Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-10-18
ON A FAST MAIL
NEWSPAPER CORRESPONDENT
5 TAKES WHlRLWIND RIDE WITH
UNCLE SANS MAIL POUCHES,

Mile and Half a Minute ReeIed on
by Big Black Monster Between Chi.
caso G. st. PauI-Heroes Of the
Throttle.
The following interesting story of a
reporters ride in the cab of q loco1no-
tive drawing one of the government
fast mail trains between Chicago and
the twin cities was written by Curtis
L. Mosher of the ST. Paul Dispatch:
1t is significant that the one train
which makes the Chicago-St. Paul run
IN ten hours, carries no passengers.
10 ride on 1t is a privilege acquired
by few. Yet a journey on this train,
which carries none but government
mail clerks and its crew, is an ex-
perieMce, especially if the Journey be
made on the 'sfireman's side" of the
huge locomotive which pulls 1t. 1t is
revelation of what fast passenger
service means and a liberal education
in appreciation of the cool nerve and
absolute competency Of the men who
run fast trains.
The fast mail over the Chicago, Mil.
waukee and st. Paul Railway leaves
Chicago every night of the year with
from twenty to fifty tons of mail
aboard and reaches st. Paul every
morning with its burden Of letters and
packages in time for transfer to other
trains to the Pacific coast to connect
with the mail boats, north into the
Dominion, east and west into adjoin-
ing states and radiating over a dozen
lines Of railway into every nook and
Granny of the northwest.
A Lively Clip.
If one asks why the fast mail car
ries no passengers he is answered
that there are other trains which do
that work. Another reason is apparent
after a journey on the "head end
with the two cinder-marked and
grease-smudge gods of the machine
that pulls it.
Ten-hour service means speed. On a
glorious night not long ago the fast
mail pulled out of Milwaukee on time,
swinging along at an easy gait through
the maze of green, white and red
switchlights until the last tall soma,
phore arm signaled "all clear" then
Engineer Sullivan's long right arm
shot forward through the dark sud-
denly, the hoarse syncopation Of the
exhaust changed suddenly to a long
wailing roar, and the tremendous To-
connective seemed to timber up In every
Joint as she swung forward into the
night
HE treen her in compound" the
fireman, Woodland, explained. His
father in his early life had apprenticed
him to a jeweler. He had a back like
an OK and an arm like an oak tree.
Mile posts began to fade in regular
succession and telegraph poles flew by
so fast 1t was hardly possible to
count. The track ahead took on an
uncanny grayish haze, but the speed
constantly increased. The big locomo-
tive slowed down for nothing. She
took Sharp curves like race horse
and 1unged into the long tangents
like singed cat Engineer Sullivan
didn't talk much. He was pretty busy
Watching the track. When he did
talk it was to the point.
"Forty-five miles out of Milwaukee,
including the trip through the yards
and suburbs, where We had to slow
down, in forty-six minutes" he said.
Mile and a Half a Minute.
He dropped to the ground and oiled
up almost on the run. Two minutes
elapsed. the big machine was ready
to 60 again, but the conductor appear
ed out of the gloom and remarked
that journal on mail car had run
hot.
Hot Journals are not serious In
themselves. but six minutes clipped
from the schedule of a train which
must run while in motion at rate of
slightly more than fifty-five miles and
hour for 408 miles, is a very important
matter. Engineer Sullivan swore
softly and drowned his wrath in
copious applications of more oil to the
big engines stuffing boxes. Then he
mounted the towering Gag again and
Woodland grinned.
We'll run like pup with tin can
tied to his tail now he confded.
We did. Mile posts and telegraph
poles became one long procession,
with scarcely perceptible distances be.
tween them. The air rushed through
the open cab windows like cyclone,
and the mail cars. trailing along be-
hind rocked and swung on their
springs like so many drunken men.
The pace was tremendous.
Ones sensations were much like
those when the horses enter the last
eighth on fast track and 10000 peo-
pie in the grand stand begin to cheer.
The speed. gradually increased from
fifty.one to fifty-eight, then to sixty
two. sixty-six. seventy-one, seventy
four and seventy-six miles an hour;
then. on the crest of "hill," the sum.
NIT of an up and down grade, it sud.
denly jumped to eighty-four and then
to ninety-two miles an hour--a mile
and a half minute, and one felt an
insane desire to yank the throttle
away out and see if 1t were not pos
sible to make three miles minute.
It was pace that made the govern.
ment mail officials grin, but it was nc
pace for sedate burghers and business
men.
Pace Falls OFF.