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Show ADVENTURERS' CLUB -t HEADLINES FROM THE UVIS A OF PEOPLE LIKeIy.OURSELFI "The Closest Call" " By FLOYD GIBBONS , Famous Headline Hunter HELLO, everybody: Well, sir, for a long time I'v warning young fellows to stay off of side door p Jf 11 I've seen so many adventure yarns about lads wh v"5' come to grief beating their way on freight trains th t . pretty well convinced it's a dangerous pastime. Buu , a lad I can't very well warn to stop riding freight tr ' In the first place, that was his job. In the second pla S' formed and isn't working on the railroad any more. And In' k'' place, he knows all about the hazards of railroading. He prohw a doggone sight more about it than I do. at'5' kuos1 If those aren't enough reasons, I could probably think more. But here comes today's distinguished adventurer Edw' SOrt dahl, of Young, Saskatchewan, Canada another fellow who'h F a long, long way to join our club.i And here's the story: Cwi" Ed started railroad work in the early part of the c braking on the Pennsylvania. His run was out of Logans "" Ind., and those were the days when the men had to contend the old style link-and-pin drawbar and when air brakes wer 7"" and far between. There might be a few air-braked cars on train, but most freights consisted principally of "jacks" 0r h braked cars. t Ed says every brakeman tried to get a few air-braked car the head of the train, where they'd belp a: lot in holding back th UP !' cars, but some of the old die-hard conductors wouldn't allow that 'u"' are brakes on top," they used to say,, "and the brakeman is gettins for braking them. Let him work for his money." It was one ot iT' conductors that Ed was working for and it came near !; his life. S"na,r Proving That It Pays to Be Careful. It was one day early in 1906 that that happened. Ed's train o iu out of Chicago about 10:30 on a cold winter night with a light train' meat and merchandise. "We had a nice string of air-braked cars " i? says, "but they were behind about ten or twelve 'jacks' and the'eo' ductor said 'nothing doing' when the rear-end man and I wanted t switch them. It had rained in Chicago and the tops of the cars wet covered with a coating of thin ice, and my first job was to go over the iop! His feet shot out from tinder him. and chip that ice from the running boards on the ten or twelve cars ! was to use for braking." Ed had ice clips on his shoes to keep him from slipping. They were pretty dull, but he thought they'd last him one more ttip. He worked his way along until he was about ten cars back of the engine and then, near the I. C. crossing at Riverdale, the train hit a slight curve. Ed was unprepared for it. He lost his balance bal-ance and was forced to step off the flat running board onto the sloping, ice-covered top of the car. The instant he did his feet shot out from under him. He started sliding off the top. "I was on my back," he says, "but when my legs were over the side I managed to turn over on my stomach and, as luck would have it, a nail that had worked up from a board in the car top caught in my coat. I was so far over the side that there was more of me in the open than on the roof. ' I was just able to keep part of my chest and arms on the car. And there I hung. ' There Wasn't Any Prospect of Aid. "I knew if I slid off I wouldn't have much of a chance. All I coall do was hang on and get back on top if that was possible. It was cold weather and the position I was in was tiring me out. The longer I stayed there the worse it would be." Ed knew he couldn't look for any help. .The engineer would think he was in the caboose and the conductor would think he was in the engine. His lantern had shattered and gone over the side when he fell and he couldn't signal with that. He tried pulling himself forward with the flat of his hands against the car top, but they slipped on the smooth ice. "I tell you it kept me busy," he says. "I didn't know how long tot nail would hold me, or how long the cloth of my coat would stand ttt strain. But believe me, I stuck tight with all .the strength I had." Ed Runs Into Unexpected Difficulties. But now Ed noticed something that was working in his favor. Tee heat of his palms as they pressed against the top of the car was melting the thin coating of ice. In one spot his hands were beginning to take hole-He hole-He began to move his palms forward to melt the ice up ahead. It was a long, slow process. "By wriggling my body as a snaa would," he says, "I was able to bring it forward a little. I had to reel, quite a bit of ice to get myself in a fairly safe position and even to to wind and the swaying of the car threatened to throw me off at al? minute. And then I ran into another obstruction." : 1 It was that nail which had caught in his clothing. In the beginning be-ginning it saved his life. Now it was holding him back, keepm; him from moving any farther forward. Ed didn't dare move a hand to free it. And there he was, fastened to the car, onable to move any farther and not knowing when a low spot or a curve in the track would shake him off. j He began to get a bit panic stricken then. He clawed at the top the car with futile hands. And suddenly his groping palms strucK another nail worked up out of the boards like the first one.- . "I caught hold of it by a thumb and finger," Ed says, "and only did I dare to move the other hand down and loosen the nail ttat caught in my coat I wriggled back on the top and when I reache running board I was covered with sweat and my hands and fa full of slivers. All I did was lie flat on my face and pant" The train was pulling into a station and the engineer wh' for brakes, but Ed didn't move. "Of course the train ran past ' station," Ed says, "and I was in line for a bawling out. Buf I told the engineer what had happened , he had to make excuses for not seeing my lantern disappear.. I've had lots close calls in railroading, but that was the closest one' .. i WNU Service. ' |
