TO hurry was decidedly
untropical. but the bonus given by the
railroad officials was as oil to lubricate
the machinery of the transportation
department;' and | was handed these
orders:
Engineer Powers will take engine No. IL,
! with IS platform cars and proceed with
! best speed to La Pimienta; load cargo of
bananas; return to San Pedro; load fruit
! there. Report at this office after the run,
and not later than ten p. m. to-day.
| (Signud COLVILLE (Supt. Of Trans0.
"Sucn an order meant hurry My
fireman oiled -, the only locomotive
available, and the yardmen made up
! the train. BY noon we were starred.
There was work enough ahead to keep
us all ont of mischief for the next ten
hours. To cover round trip of 100
miles, load IS cars with bananas and
pull them 1nto Porto Cortez within
ten hours would be the record for
speed upon the Honduras railroad.
$50 old IS, with throttle wide open,
was soon putting up the rough road
bed to La Pimienta at an unaccus-
toned pace. The telegraph line was
equally busy, and when we ran past
| San Pedro the ox-cars were already
unloading their nine and ten-hand
punches alongside the track in readi-
ness for orr return. Between four and
five o'clock we whistled for La Pimi-
enta the terminus.
"There the station agent had gang
of leaders ready and before the
train had quite stopped the green
punches were being passed to the load
! t.. Il I'll yc,IT N1.t
space of time the bananas rose, tier
upon tier, to heavy load; and all the
| time my fireman fed the sticks of soft
pine to our roaring fire box, for we
should need a good head of steam to
get back to San Pedro in season. The
agent sarcastically asked me: is the
engine good for the heavy pull with
out breakdown and l replied:
"Number 10 is about to surprise every
body by a record trip And so we did,
both because of and in spite of an I'M
precedented adventure.
cat six o'clock we had loaded all the
fruit in sight, and whistling for open
brakes we started for San Pedro.
The down grade helped US materially.
In less than an hour we had covered
the distance and were taking the fruit
| aboard from our last stop.
"Delay began here. There were few
men to load the fruit. and the handling
of it was slow; every bunch was thor
oughly inspected by the leaders lest
| they SHOULD grasp tarantulas crawling
among the bananas. But at eight
o'clock the train was loaded, the
pitchpine headlight was lighted, the
throttle opened and the whistle
shrielled it's farewell to San Pedro.
|Two hours only were left in which
| to make the run in schedule time over
35 miles of rolling country and with
weight of IS heavily loaded cars. The
passenger with her light freight,
was allowed four hours for the same
run. The darkness was intense. and
the vibration of the train soon became
so great that the headlight was shak-
en- into mere sputtering, and at
llrch went out. The front of the en-
CINE became the limit of my vision.
"The white mile markers were
passed so quickly that my fireman
lost his count, and we could not tell
where we were. But No. 10 was doing
her best. Not a valve had blown out,
nor a rod broken. Our Gathering over
the track was varied only by the
frantic squealings of a fine, fat pig,
sent by the agent at La Pimienta to the
captain of the Breakwater as a deli
cacy for his table, Piggy continually
squealed from its berth in an open
| fruit car.
"In one place a large limb extended
! from a tree out over the track, Just
| high enough to clear the stacks of
the passing engines. The pig seemed
! to scream more loudly than before and
we heard a new sound.
"'What was that?' asked nv
startled fireman. Did you hear that
crash?'
"'Oh. never mind! Give me more
steam.' replied, for knew we must
| be nearing a steep grade. I blew the
signals to release the brakes, but
without avail.
'Tn a minute we struck the hill. 1t
| was hard one to climb. and the en-
| CINE pulled so loudly that I did not no
| tice the cessation OF the pigs squeals.
Slowly but surely we were coming to
9 standstill. The brakes still seemed
DAWN ON THE PRAIRIES.