Danger Signals - Remarkable, Exciting and Unique Examples of the Bravery, Daring and Stoicism in the Midst of Danger of Train Dispatchers and Railroad Engineers

John A.Brady Hill, John A. Hill, Jasper Ewing Brady

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• Publié par: astoo
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 33
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

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Project Gutenberg's Danger Signals, by John A. Hill and Jasper Ewing Brady
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Title: Danger Signals
Remarkable, Exciting and Unique Examples of the Bravery,
Daring and Stoicism in the Midst of Danger of Train
Dispatchers and Railroad Engineers
Author: John A. Hill and Jasper Ewing Brady
Release Date: August 8, 2006 [EBook #19007]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DANGER SIGNALS ***
Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net"Quick as a flash the Kid had my arm."
DANGER SIGNALS
REMARKABLE, EXCITING AND UNIQUE
EXAMPLES OF THE BRAVERY, DAR-
ING AND STOICISM IN THE
MIDST OF DANGER OF
Train Dispatchers And Railroad Engineers
BY
JOHN A. HILL
and
JASPER EWING BRADYAbsorbing Stories of Men with Nerves of Steel,
Indomitable Courage and
Wonderful Endurance
FULLY ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO
JAMIESON-HIGGINS CO.
1902
Copyright 1898, 1899
By S. S. McClure Co.
Copyright 1899
By Doubleday & McClure Co.
Copyright 1900
By Jamieson-Higgins Co.
Contents
Part I
Jim Wainright's Kid 7
An Engineer's Christmas Story 37
The Clean Man And The Dirty Angels 59
A Peg-Legged Romance 77
My Lady Of The Eyes 99
Some Freaks Of Fate 152
Mormon Joe, The Robber 193
A Midsummer Night's Trip 229
The Polar Zone 255
Part II
I Learning The Business—My First Office 1
II An Encounter With Train Robbers 11
III In A Wreck 19
IV A Woman Operator Who Saved A Train 25
V A Night Office In Texas—A Stuttering Despatcher 33
VI Blue Field, Arizona, And An Indian Scrimmage 42Taking A Whirl At Commercial Work—My First Attempt—The
VII 52
Galveston Fire
Sending A Message Perforce—Recognizing An Old Friend By His
VIII 62
Stuff
IX Bill Bradley, Gambler And Gentleman 68
X The Death Of Jim Cartwright—Chased Off A Wire By A Woman 80
Witnessing A Marriage By Wire—Beating A Pool Room—SparringXI 87
At Range
XII How A Smart Operator Was Squelched—The Galveston Flood 96
XIII Sending My First Order 105
XIV Running Trains By Telegraph—How It Is Done 111
XV An Old Despatcher's Mistake—My First Trick 125
XVI A General Strike—A Locomotive Engineer For A Day 137
XVII Chief Despatcher—An Inspection Tour—Big River Wreck 147
XVIII A Promotion By Favor And Its Results 160
Jacking Up A Negligent Operator—A Convict Operator—Dick, TheXIX 168
Plucky Call Boy
XX An Episode Of Sentiment 185
XXI The Military Operator—A Fake Report That Nearly Caused Trouble 192
XXII Private Dennis Hogan, Hero 203
XXIII The Commission Won—In A General Strike 222
XXIV Experiences As A Government Censor Of Telegraph 237
XXV More Censorship 246
XXVI Censorship Concluded 257
XXVII Conclusion 270
Illustrations
Part I
"Quick as a flash the Kid had my arm." Frontispiece
"I noticed his long, slim hand on the top of the reverse-lever." 50
"It was a strange courting ... there on that engine." 70
"We carried him into the depot." 90
"He was the first man I ever killed." 170
"'Mexican,' said I." 234
"What seemed to be a giant iceberg...." 282
"A white city ... was visible for an instant." 290
Part II
Facsimile Of A Completed Order As Entered In The Despatcher's Order-
1Book
"Two of the men tied my hands in front of me." 14
"After many efforts I finally reached the lowest cross-arm." 30
"One of them picked up the lantern, and swaggering over to where I sat all"One of them picked up the lantern, and swaggering over to where I sat all
46
trembling...."
"He looked at me ... then catching me by the collar...." 95
"... Half lying on the table, face downward, dead by his own hand" 128
"See here, who is going to pull this train?" 158
"Are you not doing it just because I am a woman?" 190
"... Dennis, lying under the telegraph line, his left hand still grasped the
222
instrument"
DANGER SIGNALS.
Part I.
7
JIM WAINRIGHT'S KID
As I put down my name and the number of the crack engine of America—as
