The commonwealth., 1914-11-12

| IH| gtaf<ssN%sSx&AvX the one by which
FHf4|kSN@MW should depart.
| EfIfHtHl w w w became aware
EUAmI of small, gray
man sauntering
along by the big engine-a grizzled,
stocky figure of man with a slight
roll in his stride, seemingly engrossed
in his own thoughts. He passed along,
stopped, examined her outlines with
an admiring eye, patted her ponderous
cylinder as one might pet child, and
stood listening to the purr of her
steam. Presently he noticed me, and
strolled over to the truck
| "Ain't she a beauty?" he queried,
| Jerking his thumb in the direction of
the engine.
I remarked that he must have leaned
| from cab in his time, and he nodded
with some pride.
"Yes,'' he said. Il wrestled the re-
| verse-lever and eased the steam into
| the cylinders on one of them for 16
years. Not big girl like that one,
though; there wasn't any like her in
my day. quit in '86"
He relapseA into silence. and I
waited
Excuse me-" I said finally, "but
am waiting for you to tell me about
It,"
About what?" he asked.
/ "Wen. about-your most thrilling
experienced" said.
! Never had any thrills" he said
USED to have lots of hard work and
plenty Of wrecks and very little pay;
but thrills, as you call them, we didn't
pay much attention to.
eve rarely ever got from one end
of the division to another without 60
ing In the ditch.
''One time we got into West Point
about midnight, and the river was out
In the bottoms There used to be an
old wooden drawbridge across the Salt
there that was built like a culvert-
nothing above the stringers but ties
and rails, not even hand-rail
"The Ohio was backed up in the
Salt, chock-full, and there wasn't any
bridge in sight-just black, tapping
| water Old man Morrison and me went
down and set sticks to see how fast
she was rising, and she was crawling
pretty fast.
"'What'll we do?' said the old man.
"'Crcss her, if the bridge is there,
said; and we all climbed on, and I
let 637 walk out on that bridge mighty
slow and careful, with the crew ready
to pile off if she dropped. The bridge
was there, all right, four inches under
water, and we got across.
"Old 637! There was a good old
engine! She knew just as we'll as
horse or dog knows their masters,
and she never went back on me-"
"How did 1 happen to quit? See
these gray hairs? l reckon I got most
Of them one night on old Muldraugh's 8
hill
"You know how the old line winds
in and around that old knob and all
those old wooden trestles. There used
to be nine of them trestles-some
away up in the air, too-built on short
curves; one had a reverse curve in
the trestle itself.
Il was pulling a local freight that
year. and we had quite a BIT Of bust
ness hauling dried apples, tobacco,
sorghum, and such like, and we never
had any schedule except to start out
on-we got back when we could.
"It was about seven o'clock of a
summer evening, quiet and peaceful,
the fireman standing in the gangway
enjoying the breeze; everybody feeling
comfortable.
Down around the hill we bowled
over the trestles, and around the rocky
points. was thinking about supper
and a smoke on my back porch at
home when we came out of short
curve in shallow cut and out onto
one of those hundred-foot high bridges
and my breath stopped. About the
middle, the bridge was burned In two
'It took me a second to pull q
screech for brakes. The fireman
jumped before we had hardly left
the embankment, and wasn't hurt
The rest Of the crew got of.
"As for me and 637. we were out
in the air; behind us, loaded train
showing too hard to be stopped; be
fore us, a gap i'll the trestle, where
for three or four feet everything was
gone but the rails. When l saw how
| it stood, l got up ana tnre" her lntt
the forward like q maniac-1 guess
was crazy.
Then 1 gave her steam, and VIZ
!, | jerked away from the train like
, horse when you cut it with the whip
Then, when we reached the gap,
pulled her wide open, and she tool
it like a hunted deer. She sh1veres
one instant, settled, and sunk-the1
she rose and leaped, sir, she leape'
. across, and we went out on the firm
, track beyond.
!. The rest of the train went through
, the box cars dropping and crashing
end over end, to the valley below
and the farmers used them for kin
ding wood afterward.
Il took my engine in and resigned
, y-houon.t heon fn a cah since"