Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1916-03-24
TOOK AWAY HIS NERVE
RAILROAD MAN TELLS WHY HE
QUIT THE BUSINESS.
frightfuI Accident Averted Only by a
Lucky Chance Gave Him Dis
taste for the Work Which He
Could Not Overcome.

The little group at the club were
discussing the part that chance plays
in our lives. Anecdote followed anec-
dote, and at last someone said to
Weldon the great banker, who hap
pened to be one of the party;
81 have often heard you speak of
the time when you were railroad
man. Was it chance that led you to
give it up?'
tits rather a long story" replied
the banker but it falls in so pat with
our conversation that | think I'll tell
it.
81 was very proud of my promotion
to be dispatcher at Wnsor, for l got
it after less than year at the tele-
graph key Winsor was a thriving
little city, with some factories and a
lively distributing trade, and the yards
were always busy There was a pine
barren west of us, almost without a
house for fifteen miles of upgrade;
and | had to give trains their orders
clear through to where the coal lands
began, at Gridley. twenty-five miles
away. There was a turpentine camp
halfway between, called Porter's, and
a long siding; but there wasn't an
other agent or telegrapher, and this,
you know. was before the days of
double tracks or automatic block sig
nails.
Things went smoothly at first.
had already met few nice people at
Winsor, and the train crews were all
friendly The chief dispatcher, Har-
mon, at division headquarters a hun.
bred miles down the line, helped me
all he could, too
"One black May night he called me
at about eleven. Tell Bryan to take
Porter's siding and let McCluskey by
with an extra coal train was his mes.
sage So | set my light red against
Bryan's train, the night freight west,
ward, and soon heard it come slowly
into the yard. | had the order all
ready for Bryan, the conductor, to
take and sign for; and | waited there
rather impatiently while the engineer
made up his train. Harmon called
me: Have you got Bryan's sigma
ture?
mo, they're still drilling cars
wired back.
Finally the train came slowly ur
toward my window. | picked up the
orde~s, but was surprised to hear the
sudden clank and jerk as the engineer
pulled out the throttle He's got cars
to drill in the upper yard thought
So I ran out and waited for the ca
boose lights to appear Maybe Bryan
will be on the steps, thought |; and
held the orders up as the caboose ap
preached, Not soul there! AS thu
caboose flew by, shrieked; / ran af
ter it; stopped for a stone to thow
lost my balance, and fell while the
train went out with ever-increasinf
speed into the black pine wilderness.
Stunned and bruised, | picked my
self up and ran to my key. Order on
the wrecker! telegraphed Harmon
| Bryan left against block without stop
ping
Gentlemen, you can imagine thu
next hour in that quiet lonely littl,
room. A score of times | saw tina
heavy coal train coming down thu
grade out of the mountains and plump
ing head-on into the climbing wa!
freight. Why / didn't take to thu
woods, | don't know. got up t
run dozen times, but something hell
me to my key.
Suddenly I heard a whistle 'Th,
wrecker!' / said to myself; but I'll
too soon for that, and it's the wronl
direction. That's toward Porter's
Thank God. 1t must be Bryans traiI
backing in leaned far out of thu
! window; there was the blaze of ;