well as the imprint of a greasy thumb—on the register of our roundhouse last
Saturday night, the foreman borrowed a chew of my fireman's fine-cut, and said
to me:
"John, that old feller that's putting on the new injectors wants to see you."
"What does he want, Jack?" said I. "I don't remember to have seen him, and I'll
tell you right now that the old squirts on the 411 are good enough for me—I ain't
got time to monkey with new-fangled injectors on that run."
"Why, he says he knowed you out West fifteen years ago."
"So! What kind o' looking chap is he?"
8"Youngish face, John; but hair and whiskers as white as snow. Sorry-looking
rooster—seems like he's lost all his friends on earth, and wa'n't jest sure where
to find 'em in the next world."
"I can't imagine who it would be. Let's see—'Lige Clark, he's dead; Dick
Bellinger, Hank Baldwin, Jim Karr, Dave Keller, Bill Parr—can't be none of
them. What's his name?"
"Winthrop—no, Wetherson—no, lemme see—why, no—no, Wainright; that's it,
Wainright; J. E. Wainright."
"Jim Wainright!" says I, "Jim Wainright! I haven't heard a word of him for years
—thought he was dead; but he's a young fellow compared to me."
"Well, he don't look it," said Jack.
After supper I went up to the hotel and asked for J. E. Wainright.
Maybe you think Jim and I didn't go over the history of the "front." "Out at the
front" is the pioneer's ideal of railroad life. To a man who has put in a few years
there the memory of it is like the memory of marches, skirmishes, and battles in9the mind of the veteran soldier. I guess we started at the lowest numbered
engine on the road, and gossiped about each and every crew. We had finished
the list of engineers and had fairly started on the firemen when a thought struck
me, and I said:
"Oh, I forgot him, Jim—the 'Kid,' your cheery little cricket of a firesy, who thought
Jim Wainright the only man on the road that could run an engine right. I
remember he wouldn't take a job running switcher—said a man that didn't know
that firing for Jim Wainright was a better job than running was crazy. What's
become of him? Running, I suppose?"
Jim Wainright put his hand up to his eyes for a minute, and his voice was a little
husky as he said:
"No, John, the Kid went away—"
"Went away?"
"Yes, across the Great Divide—dead."
"That's tough," said I, for I saw Jim felt bad. "The Kid and you were like two
brothers."
10"John, I loved the—"
Then Jim broke down. He got his hat and coat, and said:
"John, let's get out into the air—I feel all choked up here; and I'll tell you a
strange, true story—the Kid's story."
As we got out of the crowd and into Boston Common, Jim told his story, and
here it is, just as I remember it—and I'm not bad at remembering.
"I'll commence at the beginning, John, so that you will understand. It's a strange
story, but when I get through you'll recall enough yourself to prove its truth.
"Before I went beyond the Mississippi and under the shadows of the Rocky
Mountains, I fired, and was promoted, on a prairie road in the Great Basin well
known in the railway world. I was much like the rest of the boys until I
commenced to try to get up a substitute for the link motion. I read an article in a
scientific paper from the pen of a jackass who showed a Corliss engine card,
and then blackguarded the railroad mechanics of America for being satisfied
11with the link because it was handy. I started in to design a motion to make a
card, but—well, you know how good-for-nothing those things are to pull loads
with.
"After my first attempt, I put in many nights making a wooden model for the
Patent Office. I was subsequently informed that the child of my brain interfered
with about ten other motions. Then I commenced to think—which I ought to
have done before. I went to studying what had been done, and soon came to
the conclusion that I just knew a little—about enough to get along running. I
gave up hope of being an inventor and a benefactor of mankind, but study had
awakened in me the desire for improvement; and after considerable thought I
came to the conclusion that the best thing I could do was to try to be the best
runner on the road, just as a starter. In reality, in my inmost soul, my highest
ideal was the master mechanic's position.
"I was about twenty-five years old, and had be