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Show 7 SEE HOODOO IN CAT BUY ALL THEIR EQUIPMENT Satisfactory Reason Why the ENGINEERS OREAD TO SEE MAL CROSS TRACK. ANI- Especially if It la Black Is It Regarded as a Sure Sign of Coming Disaster Some Other The engineer and fireman are the firmest believer in the dangers of a black cat trussing the track in front of an engine. of the number 13 and its of combinations, wrecks lurking near haunted places along the truck where some previous disaster occurred, say the Kansas City Times. And the list of beliefs rims on almost without end. Idle spent in the engine cab tends to develop the abnormal and imaginative in a man. A constant tension of the nervous system enforced by a rigid attention to duty, a prolonged absenee of speech made neeessary by the deafening roar of steam and grinding of brakes, the endless monotony of the track unwinding like a pair of ribbons broken now and then by a aharp curve and around which may lurk an unforeseen peril; all this counts in a man's mental training. The number 13 i the most ancient of railroad superstitions. Trainmen often refuse to take out a train of 13 cars. But the thirteenth day of the month holds no terror for them unless connected with another 13; strangely enough, Friday, the thirteenth, is the same as any other day. But to take out engine SI 3 on the thirteenth of the month is suicidal. To take out an engine or caboose on that day whose number adds up 13. as 85 or 292, is equally desperate. Some men bear the terrible record that brands them as hoodoos. They may be good, Jolly fellows, and rail- readers will cheerfully meet them anywhere except on a train or on an engine. Here their past records prove them lightning conductors of disaster. The most widely known of these unfortunates of superstition is an engineer on the Chicago & Alton. Mr. never suffers himself, but more than 20 have died on the pilots of engines of which he held the throttle. acIn September, 19u7, Wabash commodation, running from Moberly to St. Louis, crashed into an open switch at Mexico, Mo and killed three. Aa D. B. Taylor, the fireman, waa dragged out from beneath hla engine, he aald; 1 saw a black cat run across the track Just as we pulled out of the yards. I said something would happen. but the fellows all laughed at me. Thus has the hoodoo of the black cat, almost forgotten by railroad men, revived. Perhaps the most widely known tangible hoodoo west of the Mississippi river is nil engine. Every few months a headline says; No. 847 Kills Another." This engine belongs to the Wabash and more than 25 men have been killed either in its cab nr in roaches which it pulled. A mechanic in the repair Bhop told me that in repairs and damage suits it had cost the company enough to buy two engines of like make, and he said it earnestly and had computed the cost with effort. No. 847 came to the Moberly. Mo., division wltb 15 fatalities to its credit there. It is said that the reason it was transferred was that railroad men on the eastern division refused to run it. Shortly after its wreck at Thompson, Mo., October 26, 1907. in which four were killed, a number of railroaders tried to form an anti-84club," the purpose of which was to boycott the hoodoo engine off the division. The scheme failed and now the man killer, as its homicidal nickname stands, runs regularly between Moberly and Kansas City. rTl 7 The Wreckmaster. When a wreck blocks the line the wreckmaster is the biggest man on the railroad," writes Thaddeus 8. Dayton An express car In Harper's Weekly. up toward the forward end of the passenger train is tilted tremblingly on Its trucks. It is loaded with bales of silk, perhaps, or with other costly merchandise. The wreckers do not stop to inquire. To them it Is simply an obstruction that has to be removed immediately. There is a heaving chorus and it plunge down the emhankuient. As it lands there is a crash of discordant. tortured strings. Pianos. remarks one of the punting workmen to another standing at his shoulder. They do not pause even to grin." Veteran Engineer. William It. Alford, the dean of the engineers on the Pennsylvania lines, is probably the oldest railroad engineer In the United States in point of continuous service. He has an efficiency record it would be difficult to equal. He baa been continuously at the throttle since 1862 and will, in three years, celebrate his fiftieth anniversary as an engineer. Japanest Lins Completed. the last section of the Kyushu railroad, the Grand Trunk line of Japan has been completed from Sapporo on the north to Kagoshima on the south, a distance By the opening of of 1,300 miles. The first part of this a line to lie thrown open was the section, which began to carry passengers and