Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1908-09-02
Premonitions
Of The Rail

Readers of stories of premonitions
that tell engineers and other train
men that danger hovers over them
may be confident on beginning that
the hero, no matter how dark may be
| the outlook, will come out alive and
covered with more glory than mud or
coal dust.
Old railroaders laugh when they
read the stories, and, like the person
who always reads such yarns in the
magazines and newspapers, know
without going through all the details
that the engineer, conductor, fireman
Or brakeman, whichever he might be,
would save the lives of all the pas
sengers or do something else in the
hero line before the end.
Railroad men do have premonitions,
but the ones that fail to come out as
they do in the story books are mostly
forgotten, and, lacking in dramatic
! interest, are seldom told
| Sandy McNaughton's Premontons.
Old Sandy McNaughton, who has
been driving an engine on a road run
ming out of Chicago for thirty years,
says he has had scores or premon-
| itions, some of which have proved
true, though none of them ever got
his name or his picture ON the first
page of a newspaper as a man who
had been warned by some unseen
agency of danger and by needing the
premonition saved 100 lives
Sure, I have premonitions, and
some of them prove true" declared
SANDY. For instance, in my young
days used to have a premonition
regularly that three days before pay
! day I would be broke and would Dor
row S. of Larry Brannigan, and it al
ways proved true, except when Larry
didn't have five, but as far as ever
being warned before of an accident
that would occur that never has been
one of my long suits.
Eyes, | used to have premonitions
about as regularly as l would have
Indigestion. Whenever I would eat
anything that didn't agree with me
I would have a queer feeling that
warned me that something was going
to happen. My fireman called it a
plain case of being off my feed, the
doctor called it some long names
couldn't pronounce, and called it a
bargain for 50, and the boss called it
cowardice.
Sure a Bridge Was Gone.
'T remember one rainy, blowy, and
cold night. All the day before had
been feeling sort of queer and when
we started it seemed to me that dan
ger was waiting at a certain bridge
on the line. Just before reaching
this bridge there was sharp curve
so that one could not see the bridge
until right on top of it, and the sur
roundings were such that if there had
been wreck there the loss of life
would have been terrible.
Gas we drew nearer and nearer to
the bridge that night the feeling Of
impending disaster kept growing
stronger; it seemed as if I could hear
voice warning me as plainly as if
some one were in the cab talking to
me. So strong did this feeling grow
that just before we reached the bridge
l gave in and slammed on the air.
I'VE came to a stop more suddenly
than carefully; the passengers tumb-
ling out of their berths and landing
in heaps on the floor
BILL Carter, who was brakeman on
the train, had been riding on the
back platform, and when the brake
slammed on he gave an exhibition
of grand and lofty tumbling. When
he came up to the engine with the
rest of the crew and an excited bunch
of passengers to see what was the
matter he was not in the best state
of mind or appearance.
well, 1 had put on the brakes
while still out of sight of the bridge,
but we Slid a ways so that we stopped
right on the edge of it. Al few feet
farther and we would have been
hurled into the chasm, that is, pro-
viding the bridge wasn't there, but it
was there. standing as strong and
pretty as ever, and what Bill said
wasn't nice to hear"
Old Sandy STOPPED and thought for
awhile and then remarked: mo, /
never had a premonition that did me
any good, but there was Stubby
Blount, that worked on the Alton in
SO. Sandy started one of those
stories of premonition that are never
told until after they have come true.
Just Missed Johnstown Flood.
A director of western railroad