Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 204, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 August 1911 — HAD “FUN” WITH ENGINEER [ARTICLE]

HAD “FUN” WITH ENGINEER

Veteran of the Rail Telia of Mean Trick That a Woman. Once Play on Him. "About the meanest thing that ever happened to me," said a veteran engineer in conversation the other day, “was when a woman walking ahead of the train refused to leave the track. I made the whistle shriek Its best* and when she gave no attention I put on all brakes, reversed the supposing she was-deaf. I succeeded in stopping within a few feet of herand then she calmly left the track, turned about and kisded her hand to me. Now, wouldn’t that jar you some? As she was a woman I didn’t say tocher precisely what I thought. . “A curious and really amusing incident, as there was no tragedy In It,, happened to me once at one of the country crossings In Ohio. It was'SLv passenger train that time and we were making full speed on schedule! I saw a buggy tolling ..along the road at a good gait and experience .was enough to tell me that If we each kept going at- that rate the buggy would reach the .tracks just in time= for a head-on ruction with the engine. I whistled for the dear lives of theother persons, and possibly something. . for my own, as you never knew what havoc even a little bit of obstruction may work. They kept their speed and I put on all breaks and reversed the lever. A man walking in the highwaywaved his arms and even stood in thepath of the spirited steed drawing the buggy, but there was no halt on part of the lively couple. It was Impossible for me to make a complete stop on my side of the unprotected grade crossing, but my engine wah going quite slow as it reached the horse.. “The afilmal wisely whirled short away from the pilot, but the steamchest caught the front wheels of the buggy and tore them away. The horse fell in' its mad whirl. The young woman pitched over the splash board and sat more or less gracefully exactly astride of the crosstree, or single tree, or whatever you call It. The man was pitched out to one side, but neither woman, man nor horse was injured except by the natural fright As It turned out, they were on eloping; young couple from the Pennsylvania side, and they were too much engrossed sh their own get-away to carefor railway trains or even cyclones.”