goods In 1873. Tokyo-Yokoham- Rail- - When a railroad company is formed and starts to railroading preparations it buy its right of way, pays for the grading and filling of the line, buys its ballasting material and with these it builds its traek. All this has been the railroad's doing, after having bought everything virtually that enters into the roadbed. Thereafter most of the railroads in the total Suu.nOO miles of reads in the I'nited States set out to buy their equipment from manufacturers making railroad rolling stock and incidencome tal appliances. complete and new from the builders of Htuiidard type locomotives. Car companies building cars to order are making day coaches and parlor cars, while for the most part one sleeping car company is manufacturing the sleeping cars for rent to the reads using them. Some one lias said that 1,500.066 men are working for these railroad company supply materials, ranging from a l.'iiMun locomotive down to the brake shoe which grinds Its life out against ear wheels In the endeavor to slow them down or to stop the wheels altogether. In the car shops of the country, where probably 506,000 men are employed, the railroad company may repair" almost anything it has had to purchase in the markets of the manufacturers, but few of the largest of these companies build and their own rolling stork. One of the great reasons for the railroads not building their own equipment comes from patent device which have money enough back of them to force even rich Infringer to keep their hands off. ir TUB RIOT) roade Do Not Conetruct Material for Themeelvee. ROBERT U1 aves y. RENNET mlthj immmnjww rrr(r r ac cw SYNOPSIS. Th story ojiaua witli tlm shipwreck of the sieunior uu wliirli litas (Isnsrteve sit Aiiierli'sn heiress, lord sn Knslisluuan, sntl Turn Rlske, s brusque Aniaru-sn- . were passengers. The liiree wi-r- e tusst-- j upon an uninhabited island and were the only ours not drowned. Risks riHoverml from a drunken stupor, ltleke, shunned on ths hunt. bucuuH of tits roushnusa. became a hero tut preserver of ili helpless pair. Tlie Kiiglnihnikn was suing fur the hand of Miss Make started to swim back to the- ship to recover wliat was left. Tllaki- returned sufi-ly- . Wliitlirui wasted ItiKl lus nistcii cm II cigarette, for which lie wait scored hy Make. Their (tint ineal was a dead Hull. Tim trio started a ten milt hike for higher land. Thirst atto tacked them. Make was compelled rurry Miss l.exliu on account of wearl-iiusenHe taunted Wintbrups. They tered the Jungle. CHAPTER V- - Continued. "You'd find those thorns a whole lot worse," muttered lllaka. To be sure; and Miss Leslie fully appreciates your kindness," interposed Wln-thrup- e, . h. Winthrope. 1 do indeed, Mr. liluke! I'm sure 1 never could go through here without your coat." That's all rlgbt. Got the handker- chief?" I put it in one of the pockets. it'll do to tie up your hair. Miss Leslie took the suggestion, knotting tlie big square of linen over her fluffy brown hair. Blake waited only fur her to draw out the kerchief before be began to force a way through tbe jungle. Now and then he beat at the tangled vegetation with his club. Though be held to the line by which he had left the to wreck sometimes upset the most thicket, yet all his efforts failed others. tbe for an wreck-maste- r passage open easy Iron.llf.m,d. 0nce the Many of the thorny branches sprang on his arrival, noticed a bareheaded back into place behind him, and as coal-dus- t man in overalls, covered with Miss Leslie, who was the first to foland blood, sitting beside his en to thrust them nlde the low, sought his down tears running gine with thorns her delicate skin until pierced enface. Hi recognised him as the her hands were covered with blood. few a out hauled been who had gineer and hobminutes before from under the mass of Nor did Wintbrope, stumbling better. fare behind any bling her, twisted, battered ateel, that once had Twice he Into the headlong tripiied a locomotive. been Singularly brush, scratching bis arms and face. enough, beyond a few ruts and bruises, Blake took his own punishment as lie was unhurt. He was crying bea of course, though his tougher matter cause he could not find hia cap that and thicker skin made his Injuries less he had bought new that day and to help him painful. He advanced steadily along begged the wreck-maste- r the line of bent and broken twigs that hunt for It. marked his outward passage, until tlie A passenger conductor of a train thicket oiiened on a strip of grassy that was derailed and had plunged J beneath a wild down an embankment crawled out of ground exclaimed Jove!" Wlnthrope, the confusion and rendered cool and a By banyan! efficient help during the half hour beBanyan? Well, if that's British for