Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1912-02-22
The Ghost Club
Man S Story
BY ROGER N. OLMSTEAD
Copyright by American Press Asso-
citation, 1911.

my present post through every inter
mediate position. One wouldn't sup
pose that a man who had made hi
way by hard work and practica
makeup would be member Of thu
Ghost club, as some persons call thu
Society For Psychical Research. Blu
/ am, and I'm going to tell you wha
started me In that line.
When ! was young fellow my fa
Their wanted me to go to college, but
disgusted him by taking position as
fireman on locomotive. ! had just
learned enough about the machine t.
take the throttle when the civil wal
broke out. and ] enlisted. WhiIo
campaigning In the south we captured
q hundred miles of rnilroad. includ
ing u good supply OF rolling stock. OF
course there was a call for those OF us
who had railroad experience, and
gave in my name AZ an engineer.
did that because was young and am
bilious to run an engine.
! was given q machine at once. This
was more than | wanted, for we had
made some sixty miles Of forced
marches, advancing every hour Of the
night, before we had made the capture.
The consequence was that we were all
dead tired. and as for sleep we'd had
hardly any for several days. We had
come down on a central point where
the rolling stock was kept and used 1t
to capture the terminals on our TANKS.
was ordered to pull train loaded
with regiment Of 800 men on an ex-
petition 10 occupy the eastern termi-
nal, and wasn't permitted to go to
sleep for few hours before starting
either. told Major Twining, who had
been made superintendent. that he had
better send man with me In case |
went to sleep In the cab from sheer in
ability to keep awake. He sent Bob
Stewart. who was to shovel the coal
and be ready to relieve me In case Of
absolute necessity.
We started at dusk to run through a
country, the people of which were all
hostile to us and ready to throw US
OF the track or fire into us whenever
more than II did then pretty risky
business to put man who hadn't had
six hours sleep in forty-eight hours In
charge Of the lives Of 500 men. Be
sides, was young then. and young
persons require more sleep than older
ones. For awhile the danger OF run
ming into distractions was 40 terrible
to me that had no thought OF sleep,
but we had some seventy miles to go
before morning and with the load, the
condition Of the road. the grades and
the locomotive of that date we could
not do more than twenty miles an
hour, and the required stops lessened
that figure.
We had got over seven-eighths Of
the distance when the monotonous pun
Of the engine began to tell on me and
! looked around for Bob. He was not
In the tender. Looking over the ten
der, I saw him lying on top Of the next
car back sound asleep. Thinking II
would be better TO let him get little
rest before calling him. turned again
to the throttle.
! must have gone several miles half
asleep. At any rate. | was reused by
bullets scattering against the sides OF
the cab and hearing fusllnde which
Wis answered by men from the cars,
Realizing that we had struck II nest
OF enemies. pulled her wide open.
and she sprang forward with consid-
cradle speed. Anyway, we got away
from whoever were firing on us. Then
things settled down to the same old Jog
The next thing | knew Rob shook
me and. taking the throttle out OF my
hand, told me To find place to get
some sleep. | preferred to sit on the
seat on the other side OF the cab. |
saw Bob running the engine. looking
as wide awake ms II he hadn't been
doing forced marching, and, rcassured
by the sight, went to sleep. | was
awakened by a touch which sup
posed came from Bob, who wished to
be relieved. didn't see Bob, but |
saw that day was breaking, No one
was at the throttle. No one was In
the cab or the tender. The locomo-
tive's speed had been reduced to n min
imum.
Where was Bob? | had seen him
asleep on top of the car: then he had
relieved me. But where had he gone
since. and how had he come to leav,
the engine without II guide? And who
had awakened me II not he?
We needed water, and rs soon as
came to the next tank pulled up tc
take In some, Colonel Fordick. in com
mand Of the troops was hauling, cam,
forward to ask why we were getting
on so slowly. told him my story anc
asked him to have n search made fol
Bob. He did so, but no Bob was (,
be found. | began to feel kind o.
queer about the whole business.
couldn't stop thinking what had be
come of my assistant and when o
why he had left his post. endangerinl
the lives OF whole regiment
We made the point we were goinl
to before sunrise. and when took tn