Little Giant Injector!! The Great Boiler Feeder. The Best Locomotive Injector in the World. You can make it as HOT as steam can make it, and yet it will bring the water and go to work in two seconds. It should always be put above the running board, handy to the engineer, and any dirt may be taken out of it while the engine is running. We guarantee it to out-work and out-run any other, and give less trouble. One has been in daily use in Pennsylvania Railroad Shops for six years without any repairs. The Engineer on the express train from Philadelphia to Baltimore (which runs one hundred miles in one hundred and thirty minutes), uses the Injector instead of the pumps, and says he can run seventy miles without shutting off or touching the Injector. It feeds the water warmer, and you can make steam easier and more regular. We will send an Injector to any Superintendent or Master Mechanic, and if they desire it, will send a man to put it on. Try it for sixty days, give it the severest trial you can-now is the time to try them, in cold weather. If you desire to keep it, you may do so by paying us list price for it-we make no charge for expenses for our man-or you may return it after trial. In ordering, No. 7 are for large, No. 6 for medium, and No. 5 for small locomotives. Always state whether for copper or iron pipes, and whether for locomotives or stationery boilers. Address Rue Manufacturing Company, 523 Cherry Street, PHILADELPHIA, PA. MIDVALE STEEL WORKS! WORKS AND OFFICE, NICETOWN PHILADELPHIA, PA., MANUFACTURERS OF CRUCIBLE AND OPEN HEARTH STEEL, STEEL LOCOMOTIVE AND CAR WHEEL TIRES, STEEL AXLES OF EVERY DESCRIPTION. STEEL FORGINGS UP TO 8000 POUNDS IN WEIGHT, Solid Steel Castings, Hammer Dies, Frogs, Crossings, Etc. BEST TOOL, MACHINERY & SPRING STEEL. WM. SELLERS, Pres't. CHAS. A. BRINLEY, Supt. MARRIOTT C. SMYTH, Sec. and Treas. THEN MONTHLY JOURNAL VOL. XII. T Published by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. THE EXPRESS TRAIN. MAY, 1878. WO or three of us had lounged out of NO. 5. "What was it, Ben?" "It's rather a long story-” No matter. Go on. You can't go the club-room one night into Stan-home until your proof comes in, anyhow." ley's office, to find out the news coming in by cable, which the sleeping town would not hear until the paper would be out to-morrow. Stanley was editor of the Courier. He was scribbling away at driving speed, his hat on, an unlighted cigar in his mouth. "You're at it late, Ben." "Accident on a western road. lives lost," without looking up. Sixty We seized the long white slips which lay coiled over the table, and read the dispatch. "Infamous!" "Nobody to blame, of course." "I tell you the officers of a road where such an accident is possible should be tried for murder!" cried Ferrers. Stanley shoved his copy to the boy, and lighted his cigar. "I think you're wrong, Ferrers. Instead of being startled at such casualties, I never travel on a railway that I am not amazed at the security of them. Just think of it. Thousands of trains running yearly on each, with but a minute to spare between safety and destruction, the safety of these trains depending on conductors, telegraph clerks, brakemen, men of every grade of intellect, their brains subject to every kind of moods and disease and tempers. The engineer takes a glass of liquor; the conductor sets his watch half a minute too fast; the flagman falls asleep, and the train is dashed into ruin! It is not the accident that is to be wondered at; it is the escape that is miraculous!" We all had dropped into seats by this time. The night was young, and one after another told some story of adventure or danger. Presently Stanley said: "There was an incident which occurred on the Erie road a few years ago, which made me feel as I do in the matter. I happened to be an eye-witness to the whole affair." "Well, to make you understand, about five years ago I had a bad break downnight work, hack-writing, and poor pay. You know how fast it all wears out the machine. The doctor talked of disease of the gray matter of the brain, etc., and pre. scribed instead of medicine, absolute rest and change of scene. I would have swallowed all the nostrums in a drugshop rather than have left the office for a week. "I'll take country board and send in my editorials,' I said. "No; you must drop office and work utterly out of your life for a month, at least. Talk and think of planting potatoes, or embroidery-anything but newspapers and politics.' "Well, I obeyed. I started on a pedestrian tour through Pennsylvania, studied oil stock in Allegheny county, and ate sauer-kraut in Berks. Finally I brought up- footsore and bored beyond bearingin Williamsport. While there I fell into the habit of lounging about the railroad station, studying the construction of the engines and making friends with the men. The man with whom I always fraternize most readily is the skilled mechanic. He has a degree of common sense-a store of certain facts, which your young doctor or politician is apt to lack. Besides he is absolutely sure of his social standing ground, and has a grave self-respect which teaches him to respect you. The professional lad just starting on his career is uneasy, not sure of his position, he tries to climb perpetually. I tell you this to explain my intimacy with many of the officials of the road, especially with an engineer named Blakeley. "This man attracted me first by his ability to give me the information I wanted in a few direct, sharp words. Like most reticent men, he knew the weight and value of words. I soon became personally much in- And when I found out this habit, it oc- "The little Highland suit was bought complete, to the tiny dirk and feather, and pretty the little fellow looked in it. I wrote down to order a stunning supper to be ready at 8 o'clock. Jane and the boy were to board the train at Jersey shore, a queer little hill village near which they lived. Blakeley ran the train from Williamsport down to Harrisburg that day. His wife being in the passenger car before he took charge of the engine, of course he would see and know nothing of her until we landed at Harrisburg at seven. go down in the smoking car as usual, but I had intended to ano her fancy, suggested I suppose by the originator of all evil, seized me. to laugh. Satan, I believe, has as much to No need do with accidents and misery and death as with sin. Why not? However, my fancy, diabolical or not, was to go down on the fireman, and talked with him for an hour. engine with Blakeley. I hunted up the Then I went to the engineer. 