The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-05-04
THE WILD CAB RIDE OF MANIAC
Escaped Lunatic Run away With a
Locomotive
Orders Were to Ditch the Engine at
Eairview, but This Was Not Neces-
Sary-Search for the Poor Fugitive
and at Last the Mystery of His Dis
appearance Solved.

Not long ago | took dinner with a
New Jersey man, about SIS years OF
age, who had been in the railroad ser
vice 40 years, to attain at last a high
position, thong he began at the bot
tom Of the ladder when he got his first
job, then a boy of Is years old. He is
a stOut-built man, with a strong,
we~ather-beaten face gray hair and
whiskers. individualized by a firm
expressive mouth, and lit up by
shrewd kindly gray eyes. My friend
is not much of a talker, being a man
who docs things, like Mark Twain's
Mr.. Lykins, Of California; but I got
something out of him before We had
finished the pOst-pradial cigar.
you must have had some thrilling
experience in your long railroad
career, Mr.. Blank" I began tentative
ly; "a nan who has worked on aud
along the line az long Is you have,
coming in contact with thousands OF
people on the great highways of travel,
cannot fail to have seen, and heard,
n been a part of, much that would
be worth telling"
well, | don't know" said Mr.. Blank,
in the full enjoyment Of his after
dinner smoke, my life has been full
of nard work, and some hard knocks,
but they did not come by being tele
scoped in rear-end or head-on collision.
l was never dumped through a draw
bridge, or tumbled into a culvert, or
~hOlOcausted in a wreck. In fact" he
Il haven't ony of the material for a
hero of what you newspaper men call
a story"
And yet, l don't know" he went On,
m%editatively and slowly, 81 did once
pass a nightly exciting hour or two
on the railroad, and | do not mind
giving you the facts as | recall them"
And here follows the railroad mans
strange story:
81 had worked down at the very
mud-sills of railroad employment for
about five years, when at the g Of 20
4, got my first promotion in the shops
of a position as station agent at Holly
Springs, which included also thai of
telegraph operator, for | had managed
to make myself a fair manipulation of
buo luoll u1HCIlC ny SpChuluS III Ing
spare time and money at a night
school. Holly Springs was just mid
way between the hustling city of NJ
and the fourishing manufacturing
town of Fairview, % miles from each.
There was a small village of two
or three country stores and a few
dwellings clustered about the station;
but the chief life and stir at that point
- o1,+ lf tho Foot RI + II uaC q M ont
ting place for night freights and pass
enger trains. | had ample time during
the day to play quoits with the viLlag-
ers at the end of the platform, or read
a New York paper obtained now and
then from the news butcher 0ut
from supper time until nearly midnight
l had to hustle. with my hands full
or work and my head full of respon-
sibility.
"One night. in the latter part OF
April-with a fog settling down in
the hOllows and wrapping itself around
the hills, while the lamps along tbs
railroad shed burned blurred and dim
the last train had gone on until the
through mail at 7 o'clock in the morn
ing, and | was looking around 70 see
that everything was all right, prepa1-
ing to urn in on my bunk in the lit
tie room adjoining the office, when q
sharp peremptory click at the tele-
graph instrument carried me to the
table with a jump, and this was the
startling message from the operator
at the city of M:
Runaway locomotive on track; lei
pass; have t~elegraphed FairvieW &c
ditch at crossing.
Runaway trains or locomotives are
of course rare spectacles On a railroad
track, but they are troubles WithiI
the experience of nearly all railroad
men. for all that. The engineer, II
leaving his post, may Accidentally
touch the lever with his foot; he may
fall from his cab in a fit, or be taken
suddenly ill-any how, here was M
warning Holly Springs to look GU
for a runaway locomotive.
Il was right smart wrought up Wher
| Jumped out on the platform, and raj
down the line to be sure that tn
switches were straight and the tract
clear. Allowing for two or three
minutes to size up the situation a
NJ. and two or three more to inform
the operator, and flash the message on
I calculated that the runaway locon4o'
tive was making a m~lle-a-InlnuCt lhl
to the goal of it's ditch at FalrvleW
and that a few minutes would brlns
it down on me like a whirlwinf
And here it came. First there was {
far-off, sugded rumble, than an earth
quake tremble under the platform
then a hoarse roar, a lurid red glare
through the fog, like the angry ey'
of a wild beast. a rush Of wheels,
tempest of wind, and sparks ant
smoke-and, my God, the engine dash
ed by the long warehouse with a maj
in the cab! Twas but All instant, pu
I saw him plainly; bareheaded, fec'
white and ~cadaverous. hair flying II
the wind, a long brown coat o III:
tall. thin form. What in the worlt
did it mean? Up and down the pla
form l ran distractedly. Here was /
human being rushing to his death il
the ditch at Faiirview! Then | sprans