Mower County transcript., 1904-09-14
A ride ON THE,
~ ~ FAST MAIL.
In the Cab Between Chicago, St. Paul
and Minneapolis.

It is significant that the one train
which makes the Chicago-St. Paul run
in ten hours, carries no passengers.
To ride on it is a privilege acquired
by few. Yet journey on this train,
which carries none but government
mail clerks and its crew, is an exper-
ience, especially if the journey be made
on the "fireman's side' of the huge
locomotive which pulls it. tits revel-
alton of what fast passenger service
means and liberal education in appre-
citation 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 it's 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 Do
minion, east and west into adjoining
states and radiating over dozen lines
of railway into every nook and Granny
of the Northwest.
If one asks why the fast mail carries
no passengers he is answered that there
are other trains which do that work.
Another reason is apparent after ajour
ney on the 'head end'' with the two
cinder- marked and grease-smudged
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 semaphore
arm signaled "all clear" then Engineer
Sullivan's long right arm shot forward
through the dark suddenly, the hoarse
syncopation of the exhaust changed
suddenly to long wailing roar and the
tremendous locomotive seemed to linn
Der up in every joint as she, swung fors
ward into the night.
"He trun her in compound" the fire.
man, Woodland, explained. His father
in his early life had apprenticed him to
a jeweler. He had 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 it was hardly possible to count.
The track ahead took on an uncanny
grayish haze, but the speed constantly
increased. The big locomotive slowed
down for nothing. She took sharp
curves like race horse and lunged in
to 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-fve miles out of Milwaukee,
including the trip through the yards
and suburbs, where they had to slow
down, in forty six minutes" he said.
He dropped to the ground and oiled
up almost on the run. Two minutes
elapsed, the big machine was ready to
go again, but the conductor appeared
out of the gloom and remarked that a
journal on a mail car had run hot.
Hot journals are not serious in them
selves, but six minutes clipped from the
schedule Of a train which must run
while in motion at rate of slightly
more than IS miles an hour for 40e
miles, is very important matter. En-.
gineer Sullivan swore softly and drown.
ed his wrath in copious applications of
more oil to the big engines stufing
boxes. Then he mounted the towering
cab again and the race was on for the
second time.
Woodland grinned.
"Well 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 between
them. The air rushed through the
open cab windows like a cyclone, and
the mail cars, trailing along behind,
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 81
to SO, then to 81, 66, II, "a and 76 miles
/ T. II. .-N -