The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1904-02-24

powerful effort TO get round again,
but it looks bad to me.
In month Bill died Blood poi
soning set in and all sorts Of unusual
complications came into the case.
DO you remember that case of
young Fred Fuller out on the east III
laso division?' said an engineer at
NolaD's elbow. That proves the sense
Of the three times and out belief.
"Onc night down there when the
darkness was SO heavy that you could
almost chop it, and the rain came
down in rivers, Fred Fullcrs engine
was turning heavy curve out on the
Texas plains, and drivcwhccl ilangc
broke. The engine jumped the track,
and Fred had close shave from in
slant death in the wreck.
ct was hi, Gs!t call, and Of course,
he survived. y few months in the
hospital, and he was ready for an en-
ginc again.
He got light work about the FL
l'aso yards and on daylight runs.
About a year after the wreck he be-
gan taking regular night runs and ap-
pcarcd to be as good an engineer as he
ever was.
"Onc night it happened that Fred
was put on the same train that he was
on when hurt. 1t was noticed that he
was little nervous, but no attention
was paid to this. The night turned
out to be the same kind Of one as that
on which he was hurt-dark and rainy.
"As the train nearcd the curve
where the first accident had occurred
the fireman noticed Fred slack UP his
engine, and at the same time he began
to get paler and paler. AS they
rounded the curve where he had been
citched before Fred uttered shrek
and fell over in faint. The strain
was too much for him.
"ile was taken off his engine, this
time for good, Of course, and was for
u couple Of years doing switch work in
the yards. AS an engineer his first
call had ruined him for life. No
amount of money could hire him to
steer ali engine around that curve
again after dark, and he was known to
be man of great nerve, too
II fired for seven years for old Har-
vcy Post, and he was the mort dare
devil man at throttle l ever knew,
until he had his second close call in
railroad wreck" said man in the
group. Harry Post W Jollis p.
lluntington's favorite cue -eer. He
used to run from San Francisco TO
Bakersville.
II have never known any one with
80 little fear and so much faith in fate
as Post. He believed that fate ruled
everything in an engineers life, and
that, do wh"t he might, an engineer
would not die until his time had come.
He was the fastest locomotive runner
| ever knew.
Posts first call camc along in the
summer of 1881, when he was running
the Los Angeles express cut of Oak
land early in the afternoon of very
hot day The great speed was easily
made.
About miles south Of the Mcr-
cede Station he struck the double
track, and little further on freight
train going south on the opposite track
hove on sight running at q good speed.
When within 100 feet of the freight
train Post saw car in the middle of
the long line of freight cars leave the
rails and strike the track.
''The car struck so hard that it
bounded back and turned partly over
on the south track. Posts train shot
by the sdcIailcd car an instant after.
ward at the rate If forty miles an
hour. The place at which the acoi-
dent. occurred was near culvcrt and
steep embapkmcnt some fifty feet
high, and had he struck the car ter
rible wreck would have resulted.
II was on the fireman side Of the
locomotive, and was too paralyzed at
the prospect of instant death to move,
much less speak. When We stopped
at Mcrcedc old Harvey called across
the cab to me:
Say, boy, that was terrible close
call, wasn't it?s. Guess no one aboard
the cars knows what shave that was
from as'whooping big wreck. That's
my.first call"
1T was along in the winter of 1882
83 that Post got his second call. He
was then pulling the Coast express
from San Jose to Frisco.