Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-14
SPITE
ALL !.

| illustrator encountered no more thrills. He
found 1t hard to sleep. however. and re-
manned awake until the gray OF dawn,
smoking and wishing for heavy eyelids.
Finally he dozed off. only to awaken sud
denly. 1t was broad day, and he saw by
his watch that 1t was nearly O'Clock.
II had hardly noticed that" said the alert
man, when the division superintendent
said we were near the Ohio line and that
would soon come to a certain not very
long but unusually high trestle- Even as
he spoke there was roaring under the
train that showed we had reached 1t.
moment later there was a slight-a very
slight-jar.
"'The speed of the train did not slacken
at once, but l noticed that the superin-
| tendents lips whitened. Don't look outl
he cried as one of the correspondents. who
| was up and dressed, moved toward the
window. don't look out"
THAT was enough for all of us. and we
made a rush for the open windows. Our
speed which had been terrific, was now
much slackened, and l felt sure another
| thrill awaited me. I was right. As put
my hand on the window ledge. l withdrew
it quickly 1t was smeared with SUD-
stance strange to me. The superintendent
with lips whittier than ever, gave one priei
look
That's brains, he said. ! told You we
had struck something.
What had happened?. Well, there was
n section boss, with headquarters near the
trestle. who. like all the other track hands,
had been warned to keep the line clear OF
everything for the special. 1t was due there
at just about the hour this section BOSS or
dinarily took his men across the river TO
their work. He should have known there
wasn't time to get ahead of the special ana
waited for It, but he was foolishiy In a
hurry and as railroad men sometimes VIII,
| took chances. Every man but one In his
| party including himself, was killed when
| the special struck the hand-car, on which
they were pumping for dear life to get OUT
of the way. This man had managed to get
| oh rfnO n n
suspended by his hands over the river, ana
the special passed over him. The different
ways the poor fellows on that hand-car
were cut and mangled to death were per-
fectly frightful to look at. was completely
unnerved and would be again If l tried to
describe the accident in detail.
Engineer Was Unnerved.
THE engineer was unnerved, too. so much
so that he could only walk up and down the
track and sob and wiring his hands, crying
out continually:
Poor chaps. poor chaps! And I never
killed man before, 1 never killed a man
beforer
THE engineer was a giant. deep-chested.
broad-shouldered and strong. but he tren1-
bled like leaf. and 1t was almost hard
to see his emotion as the mangled pieces OF
what had been men on the hand-car. It was
some time before the division superinten-
dent could get MIN on the engine 10 ilNlsu
the run. At first he swore he would never
step on the foot-board again as long as he
lived but he was finally persuaded, and the
remainder of the run, made at more ter
rife speed than ever, to make up for the
time ne had lost. was not remarkable for
anything but the nervousness of all on
board the train
THE superintendent was pretty well
wrought up. too, and the correspondents felt
mighty sorry for him, and as the accident
was not his fault the fault of anybody
but the section boss who lost his life in the
accident, they sent no detailed accounts of
the accident to the papers, and do not be-
lieve any account was printed of it at all at
the time.
There were no more thrills. At Cleve-
land the crowd was immense. but | got my
work through somehow don't remember
just how-and started for New York, hav-
ing been ten days or two weeks the as
sienment, almost without sleep, and keyed
up to a high pitch all the time. When I
reached the office / was overjoyed to find
that my sketches had been satisfactory and
could keep my job