The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-11-15

mail on the Southern Railway dropped down the Atlantic Seaboard and reached Atlanta considerably behind its schedule time. It had done its work we'll, leaving the great metropolis 1t skinned the Jer- sey marshes and thundered through towns and cities Gathering momentum with each hour 1t hurled itself through space like a catapult until the Gate City of the South was reached. Here pant ing and quivering it came to stop while the dust settled around the wheels.
 Engine ls of the West Point route. stood under the west end of the old car shed and in the gloomy glimmering of the elec- tric lights among the Iron girders it lock- ed like an iron greyhound. It stood about sixteen feet above the water line of the worm eaten floor and breathed like a thing of life. Back behind it like the tail of kite there stretched four cars.
 In the mail cars all was confusion. Brawny negroes hurled dozens of sacks of mail into the open doors while the clerks worked rapidly. l.. D. Mcdonald, a biz blonde Scotchman, with clean blue overalls oiled the mammoth machinery and caressingly wiped away a bit of grease here and there that interfered with the beauty of the locomotive. Jack son. the faithful negro fireman touched up bolts and stirred around getting ready
 
 the Confederacy. Up and down the shed Conductor John Harrison stirred hurry ing up everything and everybody for the | schedule was then thirty minutes to the bad and he knew that the dispatcher was worried and that the train sheet of No. s7 was the first thing that went under the presidents eye in the morning. In the hands of these two men, McDonald and Harrison. lay the honor of the com pany that night. Strong, honest and handsome they looked like the men such a company would select for such arduous and responsible duties. The schedule must be made. The mail must go into Montgomery and save the company the forfeit. Then too, there were number of passengers hurrying southward who I had spent the last minute in Atlanta and the East and then took the fast train. l There was last hurried rattle of the mail trucks, a experimentation of noises, a cry .'all aboard" the least jar, pun of white smoke out of the stack. glim- mer of steel in the electric light and Montgomery was eighteen feet nearer.
 Down there a half asleep hostler slowly backed Louisville and Nashville engine on the turn table and began getting ready | for 97 over the Louisville and Nashville for New Orleans. The Montgomery despatcher was calling East Point and | then College Park to know If 97 had passed, but it was winding through a mystic maze of green, red and white | lights through the Central Railroad yard. A lone policeman on the Mitchell Street viaduct watched the electric light on the engine come into sight and fade into the | red light on the rear end. Another mo- ment and the city slipped suddenly away. | High up in the air the red light chang ed to white at McPhersons when "the sixteen" called for the semaphore and the throb of the engine rose to a higher note.
 East Point fiared up in the darkness and a cloud of dust at the street crossing and all was still while the calliope whistle asked the operator at College Park If all was well.
 on of the double track and out in the open 97 slipped into the night Captain Harrison took up the tickets in the back coach and the mail clerks worked with prodigious energy asserting the great pile of mail. The immense driving wheels we're hammering the fish plates and the ex- haust had grown into a Titanic hum. The | headlight cast ghostly glances athwart the landscape and the train seemed to be standing still with the entire territory in front of 1t rushing towards 1t with feverish haste.
 Andy Jackson opened the furnace door and dropped in a few shovels of coal and the glow from the furnace door lit up the whole country in the rear. The heavy rails and ballast held the cars steady, but the pace now and then threw the | conductor or the mail clerks to one side | or caused a piece of mail to miss the | sack thrown at 1t. There was low hum l of the calliope and 97 dropped into and out of Red Oak like a bird sweeping through the air. The little tombstones in | the country cemetery glimmered a mos ment in the light and disappeared and the 16 settled down like a horse with a good | road and loosened bit until Fairburn, | Palmetto and Coweta were passed and, with a whip. the train hurtled into New nan with a smoking hot box and a re- cord of thirty-nine miles in forty-three | minutes. Jacks and lever and brasses were thrown out. Willing men ment to work. The dlspatcher's office In Newman hurried with a fretful impatience. East | bound freight trains were seeking sidings down the road The station master at Montgomery was marking up No. 97 half an hour late. Mcdonald and Harrison worked hard as men ever work. The pos- abilities of missing connection were great. | The United States mall was being de- | layed. Passengers were fretting.
 | Armed with permit from the proper | officer, I climbed up into the freman's s l seat and watched Mcdonald, serious and cool. climb into his I saw his hand reach over and release the air brakes, drop the lever forward and with hand on the | throttle lean out of the window and watch | the gloom behind for a signal At last the light stabbed the air as it waved him forward, the Is jumped like a frightened bird and Newman was slipping by.
 The time card called for G to be in Montgomery in 135 minutes and 1t was 133 miles away! When 97 does not make the schedule the cause for 1t must be shown | on the presidents desk the next morning. We slowed at the Carrollton crossing and | in a moment whirled past the Pearl | Springs Park. As we took the curves | leaned heavily inwards to help balance | the engine which seemed to be filled with life Back in the night the green light | glowed like the ghosts of stars and the | dust there kept time to the general roar. 1 All at once a bright light flashed into | my face there was a crash like broken | glass and Moreland went by to east
 ward. The switch light had destroyed my peace of mind with jar that took my nerve. The momentum grew terrific. I tried to speak to the fireman, but my | voice made no sound. I saw twinkling
 of lights like firefies on dark back | ground, or the moving of man of war
 and wondered, but the whistle told me 1t