The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-09-15
A DANGEROUS PRACTICAL JOKE.
An Innocent Cowbell Was. the Cause
Of an Expensive Railroad Wreck.
lNew orleans Times-Demoeratl

New Orleans Times Democracy
Talking about practical jokes re-
minds me OF a story l heard on two
railroad men out in Texas some time
ago. said a man who Is fond OF a good
story and who knows how 70 tell II.
and the second part of the yarn has
somewhat Of disaster in IL. A couple
OF railroad engineers figure in the story.
They were fond of playing pranks Oh
each other. and incidentally the4T
friends got great deal of fun out of il.
one OF them concluded he would crown
his prank playing career by a master
stroke. in which his friend would be
the victim. He finally hit upon a cap
ital scheme. He did not want TO do
anything that would be harmful, but
he wanted 10 make use of his friends
engine in some way. His friend ran a
freight train. He picked out the
whistle as the proper part of the steam
horse for him 10 tamper with. He
knew his friends run, knew just when
he could get to the engine when no one
was looking, and so he spent his leisure
moments in working out a piece OF steel
that would do the work. He got an old
steel saw, one OF the smaller kind, and
hled IL down until IL was very thin,
and the teeth of the saw We're unusual
ly long when he had finished his work.
His idea was to place this saw in the
whistle so that il would greatly in
crease the sound and greatly intensity
and sharpen IL. He watched for his
chance 10 get 10 the engine, and after
considerable labor he fitted the saw in
the whistle.
The next morning his friend was 10
take the engine out. The train pulled
out on time. The engineer was some
distance out on the road before he had
up SUFFICIENT steam to develop the inter-
ference. But il developed all right. The
engineer pulled the string and large
quantity OF steam oOzed out through
the whistle. The sound was split by the
saws teeth, and il was something
fierce. 1t startled the engineer and his
fireman, and at FIRST they thought they
had gotten hold of the wrong engine.
No. Ii was the right engine. for il had
the right number on IL and other marks
OF Identification were found which con-
WINGED them that no mistake had been
made in this respect. Then it occurred
10 the engineer that the whistle was
simply out Of gear or in a bad humor,
according to the belief Of railroad men.
At the first stop the engineer made an
MED, bent and wadded down into the
whistle. He took 1t out and took sol
emn oath of vengeance on the man
who had perpetrated the outrage, and
he knew in a second just who il was
mat had played the prank on him. He
got even, as will hereafter appear.
A few weeks after that" continued
the story-teller, the other engineer
played in star role in a disastrous
wreck on the road. although his friend
had not intended anything quite so
serious. 1t was a freight wreck. No
ilVes were lost. but there was consid-
cradle damage TO property. AS soon
as the engineer, who had fallen vic
tim TO the saw and whistle annoyance,
convinced himself that his friend was
guilty he set about to get even. He
picked out his friends engine. and
made up his mind that he would give
him one good shock Just to even up
things. He got him an old COW bell,
cleaned ii up so It would ring well,
put little oil on the upper part of the
clapper and fixed the thing so Il would
swing with perfect ease. He watched
fer his chance 10 fasten the bell under
his friends engine. He got the chance,
and tied the bell under the engine
where it would not be discovered. He
tied a string TO the clapper, ana then
fastened the string to a little piece
OF machinery near the driving wheel.
He fixed the bell so il would not ring
for some time. He wanted his friend
to get under good Roadway before the
bell began to ring. He figured that IL
would take so many revolutions of the
driving wheel to wear the string in two.
and when the string broke the bell
would fall back under the center OF the
engine. and would begin to ring to beat
the band.
He made a good calculation. His
plans worked out to a nicely. The
freight train was rumbling along at a
rapid gait when the wheel sawed the
string in two. and there was a fearful
changing under the engine. The engi-
neer was caught on his guard. and the
ringing of the bell alarmed him. He
thought he had run into COW. He re-
Versed his engine, and whistled for the
brakes. What happened was simply
fearful. The engineers effort to bring
the train 10 stop was too violent. The
heaVy freight cars simply piled upon
each other, some OF them were derailed
and the. engine was badly damaged. No
one was hurt, fortuna tely, but the rail-
road company lost some time and a few
dollars. After that / believe the engI-
neers quit playing pranks on each
other. At any rate. they never tempered
with each others engines after thar