Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 November 1891 — THE FATAL BRIDGE AT ATTICA. [ARTICLE]

THE FATAL BRIDGE AT ATTICA.

The Reward That Came for Saving the lift ofaGreen Brakeman. Argentine (Kan.) Republic. “I don’t beliove a good action evei goes unrewarded," said an old railroad man the other day to the writer. “Out with it then." ‘‘Out with what?" “Why, your little honest confession, of course.’ 1^ “Well, about twenty years ago 1 was shoveling black'diamonds to boil the water in a locomotive on the Wabash railway between Lafayette, lad., and Danville, 111. Near Attica Ind., there was an overhead wagoq bridge across the track that had killed no less than five brakemen in I four years; and one dark stormy i night, in coming down the hill. J, j happened to remember that we had a green brakeman ahead who was unacquainted with the road. 1 spoke to the engineer about it, but he said “Oh. let him go; he’s all right.” Bui I didn’t feel like letting a fellow mortal take any such chances, and started back over the train, crawling from car to ear in the Egyptian darkness, and came near being blown ofl several4ame, as it was blowing great guns, and old No. 53 was fanning that train fifty miles per hour down ; the summit. Bdck twelve ears from i the engine I found “Brakesv,” who was as tall, handsome a young man as you could find in a thousand, and he was twisting up the slack of those brake chains with neatness and des- j patchjjwhile the wheels made a regular torchlight procession along the rails. He was badly scared when he first discovered me, by the light of his old glim crawling along the running board, with my face as black as the ace of spades from the dusty diamonds. “Sit down! Sit down!” I cried, so -loud-.that I almost imagined the whistle waS sounding for Attica; and down he sat so hard and quick that he bit his tongue, and the next moment we blew under the bridge, while his lamp seemed to burn brighter as it disclosed those heavy timbers over our heads that killed many poor brakemen. He camq near fainting when he clasped my hand, and we sat for several moments on the wet deck of the car, and neither of us spoke a single word, but wo were as white around thu gills as the ghost of Hamlet’s father. “Six years afterward I was in Fort Wayne, Ind., at the Wabash depot, one morning, the most disconsolate: man on God’s green earth. I had been hurt on the road several years before, was unable to work, and was trying to get back home to old La-, fayette, Ind., as I thought, to die. I was hungry and tired, and didn’t have a cent in the world, and to seq people step up to the lunch-counter and call for hot coffee that was smelt ling to heaven was enough to set q poor, flat-broke invalid crazy. I had begun to think that all my friends had been conveniently translated bodily from earth to heaven, when % tall, handsome conductor, with a silver lamp and gold-banded cap, ap-i proached me and inquired: “ ‘Didn’t- you fire an fengine about five years ago on the western division of the Wabash?* “ ‘Yes,’ I replied, ‘and it was a sorry day that I ever went to railroading.'

“ ‘Do you recognize me?’ “ ‘iSfo, sir;’ and yet I thought hia faco Kog-<n to assume the angelic. “‘Well I will r freh your memory. Do you recollect of risking your life one dark, storjny night in crawling over a freight train to wara a green brkeman about a dangerous overhead bridge below Attica?’ , “ ‘y 0 u bet 1 dol Bulf you're not Billy, the brakeman?’ *' ‘No, sir! No more Billy in mine; it's Will—sweet Will—the conductor on the through passenger,’ and he broke out into a musical laugh that nearly rattled the dishes on the lunch counter. “Thp tears came eyes in spite of me, for I was weak, weary and heartsick. He noticed them, and, clasping my hand, said, in sweetest words that ever fell on mortal ears: “ ‘Come, come! Shut her off and oiljthe valves,’ and he lead me to a stool at the lunch-counter and said:

“Now, you sit here and fill up. Let a few biscuits hit the chair and you will be all right again.’ “He stepped into the dispatcher’s office to get his orders while I poured down coffee that would discount the nectar of the gods. He appealed in abort t ten niinutcs and said, ‘All aboard for Lafayette,’ took me byAhe arm and led hue to a coach, and then stepped back to the platform and waved his moss agate at the engineer. I curled up in the seat when the train started to hide the tears that kept welling up in my eyes, and for the first time in twenty long years I could have cried like a baby. I believe in a special providence since that terrible night and the morning I was heart-broken; and Bill—the sweetest Will on earth—is still pulling a bell-cord in the var nished cars on the old Wabash."

An Englishman, who has be i> traveling in J- Iberia, says that t' I life of the Russian exiles there is no so hard as has been depicted. Tir j enjoy society, indulge in fancy dre 1 buiis and nave a good time generally —but with limitations.

Crematiou is very economical!) conducted in Japan, and in conso quence is guite popular. InTolck there are six crematories, in whiclt one-third of the dead are burned The highest price for burning a bod) is £1 and the lowest 5