arrived. A little fore the wreck-trairesponded chanced to a daisy, you've hit it, later the wreck-maste- r Blake. Just take k squint it) here. look around and saw the conductor How's that for a roost? standing beside him holding a match and Miss Leslie stared up Wlnthrope box to hlB ear and shaking it. Presdubiously at the edge of a bed of but 4n hia back he it pocket, put ently reeds gathered In the hollow of one of took it out again In a moment and the huge flattened branches at its repeated his action. with the main trunk of the Junction What's the matter with you 20 feet above them. banyan, wreck-masteasked the Will not the mosquitoes pester ns My watch has stopped. I can't get here the trees?" objected Wlnit to going, and I don't know what thrope.among time it is," answered the conductor, "Storm must have blown em away. still listening to hia matchsafe. I haven't seen any yet. took the condite The wreck-maate- r There will be millions after suntor by the shoulders and shook him set." roughly. Then he "came to." Thcd Maybe; but I bet they keep below deus S. Dayton, in Harper's Weekly. i our roost." But how are we to get up so high?" Gave Life for Dutys Call. Inquired Miss Leslie. 1 can swarm this Dennis Kelley, a flagman for the drop root, and Northwestern railroad at Kenosha, Ive a creeiter ready for you two," exgave his life the other day io save plained Blake. a woman who was standing, bewilSuiting action to words, he climbed dered. on the track before an ap- np tbe small trunk of the air root aud proaching train. The flagman shout- swung over into the hollow where he ed to the woman and when she faii'-had piled the reeds. Across the to step out of danger, he leaped broad limb dangled a rope-likcreeper, and thruBt her to one side. As one end of which he had fastened to a he did so he lost his balance and whs branch higher up. He flung down the unable to Jump from the path of the free end to Wlnthrope. train. His body was thrown 40 feet "I.ok lively, Pat," he called. The and when the police arrived the wo- suns most gone, and twilight don't man was standing over it and weep- last all night in these parts. Get the line around Mis ixslie, and do what ing bitterly. you can on a boost. "I see: but. you know, the vine is 8prinkling a Trestle. too stiff to tie. A wooden trestle on the Klamath Blake stifled an oah and jerked the Lake railroad In Oregon Is protected from fire In the dry season by a sys- end of the creeper up Into hi hand. tem of sprinklers which keep it con- When he threw it down again it was u bowtinually wet. A pipe runs the entire looped around and fastened in length of the trestle between the line knot. Now, Miss Leslie, get aboard and tracks and at short distances are holes through which the water is we'll have you up in a Jiffy. he ald. Are you sure you can lift me?" sprayed over the structure. Popular the girl, as Wlnthrope slipped asked Mechanics. the loop over her shoulders. Blake laughed down at them. Well, Hia Conscience Slept Long. I guess yes! Once hoisted a fellow out has been added to cents the Thirty of a prospect hole big fat conscience fund of the Wabash rail- Dutchman You don't weigh that. at road when the local passenger agent, over 120." an unknown received from person at He had stretched out across the Napoleon. O.. a letter which read: "In- broadest part of the branch. As Miss closed find 30 cents for railroad fare Leslie herself iu the loop he seated for ten miles at three cents a mile. reached down and began to haul up on taken tip the The railroad ticket hand over hand. Though creeiier, a wa second time more used and frightened by the novel manner of asthan 25 years ago.' cent the girl clung tightly to the line above her head, ami Blake had no difKilled on Railroad Right of Way. ficulty In raising her until she swung An average of 13 persons a day directly beneath him. Here, howwho use the railroads of the country ever, he found himself in a quandary. for footpath pay therefor with their The girl seemed as helpless a a child, lives. and he wan lying flat. How could he left her above ihe level of the branch? Take hold the other Hue. be said. Must Use Automatic Couplers. hear? "Do you Is The girl hesitated. The use of automat ir coupler now obligatory on all railway rolling Grab it. quick, and pull up hard If you don't want a turnUe!" stock In Argentina. The girl seizes tne pari of the fastened above and creeper which The Country's Locomotives. convulsive enherself with drew up of locomotives In The total number rose to his Blake ergy. Instantly use in this country at the end of 1907 Yuee. slid grasping the taut creeper was 55,388. fig-tre- n fer-war- d e 50-fo- wa-n- 'i "The uir feel like dawu, whispered Winthrope. "We'll mimui be able U tbe brute. And he