Show V I 1 I 1 TWO WEIRD WIM I 1 mysterious POWER MADE THE ENGINEER STOP and mylne hair haar the cl cab the bounded the curve where a lovely woman had not met a violent death la in solitude HERE Is nothing like arnow a snow blockade or a heavy I 1 downpour of rain to start railroad men ak I 1 ai g talking they generally I 1 begin with telling stories about former storms and then switch off to relate tales of every conceivable description the limit only being reached when the imagination Is exhausted the recent heavy snow and rain storm drove a band of these hardy fellows into the oil house of the pennsylvania road at washington D C and almost immediately storytelling story telling was inaugurated an old engineer that had served hla his apprenticeship on southern roads said 1 I was running an engine on the nashville chattanooga road at the time of my story and we left the latter city at 1 in the morning a little late it was an awful night the rain fell in torrents while the wind moaned and whistled through the pines along the road when we passed around the point of lookout mountain and I 1 saw the great overhanging rock and heard the oak trees snap as the boughs crashed into each other I 1 felt more lonely than I 1 ever did before or since if you were acquainted down in that region you would know that there are a great many small mountain streams crossing that road and just on the other side of christas Chri station Is a long trestle over feet high I 1 1 always felt glad when we got over it and that night I 1 was so nervous that I 1 could hardly hold the lever not a great distance beyond this dangerous trestle is a smaller one under which a mountain stream runs ns before we reached the trestle I 1 became perfectly dumb paralyzed with fear I 1 reversed the engine and stopped it it was an unconscious act and why I 1 did it I 1 will never know the conductor came running through the train with his lantern hello george what the trouble he be asked darned if I 1 know I 1 shouted back 1 I help it and all there is to IL if losing your nerve old man eh he be said with a sarcastic smile pull her wide open and lets get out of here and with a muttered oath he started back to the cars grasping hold of the lever I 1 tried to start my engine but my hand seemed paralyzed and I 1 make her move back came the conductor on the run youre toure a beamut he shouted up at me in the cab why dont you go ahead well get back on the time ol of 27 and then th therell erell be the jingo to pay its no use old man I 1 answered back theres danger just ahead but I 1 dont know what it is 1 I see ten feet ahead of me in the pitch darkness and rain but somehow something told me there was danger and I 1 try again to budge that train to say that conductor was made but faintly describes it in fact he was about the maddest individual I 1 eversal ever saw but I 1 paid no attention to him and grabbing up a I 1 lantern an I 1 walked out ahead of the train I 1 had not gone fifty yards before I 1 found that the bridge was gone knocked into the river by the high water and rubbish that came rushing down on its crest I 1 hurried back and told the conductor and then a crowd of us went together to see the extent of the damage when the conductor saw the rushing waters and realized how he had urged me on and the narrow escape the entire train had maae ifie 1111 I 1 I 1 dij I I 1 ti 1 I 1 i I 1 I 1 1 I J h I 1 W I 1 I 1 1 0 f I 1 14 t I 1 f I 1 Z 4 0 THE BRIDGE GONE he sat eat down on the trunk of a fallen tree by the side of the road and actually cried like a child I 1 felt like asking him who was losing his nerve now but my escape was too miraculous for me to get tunny funny experiences Exper fences down in that count country ry are bound to be exciting spoke UP op a bright looking man of middle age whose face denoted great firmness and SL a more than usual intelligence 1 I worked down there for five yeara yean and I 1 must say the country Is enough to drive a man to drink it was in 1885 I 1 had just been promote to a passenger train on an the Tennessee road down in that state it was a alight train crossing the mountains and had the reputation of 0 never having m met et with a mishap ral shap one night as we were passing over the range with its dismal shadows and abrupt curves corves 1 I thought I 1 felt the ingine engine strike some thing thim I 1 had not seen anything although my head was continually out of at the window and looking directly ahead something soft swept over my I 1 face causing a f sensation so pe peculiar hiir I 1 t that ba t it for 0 r moment f J could not mot tel tell r abe arl origin wn aas As internal orax cx lem a th an looyd ia j 1 around 13 t beit ee it ahen oia 9 pa A F 1 qt q 1 t 3 1 I 1 I 1 z t A T w P P 2 1 I 1 J r i 5 B I 1 4 4 5 i t t ji jj bleed anything he had bad just jost opened the firebox door to put in a shovel of coal I 1 saw him pick up something from f ro m t the he floor floo ro of f the t fie cab and examine it by the light of the fire je je jerusal its hairl halry shrieked the fireman with chatt chattering ertag teeth coming over to me and holding it up before my eyes ekes womans comans Wo mans hati hair too lat it made my flesh creep and my hair almost stand up straight I 1 shut off the engine immediately and giving her plenty of air and sand san soon brought the train to a standstill pretty soon t f got a signal to back and after being slowed down we stopped the fireman got off but soon came back bad old fellow he said its a woman and very good looking its not much cut up but most of her fine brown hair was cut off by the wheel it proved to be a corpse of a refined w woman oman and what she could have been doin doing alone on the railroad track in those desolate mountains was a mystery to me my nerves would have probably gone down to the normal in an hour or two it if the fireman had not told me that the index finger of the womans comans left hand had been cut off and that they were unable to find it this was a small thing to worry about when compared with the otherwise crushed and bleeding body but it seemed to stick to my mind with great persistency when the old engine which by the way was numbered got in from her bloody trip she was run into the shop for some extensive repairs and another engine was given me to do the work with in about a month old came cam e out in first class condition and I 1 was so pleased with her that I 1 forgot all about the accident I 1 haa a gentle reminder of it however I 1 V V I 1 1 4 1 1 1 I 1 X W I 1 I 1 it I 1 i I 1 1 4 1 i V 1 1 9 JERUSALEM ITS HAIR the first run I 1 made with her over those dark mountains when we struck the curve curre where the woman had been killed I 1 gave the engine a little more steam it was downhill at that place but I 1 always opened the throttle a little in order to get a good start up the next grade half a mile ahead this ume time I 1 gave her a good deal for I 1 was pleased with the way old was moving herself just as I 1 yanked her open the cab filled with flying hair I 1 felt the engine check and die as dead as if the air had been turned on my eyes dropped to the throttle and instantly my blood seemed to turn to ice there was a finger touching the throttle it was the index finger of the left lef t hand a womans comans hand around it was a plain gold band and a ring of blood where reit it had been separated from the hand band there was no mistaking that finger ge r it was there and it simply pressed the life out of the engine the speed was so diminished that the fireman perceiving it with a start jumped down and began giving her coal once was enough for or me As soon as I 1 could get to the office of the superintendent in I 1 resigned under the plea that I 1 was worn out and needed rest then I 1 came north I 1 afterward learned through a letter from a friend down in that section that one day while a party of curious people was exploring a cave near the track of the tennessee road some one discovered a half de bayed finger in a crevice of the rock it was the index finger of the left hand had the gold band around und it and was beyond doubt the missing finger of the unknown corpse burled buried three months month before the ring was talen taken oft off and examined it bore some initials which afterward led to the tion of the woman she had become slightly demented over the death of her lover and having money had boarded the train in louisville and had been carried down into the mountains where she was killed the body was exhumed and the finger burled buried with it |