| Show A SURE WINNER 1 Speaking of railroad accidents said a veteran commercial traveler at the Cosmopolitan yesterday 1 am reminded re-minded of a curious experience and t Incidentally of the most Incorrigible gambler I ever met in my life i was going West over tho Atchison Top ha Santa Fe some years ago and one of my fellow passengers in the Pullman was a racehorse man from Louisville I He was an Interesting fellow and a good 1 story teller but his conversation was marred by his habit of leading every thing up to a proposition to make a Wager Every statement hu made was clinched by an offer to back It with money and finally the thing became rather tiresome and I made some excuse ex-cuse for avoiding his society Our sections In the sleeper happened lo be directly opposite and that night we were sitting on the edge of our respective re-spective lower berths preparing to re lire when all of a sudden the whole car was shaken by a series of swift and heavy concussions We both realized instantly what had happened The train had Jumped the track and was at that moment bumping Its way over the ties prelhnlnav3 to heaven only knew what kind of a plunge We were at I that time in a part of Kansas that Is full of ravines and gullies and short bridges arc of frequent currene That I disquieting fact Hashed into our minds I 1 simultaneously Bet y a hundred were 1 I I on a trestle yelled the Louisville man above the pounding of the wheels Talc I I > y I yelled back and with the coach I gave a sickening lurch and rolled com I pletely over When 1 extricated myself I from a broken window 1 i found we had stopped on level ground and while everybody was more or less cut and bruised no one was killed I encountered encoun-tered my Kentucky friend wandering about the wreck and he promptly handed me a hundreddollar bill What made you take me up so quIck he asked Because if we had been on a trestle we would all have been killed I replied and you couldnt have collected the bet I stood to win but not to lose I Thais so1 ho said regretfully Next time this happens Ill take the other end New Orleans TimesDemocrat |
