The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-10
Second Seventy-Seven..A Railroad Stor,

| knew the fireman would have jumped. Cam
eron. too? No, not Andy; not if the pit
yawned in front of his pilot
He saw streams of fire flying from many
wheels-he felt the glare Of a dazzling
highland with a rafting crash the ponies
shot into the switch. The bar in his hands
ratified as If il would jump from the socket,
and lurching frightfully, the monster took
the siding. flare of lightning lit the cab
as IL shot past, and he saw Cameron leaning
from the cab window with face of stone. his
eyes rlv1ted on the gigantic drivers that
threw sheet Of fire from the sanded rails.
Jump" screamed Ben. useless as he
knew II was. What voice could live in that
hell Of noise? What man escape from that
cab now?
One, two, three, four cars pounded over
the split rails in half as many seconds Ben,
running diZZily for life TO the right heard
above the roar of the storm and screech
of the sliding wheels a ripping, tearing
crash, the harsh scrape of escaping steam,
the hoarse cries of the wounded cattle And
through the dreadful dark and the fury of
the babel the wind howled in gale and the
heavens poured in flood.
Trembling from excitement and exhaus-
ton, Ben staggered down the main track.
A man with a lantern ran against him: II
was the brakeman who had been back with
the torpedoes; he was crying Historically.
They stumbled over body. Selling the
lantern, Ben turned the PROSTATE man over
and wiped the mud from his face. Then
he held the lantern close, and gave a great
cry. 1t was Andy OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES,
true. but soon very much alive, and no
worse than badly bruised. How the good
God who watches over plucky engineers
wreckage only He knew. But there Andy
lay; and, with a lighter heart Ben headed
a wrecking crew to begin the task of
searching for any who might by fatal
chance have been caught in the crash.
And while the trainmen of the freights
worked at the wreck the passenger train
smoothly-up over the switch and past,
over the hill and past, and so to Turner
Junction, and around by Oxford to Zanes-
Vile
When the sun rose the earth glowed in
the freshness of its June shower-bath. The
flyer, now many miles from Beverly Hill,
was speeding in towards Omaha, and
mothers waking their little ones in the
berths told them how close death had
passed while they slept. The little girls
did not quite understand 1t, though they
tried very hard. and were grateful to That
Man, whom they never saw and whom
they would never see. But the little boys
never mind the little boys-they understood
Ii, to the youngest urchin on the train, and
fifty times their papas had to tell them
how far Ben ran and how fast to save
their lives. And one little boy-I wish
knew his name-went with his papa to the
depot-master at Omaha when the flyer
stopped, and gave him his toy Itch, and
asked him please TO give Ii TO That Man
who had saved his mammals life by run
ming so far in the rain, and please to
tell him how much obliged he was-if he
would be kind.
30 the little Toy NdlCu CdIlle 10 Jul super
intendent, and so to me; and l, sitting al
Cameron's bedside. talking the wreck
over with Ben, gave it to him; and the big
fellow looked as pleased as If it had been
jeweled chronometer; indeed, that was
the only medal Ben got
The truth is we had no gold medals to
distribute out on the West End in those
days. We gave Ben the best We had and
that was a passenger run. But he Is a
great fellow among the railroad men. And
on stormy nights switchmen in the Zanes-
vile yards, smoking in their shanties, still
tell of that night, that storm, and how Ben
Buckley threw second Il at the foot of Bev-
erly Hill.
Copyright 1903, Sampson-H Hodges Co., Chi
cngOl.