Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 January 1875 — What Might Have Happened. [ARTICLE]

What Might Have Happened.

Through the courtesy of one of our subscribers we are enabled to give the following account of a thrilling occurrence on the line of- the Marquette, Houghton & Ontonagon Railroad, in the copper-mining region at the head of Lake Superior. The letter was written by a young man well known here, formerly in the employ of the New York Central Railroad in this city: ' “'Ontonagon, Dec. 16, 1874. “Dear : There is nothing new to write regarding business. All branches are dull, with no prospect of improvementjbefore spring. But the principal reason for my writing was to tell you what happened to Johnny K . (He used to run on the Central, you remember.) He was pushing one of our big, heavy snow-plows over the road with a sixty-ton engine, such as we have to use here on account of the heavy grades, and had just started down a very long and heavy grade near ‘ Michigamee.’ You know how they have to run. Well, John had just let her out for what she was worth, when, on turning a short curve, he saw, about a quarter of a mile ahead, a four-horse team hitched to a sleigh that was caught in the track somehow. The men in charge seemingly made frantic efforts to get the sleigh loose, but at last gave it up, and, to Johnny’s surprise, they all ran off as hard as they could go across the fields. “ Jack threw her over as soon as they came in sight, but the old thing was going too fast to allow brakes to hold her. Then he opened his whistle and “made her howl.” At that the horses began to get restive and scared, and at last gave a plunge altogether that started the sleigh —just in time for the engine to graze it as it went by—the horses starting off on the run, but were caught by the man in charge. As soon as Johnny stopped he went to find out if any hurt had been done, and you may guess how he felt when he learned that the sleigh was loaded with 800 pounds of nitro-glycer-ine, just from the magazine at Michigamee—enough to start a ycung railroad in the moon if Jack had struck it.” — Rochester Express.