666 wants to night off.' Jones. He must have been drinking when and finally owned that I had an unconquera sick wife or a sweetheart or something, "I explained to Blakeley that Jones had able desire to run down the road on the engine, and that knowing my only chance was to take the fireman's place, I had bribed him to give it to me. The fact was that in my idleness and the over-worked state of my brain I craved excitement, as a confirmed drunkard does liquor. ingly annoyed. He refused at first, but Mr. Stanley,' said Blakeley, curtly. required little moral effort to obey, in the when the train rushed into the station. neither an express nor an accommodation posed, for the service of a coal heaver: but take your seat there, Mr. Stanley. You'll "He made no reply, but took his place in the little square box where the greater part of his life was passed. I noticed that his face was flushed, and his irritation at my foolish whim was surely more than the occasion required. I watched him with keen curiosity, wondering if it was possible that he could have been drinking, as he had accused Jones of doing." "It strikes me as odd," interposed Ferrers, "that you should not only have made an intimate companion of this fellow, Stanley, but have taken so keen an interest in his tempers and his drinking-bouts. You would not be likely to honor any of us with such attention." "No, I have something else to do. I was absolutely idle then. Blakeley and his family, for the time, made up my world. As for the friendship, this was an exceptional man, both as to integrity and massive hard sense. The knowledge that comes from books counts with me but for little, compared with the education given by experience and contact with facts for forty years. I was honored by the friendship of this grimy engineer. But the question of his sobriety that day was a serious one. A man in charge of a train with hundreds of souls aboard, I felt, ought to be sober, particularly when I was shut up in the engine with him. "Just as we started a slip of paper was handed to him, which he read and threw down. "Do you run this train by telegraph?" I asked, beginning to shovel vigorously. "Yes. No more coal.' "Isn't that unusual? "Yes. There are two special trains on the road this afternoon.' "Is it difficult to run a train by telegraph?' I said, presently, simply to make conversation. Staring in silence at the narrow slit in the gloomy furnace, or out at the village street, through which we slowly passed, was monotonous. "No, not difficult. I simply have to obey instructions which I receive at each station.' "But if you should happen to think the instructions not right? "Happen to think! I've no business to think at all! When the trains run by telegraph the engineers are so many machines in the hands of one controller, who directs them all at a central point. He has the whole road under his eye. If they don't obey to the least tittle of their orders, it is destruction to the whole.' "You seem to think silent obedience the first and last merit in a railway man? "Yes,' dryly. "I took the hint and was dumb. "We were out of town now. Blakeley quickened the speed of the engine. I did not speak to him again. There was little for me to do, and I was occupied in looking out at the flying landscape. The fields were covered with a deep fall of snow, and glanced whitely by, with a strange, unreal shimmer. The air was keen and cutting. Still the ride was tame. I was disappointed. The excitement would by no means equal a dash on a spirited horse. I began to think I had little to pay for my grimy hands and face, when we slowed at the next station. One or two passengers came aboard the train. There was the inevitable old lady with bundles, alighting, and the usual squabble about the trunk. I was craning my neck to hear, when the boy ran alongside with the telegram. "The next moment I heard a smothered exclamation from Blakeley. "Go back,' said he to the boy. Tell Sands to have the message repeated. There is a mistake.' "The boy dashed off, and Blakeley sat waiting, coolly polishing a bit of the shining brass before him. Back came the boy. "Had it repeated. Sands is raging at you. Says there's no mistake, and you'd best get on,' thrusting the second message up. 'Blakeley read it, and stood hesitating for half a minute. I never shall forget the dismay, the utter perplexity, that gathered in his lean face as he looked at the telegram, and then at the long train behind him. His lips moved as if he was calculating chances, and his eye suddenly quailed, as if he saw death at the end of calculation. "What's the matter? What are you going to do?' I asked. 666 Obey.' "The engine gave a long shriek of horror, that made me start as if it were Blakeley's own voice. The next instant we rushed out of the station, and dashed through the low-lying farms at a speed which seemed dangerous to me. "Put in more coal,' said Blakeley. "I shoveled it in. "We are going very fast, Blakeley,' I ventured. "He did not answer. His eye was fixed on the steam-gauge; his lips closely shut. "More coal!' "I threw it in. "The fields and houses began to fly past but half seen. We were nearing Sunbury. Blakeley's eye went from the gauge to the face of the time-piece and back. moved like an automaton. little more meaning in his face. "More!' without turning his eye. "I took up the shovel-hesitated. 664 He There was Blakeley, we're going very fast! We're going at the rate of sixty miles an hour!' "Coal!' "I was alarmed at the stern, cold rigidity of the man. His pallor was becoming frightful. "I threw in the coal. "At least we must stop at Sunbury. He had told me that was the next halt. |