The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-02-03
TENDERFOOT m WEST.
Full Account Of Railroad Accidents
Given By Greenhorn.

Full Account Of Railroad Accidents
Given by a Greenhorn.
7 This Is a true account Of what hap
pened to me Tuesday and Wednesday
Of this week:
I left Duluth about o'clock Monday
night and slept in a Pullman car till,
~ In the morning, when had to-
change cars at Staples. There went
into the sleeper "Kowa" and got into
conversation with the Pullman con-,
ductor, Mr.. Brown, who runs every
third day from st. Paul to Winnipeg.
He is very gentlemanly old man. He
said he was only 6S years young, from
Philadelphia. and for Is years in his
present place. On my ticket is my
name. SO he asked me, where I came
from. and when said "Hoboken" he
took little book from his pocket and
looked up the place. "Yes," he said,
some years ago Mr.. Machold and Mr..
Phil Hexamer from Hoboken travelled
In my car. learned since that Mr..
Machold. bank president, died, but
how is Mr.. Hexamer?" was also en-
tered into his book.
/ About q. M. I went to my berth,
No. z. and went to sleep. It must have
been about $3.50 a. m. when l awoke
and was only waiting for the break
OF daylight. but suddenly 1t was $3.50
a. m. My head was knocked against
the top board of the sleeper, and with
three or four short bing-bang- bings!
the train stopped short on the spot.
There was great confusion for short
time. jumped into my clothes with
unusual rapidly. and out we went.
There we were. in the midst of the
prairie-only one lonely farm house
in the distance to be seen. 1t was ex-
tremely cold and the sharp wind was
blowing over the white plains with
furious velocity. We had two engines
pulling us with our five passenger, one
mail and two baggage cars, and on
investigation we learned that the
wheels of the first engine were COM
pletely of the track, the rails loose
and the crossword beams in splin-
ters.
No one was seriously hurt. The oc-
cupants of our car, Senator Bacon,
Dacotah hotel. Grand Forks; Sheriff
Atkinson. Pembina county, N. D., and
others, mostly travelling men, got to-
gether and Messrs. Bacon and Atkin-
son, being accustomed to the climate,
went out to the farm house for food,
for 1t looked bad, no dining car being
on the train. When these men-honor
to their names!-came back with some
coffee. bacon and bread l got a bite
and drink of coffee. and few more
got some, too, but the majority got
nothing. 1t was serio-comical to see
man hold up silver dollar and call
out. This for piece of bread!" or
"Oh. If l only had now what 1 left on
my plate last night" etc.
About 2 o'clock an engine came up
from Fertile and took us back there
and we ate up what this town of seven
houses had to offer. Then we were
switched onto the Thief River branch
with the idea to get to Crookston and
Grand Forks via the Red Lake Falls
branch. So we went off with one en-
CINE and got about Is miles or SO
ahead when, it may have been $3.50
p. NJ, an enormous crash occurred.
We were badly shaken up and it ap-
peared very serious. We jumped off
the train. which had stopped as il
struck by lightning, and there lay the
engine about ten feet away from the
track, completely on its side, tender
also, and the coal strewn in the snow.
The engineer had jumped and broke
rib on his right side. The fireman
lay near the engine in the snow, I'M
conscious. I offered help and we
got him into a car. The mail car. one
baggage and one passenger car were
derailed.
Now everything looked worse than
In the morning, starvation again being
the topic, so again Senator Bacon and
Sheriff Atkinson went on a rescue ex-
ped1tlon-again honor to their
"names!"-and later they came back
with big sleigh and two horses. Six
from our sleeper got onto this vehicle
and our idea was to drive south, get
across the Great Northern track at or
near Tilden Junction and board a
train passing there some time in the
evening. 1t was good ten-mile drive
across the prairie against the cold,
sharp wind and we got to Tilden
junction, where the rails of the
Northern Pacific railway cross those
OF the Great Northern railway about
mile ahead in the direction in which
we wanted to go. 1t was our inten-
ton to reach Crookston, or even Grand
Forks, for food and warm shelter.
Three trains Of the G. N. were stuck
in the snow and things commenced to
look blue. We looked. at each other
and tried to cheer each other. The
telegraph man in the lonely building
told US the 6 o'clock was coming on
time and the three trains ahead would
soon dug out of the snow the en- !.
gines had not left the track. Soon
came the welcome train and we fairly
stormed the dining car. About 10 0.
m. we reached Grand Forks.
North Dakota is prohibition state.
and in want of anything to drink
stronger than water or ginger ale, I
took a room with bath and got the
stiffness out of my joints with the !
help Of hot water, applied externally.
AS had to leave my. trunk here on
account of the Canadian revenue /
had to- come back here anyway on
my way to the golden west. II left
early Wednesday morning and got to