The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1915-06-18
ENDOWED WITH LIFE?
OLD ENGINEER HAS IDEA ABOUT
LOCOMOTIVES.
Study Of Telepathy Convinced Him
That His Notions When He Was
Handling the Levers Were
Pretty Nearly Correct.

After 80 years at the throttle in the
service OF one of the great trunk lines
going out of New York, Sylvester p.
Ames, locomotive engineer, retired re-
Gently and prepared himself to loaf
away the remainder of his life.
He found it impossible to loaf, how
ever, and yearned for a hobby or some
thing else that would compensate him
for the loss of rattle and roar SO long
gested a study Of telepathy, III which
he was deeply e%ngrossed. Ex-Engi-
neer Ames ooh the tip. went to the
New York public library, surrounded
himself with the works of Lodge and
Pedmore and other kindred authors
and soon became known as a ~telepath.
ic fan"
The other evening an old-time friend
called at the Ames fiat in Brooklyn
and thought to spend an hour or two
In a game OF cribbage, Of which the
old engineer was at n time very
fond. No use. Ames was surrounded
by a wall Of books covering the subject
OF thought t~ransference, h%allucina-
lions, haunted houses and phantasms.
The visitor touched on old times on
the railroad, hoping to get Ames way
from the spirits. He got him away
but in an odd fashion. The old engi-
neer closed up his books and turned
to his friend with the following:
DO you know, Bill, since I been
studying these telepathy books I'm
more'n ever convinced that locomo-
tives are alive the same as We are
alive. always had a notion that way,
but I used to keep it to myself for
fear that folks would laugh. But
when / read the statements of rep
utable people who've seen ghosts, and
One in particular where a lady's pet
mare let her know by a vision that a
hOof, l feel certain that inanimate
things as we'll as animate things think
and feel. .e.pse.
when l was running the old S26
/ often noticed that just before we met
and passed the 627 my locomotive
would act in a peculiar way. She
wouldn't run SO steady. Sort of nerv-
GUS in her drivers. She and the S27
were turned out Of the shop the same
day and they were put on the same
run, only working in opposite direc-
tiOns.
$50, as ! tell you, whenever I, on
the S26, neared the 1927 coming the
opposite way | noticed a queer culver
all through her. When we got within
a quarter Of a mile Of each other the
826 Kissed and chugged a blame sight
moren she ought to and so it kept up
till we had passed each other. when
my locomotive settled down to her reg
ular common-sense average way Of
behaving.
Il know now, since I've read these
books. that S26 was just sending q
message to 1927 through space. re-
member / wrote a letter to Pete Riley,
the man who ran 1927. asking him-of
course in a joking way, as | didn't
. to be joshed-if 827 acted queer
on him at any time. He answered me.
M sure as YOU live, he declared that
S27 acted like an old fool dummy or
switch engine whenever he neared and
tassed me on the line. Without q
doubt these locomotives we're CON-
municating with each other.
Yes. sir. the books make a lot Of
things plain that just seemed unex-
rlainably queer In the old days. 1 re-
call that whenever on q stormy nixht
old 826 pulled 10 into the terminal
right on the tick Of the clock 40 per
timetable. I uasd to swell up with