The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-12-13

! foreign road and meet those Chicago |
men if | kept on giving the old teapot |
I her maximum speed. OF course. we |
might get ditched, but l figured out that |
if I gave away the situation to anybody
nv career as a railroad man was ended. |
| and possibIy that of a criminal in fine
striped clothes was just opening More
over. the longer 1 thought of it the
surer il seemed to me that the only
chance was to bluff it out / wasn't
sleepy by this time, you can gamble.
| but 7 was near to being a maniac. so
| concluded to let her go Gallagher for
election and take my chances. AS for
the n1illionaires behind me. 1 didn't care
rap. l wanted TO save my own
bacon.
so the fireman kept piling in the
coal and we made fair speed. but the
road was steep and crooked. and / had
to use a lot of steam keeping the whis-
tie sounding most of the time. and this
brought on a rather unexpected compli-
| cation.
s'The conductor had been asleep in
| the express car. as he had also been
forty-eight hours on duty. and expected
to wake uD back at the junction we
had missed so curiously. When he
heard the whistle going he came to in
/ a hurry, and it wasn't long before he
| looked out and took in the situation.
! Then he gave me the bell to stop. but
| l surmised what he was up to and kept
right on He did this five or six times
and then / guess he thought the engine
was running away or l was crazy, so
| he opes forward. climbing over the
back of the tender, the maddest man in
Ohio except myself
"Our line of conversation was inter-
esting and brief. We cussed each ether
as long as we had any breath Then
the conductor demanded to know what
| / was doing on a foreign road 1 told
him TO go chase himself. He evidently
thought l was insane and was con-
WINGED when 1 told him l had my or
ders which he demanded to see. l told
him that if he hadn't been asleep at the
junction he would have his own dupii-
cate This bluff staggered him for
minute, but he came at me, and l saw
he was going to make trouble. Of
course, l hated to do il, but | picked up
a wrench and laid it on where it would
do the most good. That conductor
curled up on the coal and the subse-
quent proceedings interested him no
more Actually, he was only stunned
and was all right in few hours. And
the fireman kept on shoveling without
a word. I had read about those men
whose hair grew gray in a single night,
and l felt sure if I got through with
any hair at all mine would like a great
grandmother | now felt worse than
ever / didn't know but I was muir
derer as well as a piratical explorer,
but. thinks l. there is nothing TO do but
keep her going. and this was getting
worse all the time. especially as / near
ly ran down a mixed milk and passen-
ger accommoda alton, which was fortu-
nateIy near switch, and they got out
of my way in a hurry. while didn't
stop to answer any questions.
MY situation was this: l should have
been at our Mason Junction at )
O'Clock. I could just make Benton
Junction by s. which would be about
the time the eastbound train would ar
rive there.
Il can't dwell on that last twenty
minutes. l had to keep the whistle
screeching TO sound warning, and the
fireman nearly died shoveling, but a few
minutes to 6 / hauled up to the station
at Benton Junction, and a 'more sur
prised lot of railway men you never
saw than were there. The train dis
patcher came down and made for me in
a way that made my heart sink, but my
attention was diverted by a crowd of
newsbays yelling;
EXTRA! THE PRESIDENT AND
ALL THE DIRECTORS OF THE
QUAKER ROAD KILLED. BRIDGE
How my head swan, / thought for
sure l was crazy at last. The train dis
patcher came at me with his face white
as a sheet:
"'Where have you brought this train
from? Have you brought it from -
Then he shook my hands and cried, and
, began to feel myself going.
How did you ever get here, and
why didn't you ask orders?' And
couldn't utter word. / was fairly
5 dragged from the cab into the station
: masters office, and for three minutes
was more dead than alive.
Suddenly the door opened and in
walked our president and directors, and
l thought my day of judgment had
come Then, too my amazement, the
2 president took my hand and said some
2 forget irregular of course, but master
full and stroke of genius, saved all
their lives and caught the train, ETC.,
which 1 could very indistinctly under
D stand But / DO know he took off his
4 gold watch and left it in my hands, and
e they all shook hands with me and
V talked about official action would be
4 taken. gave me some pocketbooks, etc.
I and Just then the Chicago train came
in and the bigwigs of both roads got
2 together, and in a few hours a CONSOLE
g dalton was effected the strike settled
: and. incidentally. a few millions made
5 by the directors. The newspaper story
2 that all our men were dead had helped
D fix things up all around.
Y We'll in a few weeks 1 was a di-
= vision superintendent; the rest of my
D career YOU know"
The men in the car looked at each
I other with feelings of amazement
D mixed with incredulity, but never a
comment The diapason swelled to for
/, tissino Finally, the young superin-
1 tendent could bear it no longer What
2 the answer" he said.
The president looked at him mo-
= ment blankly and suddenly seemed to
D recoIIect something.
. ..Oh. yes" 1 forgot that You see
= the strikers. who knew about the spe-
a ciaI had arranged to dynamite our
train on the middle span of a bridge
t across a swollen river not far beyond
Aberdeen Junction. Well. a coal train
= of a few cars of engine fuel came along
{ and the strikers thodght it was ouI
1 special In one minute that train was
= hnffOTl Of "a river and the