The St. Louis Republic., 1903-01-01

came The warning. and ! can safely say
that. although twenty-five years in the
business l have never hsafu the sam,
number of words done in the same length
of time by any mortal from that day tt
this McCabe was a bright, intelligent and
fairly weil-educated boy and he knew his
business thoroughly: lives depended on ac-
ton at that instant. and he did it.
Although accredited with being star
operator myself. l must confess that l was
afraid TO trust my own ears at that critica!
moment l must make sure: SO l repeated
back. equally furious. but by no means
as perfect. for | was excited; You say
No. 10 is gone without orders:
Yes yes came the quick response.
Il saw the lights slimmering. from the
then rapidly passing coaches OF No. as
she was pulling out and away TO certain de-
struction; saw the stream of sparks be!ch.
ing from the smokestack of the engine as
more and more steam was being let into
the cylinders: | heard the clanS. clang! 81
the bell, growing DINNER and DINNER as
the fast-moving train seemed to slip AVA!
from me. Ana l seemed to be standing
still. ! felt paralyzed. l was positive in INF
own mind that could not move muscle
LAS a matter of fact, however, had rtn
across the room. which was large one
which extended around the inner door ar1d
which was about four feet high. two fed
wide on top and so close 10 the W thai
l never could tell how l went over 1t with
out falling To light on my feet. But eei
over it / did: out the inner door. across th
han. out of the outer door. and GoEn tk
Ia Il
where the dispatcher stood.
Stop this trainr l cried-screamed. o
he afterwards told me.
The last car-the sleeper, of course-wa
in front of us The sncineer was in hs
cab looking ahe.d. the fireman was bus
shoveling coal into the glaring turnaS
smoker Not a living soul was in sisE
SLEEPING-CAR CONDUCTOR HEARS
THEIR FRANTIC CRIES.
Captain Armstrong did not ask me WY
/ wanted the train stopped; there was Z
time for explanations: my word was su-
ward the last end of the sleeper; as
thought 10 jump aboard, feat which wota
have cost him his life. however. as e
train was already under full swing. IF
start he made however. proved lucky: y
by some providential occurrence the Pu
man conductor opened the rear uoor ~.
object in view whatever: he just. walM
back and opened the door without knowR
what for.
ing and lowering his lantern a.
'.As every one knows. the Pullman es
ductor has nothing whatever H. 20 tr,n Go Win Hbh
hauIs his car, and this man seemed to .
absolutely no attention. He made no hiV,,
that we could see s,oNS TOWARD te snte iG in Be
doorway of that Pullman car uhtii 'he Jan
ness hid him from view. -,
"A few hundred yaruS peioM 'Is = 10
the road curved sharply TO the west 20 90
almost before we knew what had hafpeFu
the train was lost to view.
And there was no telegraph once
tween 'Sa' and 'Cs! "a
"Captain Armstrong turned to me 90,
lifting his lantern so that it threw Ere
of white light into my lso,pa lace, ne h;s LOOM @s
to his sides. exclaimed. God help tneE
He had seen my face-that was enosh;
the trains would collide. He read IL a !"
my :.Whew. new w-h-e-w! W-H-E-Wi'' camethe
boarse echo of the engine whistle a ne
or more away from p11,nan 5ne conduetor aIlTa lad
runC the bell; the train was coming Eek
The strain had been too much for e:
sank to the platform ii fbe snos g.,sr Tor yfwo
minutes min The very snow and cold rsEed
me. however. and as soon as could Sah IN
j could think of nothing more than tahN
I'VE took the special orders awayIfom
No. I and sent her off with the urder&nd-
ing that she was to run by book aEas
also No. 10
ENDED POOR. McCABEs,
CAREER AS OPERATOR.
Poor McCabe. dear old Frank. Wit of
him? He was blacklisted-dischargEa
blacklisted: he was never allowed tosvsn
enter an Office of the company afte7Hfds:
and / have not heard of him since. ecept
that he went up In the Northwest sme-
where:
HNtStlSdlibn ssD"'u
that McCabe was entirely to blame,that
he failed to see that his red curtain ieally
did drop over his light when he rahsed
the cord. and all that. I felt at the lme,
and have always felt, that he was erirely
blameless or almost entirely blamelsi.
"He told us that he dropped his. light;
and that 1t showed red after No. had
passed without stopping. but No. 4 1e-
ported that Salem showed n white ligt.
"As a matter of fact, although / ID not
feel justified in saying so at the timeI al
ways believed that McCabe dropped hi red
curtain cord all right enough, and tht he
thought, he felt the weight, of the crtain
mechanism jerk the cord when he reiased
it. but that the mechanism caught insome
way, holding the curtain up, or parth up,
until the engine passed under it, wha the
jar Of the train released the slight hitch
and let the curtain drop-too late.
Calculations showed that. had No. got
ten away from the dispatcher's Office. tn
special orders. and No. 10 without aien.
the two heavily loaded passenger trims
would have met near a wide curve and
at the top Of an embankment where
both would have plunged into a swollen
stream of water, ice and bowlders in which
no living thing could have survived many
minutes; it would have been the most ap-
pailtng disaster in history.
And yet 1t was averted by the quick wit
OF the man who bore all the blame"
l. n, S.