us, rejoined Blake, lu tills lHttli were mistaken. During the brief false dawn they were puts zled by tlie odd appeuranee of tire ground. The sudden Hood of full day-ligfound them staling duwu into a dense while fog. "So they have that here!" mut tered Make "fever-fog!"Beastly shame! echoed Winthrope. I'm sure tlie creature has gone off. Tills assertion was met hy an out hurst of snarls and yells that made all start back and crouch down again la tlu-iAs before sheltering hollow. Blake was the first lu recover. "Bel you're right." he said. "Th big one has gone off, aud a pack of these African coyotes are having a scrap over the bones." You nteau Jackals. It sounds Ilk the nasty beasts." "If it wasn't for that fog I'd go down and get our share of the game." Would it not be very dangerous, Mr. Make?" asked Miss Leslie. "What a fearful noise! "I've chased coyotes off a calf with a rope; but that's not the proposition. You don't find me fooling around In that sewer gas of a fog. We'll roost right where we are till the sun does for it. We've got enough malaria In us already. "Will it be long, Blake? asked Wlnthrope. Huh? Getting hungry this quick? Wait till you've tramped around n week, with nothing to eat but you shoes. Surely, Mr. Blake, It will not be an bad!" protested Miss Leslie. Sorry, Miss Jenny; but cocoanufc palms don't blow over every day, and when those nuts are gone what are we going to do for the next meal?" Could we not make bows? suggested Winthrope. "There seems to be no end of game about." Bows and arrows without points! Neither of us could hit a ham door, anyway. "We could practice." Down Below1 Killed Beast a a Thats Something If Only Sure six weeks' training on air with one band reached down with tbe upon them in the darkness from the pudding. I can do better with a handother to swing the girl up beside him far end of their nest limb, or leaping ful of stones. down out of the upjter branches. Then we should go at once to tha tbe branch. The nrrrea of all three wen at their cliff," said Mis Leslie. All right, Miss Jenny, he reas"Now you're talking and it's Pike sured her as he felt her tremble. Sor- highest tension 'when A 'dark form ry to scare you, but I couldn't have wept past through the air within uta 1eok or bust, for ours. Here's one night to the good; but we won't lust made it without. Now, if you'll Just yard of their faces. . Miss Leslie and Blake many more If we don't get flic. It's hold down my legs we'll soon hoist tered a stifled scream brandished his club. But Wlnthrope, flints we're after now." his ludshlp." who had caught a glimpse of tlie creaCould we not make fire by rubbing In broadest the He had seated her tures shape, broke into a nervous slicks?" said Wlnthrope, recalling hie of the shallow hollow, where the 1 suggestion of the previous morning. branch joined the main trunk of the laugh. It's only a fruit bat.'' he explained. I've heard that natives have no fig. Heajted with the reeds which h They feed on Ihe banyan figs, you trouble " had gathered during the afternoon it know. "Ko'vc I, and what's more. I've seen she a that made such coxy shelter In tho reaction from this false alarm, 'em do it. Never could make a go of at once forgot her dizziness and fright. both men relaxed and began to yield It ntyself, though. Nestling among the reeds, site leaned to the effects of the ' I itit. if tramp across the you remember how li Is over and pressed down on his ankles the reeds as done we have at least some chance mudflats. Arranging with all her strength. stretched out on Give you ten to one odds! No; we'll The loose end of the creeper had best they could they and fell scratch around for a flint good and Miss side of either fallen to tlie ground when Blake lifted asleep In the middle of an argument plenty before we waste time that her upon tbe branch and Wlnthrope on how the prospective leopard was way." was already slipping into tlie loop. mostly likely to attack. The mist is going, observed Miss Blake ordered him to take It off and awake for iAtslie. Miss remained wa As (be creeper send up the club. That's no lie. Now for our coyotes. black shadow two or three hours longer. Naturally again flung down she was more nervous than her com- Where's iny club? tlie over jungle. swept aud she had been refreshed "They've all left," said Winthrope, Sunset!" called Blake panions, Hello! I can see the ground by her afternoon's nap. Her nervous- peering down. Look sharp, there! was not entirely due to the wild ness is not a sign of the and there dearly, All ready," responded Winthrojie. beasts. Though liluke had taken pains beasts. Blake drew in a full breath, and be to secure himself and Ills companions "There are the bones what's left of gan to hoist. The position was