The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1914-07-16
THE
LIMIT
An Engineers Ride For Life
and Lives
BY JARED L. FULLER
Copyright by Frank A. Munsey Co.

| Pug Donaldson, who had been the
roundhouse foreman so long that he
thought he owned the entire system,
gave out his opinion of Lannigan at
the end of the latter's first week on
the M. and s. P. And this was 1t:
"That Grandfather Longlegs never II
get to hold down a passenger lever on
| this road, whatever he's done back
east. 1t amt in him."
Then the old man chaiked up the
limit ON the side Of his little smoke dis.
colored Office, spat with emphasis and
well, that closed the subject as far
as Pug was concerned.
| reckon If Lannigan hadn't begun
| by blowing about his eastern record
he'd made more of hit with us.
He was tall, awkwardly built man
with shock Of sandy hair and q
arms were remarkably long and thin
and old Donaldson's sobriQuet stuck
to him. Daddy Longlegs" seemed
to fit.
Lannigan got freight, and the worst
bunch Of scrap iron on the road, which
in moments of enthusiasm, Pug called
an engine If there was any man hand.
icapped in the race to break the limit
it was the new man from the land of
tenderfeet
The system of advancement follow.
ed by the NJ. and s. P. did not include
length of service or pull" Just one
thing counted-the ability Of a driver
to get speed out Of his machine over
the worst track the law ever allowed
man to lay.
| The country was new when the NJ
and S. p. was surveyed and laid down
1t had been a race between the M. and
s. p. and another corporation to see
which should reach the terminating
town where connection could be made
with the Pacific road first.
We won, but at a cost which Grip
pied the road financially for years, and
the renewing of the first roadbed was
a slow and laborious job.
/ We ran one fast passenger-the Lin.
tied. The through mail cars were at.
" tHdt lOO.
1t was a continual fight all through
the year to keep that one train alone
| up to the schedule called for by the
contract with the government.
Ii any man on any other train show
ed the ability to get speed out of his
engine he was watched, and If he
"broke the limit" he stood good
chance Of displacing the driver then
running the mail train.
The M. and S. P. in those days was
a farmers railroad" Most of the
| way stations were merely huts and wa.
ter tanks in forest clearings, tapping a
certain section of farming country
stretching westward of the line.
Lannigan had been with us since the
winter before. He was a good driver
but not brilliant. Anybody but a pref
udiced old fool like Donaldson would
have recognized his good points, but
you never could stir the roundhouse
foreman when he'd once made up bis
mind.
Lannigan had learned the road and
his engine. If he followed another
train he was on its heels all the time
and got himself well cursed for it.
Some Of US began to see that there
really was more to the eastern man
than we had believed
That fall was dry. the sun and wind
all day and every day drying the SAP
out of the trees and brush and burning
the leaves brown before the frost could
make them pretty.
BY and by the inevitable happened
Fires began to light up the heavens
nightly, and by day streaks Of blue
smoke hid the tops of the higher hills
Reports reached US from all direc
tons of families burned out and set
Elements threatened. but for weeb
the confagrations kept away from the
line of the road.
Then suddenly one Sunday morning
a food of fire swooped down the noun
tain side and crossed the tracks some
miles south of Yardsley.
The Limited came through somewhat
scorched, and the next day traffic or
the road between Lattell and the juno
ton was cut off altogether.
This shut Off several settlements as
well as Yardsley, except by telegraph
The wires were still working. and oul
operators stuck to their posts like the
brave fellows they were.
Pretty near every living soul in {
hundred square miles Of territory Iii
out for less dangerous ground. Blu
Yardsley was caught mapping, and 1t.
300 people were practically hemmed il
by the fiercest forest FIRE the state ha(
ever experienced
The entire system Of the M. and s. P
was pretty well tied up. We had pull
ed freight as near the fire line as W,
dared, and the sidetracks were abou
full Of waiting cars.
The fire was still burning fiercely be
side the roadbed In more than on,
place. and We weren't asked 10 try I,
pull train through to the junction.
Naturally there were plenty OF loco
motives and plenty of drivers AT Lat
tell that day when the news came from