Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 January 1911 — ENGINE IS HIS LIFE [ARTICLE]

ENGINE IS HIS LIFE

VETERAN ENTHUBES OVER HIB ' LOCOMOTIVE. ’ Only. When Hand Is on the Reverse Bar, He Says, Does He Really Feel Existence Is Worth ’ Having. Seeing the sights here the other day was a veteran engineer who at the age of fifty-six has been serving on express trains for 20 years, says a writer in the Chicago Post. To the question, “How does it feel to run a mile-a-mlnute train?” he answered: “Feel? Man, that’s the only time I live. When I climb up on the high seat, jam my cap over my eyes and reach for the reverse bar I’m not the man you see now. I’ve fed on the excitement so long that I’m a fiend for it how —a regular ‘speed dope.’ Many a night I’ve driven my train —and made time, too —when it was snowing so hard I’d have to rim ahead while we were taking water to see if the headlight was still burning. My ‘smoke’ and I couldn’t tell it from the cab—nothing ahead but a wall of black. Sometimes we wouldn’t know we were moving, except for the tossing of the engine on the track. “Did you know that an engine has a heart?” he rambled'on. “You’ve seen a doctor feel a patient’s pulse wjjen he wants to find out what’s the matter with his works? Well, that's the way we do it, too. When we rush through the black night, maybe with death just around the next curve, we don’t just sit with our bands‘~on the throttle, as the engineers do in the story books. Reverse bar, that’s it. Reverse Bar, Engine’s Heart. “The reverse bar’s the engine’s heart. We never let our fingers off It. It beats with the engine’s life and when anything’s wrong it beats fast or slow or it Jumps a beat, like an old guy’s heart. Then we know, we shut off steam and climb down tp see.” “Is it true that engines vary and men get attached to different ones?”, “True? Course it's true. Engines are just like women—some are contrary all the time and some are agreeable all the time. Some smile and then put poison in your coffee. Some you beat and some you kiss. My old 39 —latest type, biggest made, one o’ three —why, I’m married to her and I wouldn’t give her up for half my pay. I’ve had her three years now. When she goes I’ll go too.” “Don’t you feel the responsibility when you’re pulling a trainload of passengers?” Talks Up to the “Old Man.” “That’s what ‘the old man’ asked me once. ‘I never stopped to think of it,’ I answered him. “ ‘What’?’ he yelled, jumping up and banging down his fist. ‘You didn’t? And why didn’t you?’ ““Cause if I did I’d go crazy,’ I told him. ‘There’s only me and my “smoke” in sight, and when we’re running through fog or storm or snow I look across at where he’s shoveling coal, calm like, and say to myself. There’s only yon and Danny here. Danny is going ahead with his work. Now you’re going to do ,the same, and you ain’t going to think about anything else. You’re going to bring yourself and Danny through, and If you two come through the rest will follow.’ ” Has Killed Seven. “Did you ever kill anybody?” The engineer stopped and counted slowly on his fingers. “Seven,” he said. “And sometimes I dream about them—one in particular—a woman. She stepped right in front of us from behind a freight. I reversed and drew the air, but it didn’t do any good, and we cut her down as I looked. 11l never forget It. “I could retire tomorrow if I wanted to and draw a pension until I die. In 14 years I’ll have to quit, if I last that long. I know I won’t last long afterward.” The interstate commerce act will not allow the engineer of an express train to work more than 16 days in afiy one month, the engineer explained. He had worked his allotment of days early in the month and was enjoying a vacation in Chicago at the road’s expense.