an in loops of the creeper, fastened to added Hlake. "It's a small deer, them." awkward one, and Winthrojie weighed the brunch above, Wlnthrope moved 1 suppose. Well, here goes." 30 or 40 pounds more than Miss Ijes-lie- . about so restlessly in his sleep that He threw down bis club and dropped ctmie But as the Englishman the girl feared lie would roll from the the loose end of the creeper after 1L within reach of the descending loop hollow. As the line straightened he twisted tha he grasped It and did what lie could At her limbs became so upper part around his leg and waa to ease Blake's efforts. A few mo crainiedlastthat Bbe was compelled to about to slide to the ground when ha ments found hltn as high above the She leaned remembered Miss Leslie. her isisltlon. change could hltn. raise Blake ground as determined to back iter elbow, upon Think you can make it alone? ha Without waiting for orders, he swung rise again and maintain her watch asked. himself niton the upper part of the the moment she was rested. But The girl held up her hands, sore and creeper and climbed the last few feet sleep was close upon her. There was unaided. Blake grunted with satisfac- it lull in the louder noises of the jun- swollen from the lacerations of tha Blake looked at them, tion ss lie pulled him in um the gle. Her eyes closed, and her head thorns. ami turned to Wlutlirope. frowned, branch. sank lower. In a little time it was lyUm! you got it, too, and in tha You may do, after all, he said. shoulder aud she face upon ing Winthrope's How's your he grunted. At any rate, we're ail aboard for the wa fast asleep. ankle?" soon. too that?" Hear none and night; As Blake had asserted, the mosWlnthrope wriggled his foot about What?" had either been blown away and felt the injured ankle. quitoes Not that yelping. Lion, I guess by the cyclone or did not fly to such I fancy it 1 much better." be anListen!" a height. None came to trouble the swered. There seems to be no swellThe brief twilight was already fading exhausted sleepers. is no pain now." there and ing. a inoonleas of darkness the night, into That's though it will una lucky; In and as the three crouched together CHAPTER VI. up later. Take a slide, now. JVeve their shallow nest they were soon got to hustle our breakfast rim find made audibly aware of tlie savage naMan and Gentleman. a way lo get over the river." ture of their surroundings. With the (TO UK CONTINl'KI).) wakened the jungle gathering night came the Into full life. Front all sides Sounds Which Carry at 8aa. harsh squawking of birds, the weird Examinations by naval experts In IGHT had almost passed, and wireless telephony as to the sound cries of monkeys and other small creaall three, soothed by the re- which will carry the greatest distance tures, the crash of heavy animals freshing coolness which pre- at bob develops that a siren under 72 and alnve the jungle, moving through all the yelp and howl and roar of ceded tbe dawn, were sleeping their pound of steam pressure will emit soundest, when a sudden fierce roar a blast which may ba heard 40 miles. beasts of prey. followed Instantly by u piercing squeal Next coniiH the steam whistle, the WlnAfter some contention with caused even Blake to start up In panic. sound of which is carried 20 miles. roar tin conceded that Blake thrope, to scream, Among the softest sounds which carry of his lion might be nothing worse Miss I .exile, too terrified crouched on a considerable distance who to Wlnthrope. clung the whisthan the snorting of th hippopotami little less overcome. tne installed lighthouse by bimy as they came out to browse for the his haunches, tling Blake wa the first to recover and board, which has frequently night. In this, however, there was the of the crashing out meaning heard a distance of 15 miles. small comfort, since Wlnthrope pres- puzzle in tbe jungle and the ferocious growls ently reasserted his belief In the beneath them. Old Heads on Young Shoulders. climbing ability of leopards, and ex- directly We're Our children are growing more In"Lie still," he whispered. or whether his opinion that, pressed It Is not the fault of tbe all right. It's only a beast that killed dependent. not there were lions In the neighborof ihe children; we are us." nor down below lurents something hood, certain of the barking roars they All sat listening, and a the noise o' not cureless, and they are not unof the throats came from could hear In the thicket died awu The conditions of life are grateful. the spotted climbers. Even Blake's the animals hear the beast beneath (sponsible for the modern "youth." hair bristled as his imagination pic- they could victim. iamillen Zettung. Vienna. tured one of the rreat pat crennlnv them tear at the body of its ht " r Ia-sll- e |