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ft1 he Ghost LocomotiveBy THOMAS R. DEANi| The address of a president of st mi ciefcy for the advancement of sciem-c containing u statement that was takon to reflect favorably on the invcsiirations of societies for psychical research has revived the interest in ghost stories. Now that scientists are In ■ginning to look with more favor, m- .11 least with less indifference, np-ni ( ghosts these stories will be more likely to begin, again to come from the graveyard where scientific contempt has t'or many years buried them. Hero is one that has recently been resurrected, i Nearly a quarter of a century ago.; away out on the Canadian Pacific railroad, Bill Burton, while driving his en-1 glue on a misty night over a road that . had been washed by heavy rains for I four days, came suddenly upon a land-I slide. Bill reversed, the lever and jump-. ed, striking his head on a bowlder, and .was instantly billed. The locomotive : stopped within a few feet of the slide, j then began to back. There was noth-; ing behind it but a caboose, in which j were two trainmen playing seven up, j They noticed the shock, but, being In-j tent on the game, paid no uttention to j it and didn't know a few minutes after j it occurred that they were moving 1 backward at breakneck speed, j The first thing they knew they didn’t • know anything, for they doubled up on a passenger train standing on the track and were both killed.One who knew Burton intimately remarked at the time of his death that it was perhaps best he had been killed. He was a very sensitive man, and the knowledge that he had saved his own life by jumping at the expense of such a disaster as resulted from liis leaving his engine reversed with steam on would have driven him to suicide. Another friend, also an engineer, added, “Yes, and it will trouble Bill dead just as much as it would have troubled him living.One night, juat such a night as the one on which this catastrophe took place, Joe Bigley, an engineer, was approaching the place of the landslide, only he was going in the opposite direction, when suddenly he saw a locomotive headlight, full glare, right in front of him. With a gasp for breath he threw back the lever. As be did so be judged that the engineer of the other engine also reversed, for simultaneously both came to a stop and then began .to move backward.Bigley, seeing that the danger was passed,: stopped . his engine and then moved ahead again. The light before j him receded. He let it get far enough i to avoid danger, then put on his regular speed. He was expecting every moment to get a signal that the back*' Ing engine was about to switch off. but no such signal came. Bigley whistled, but got no reply. Thinking to get nearer the other locomotive, he put on speed, but just as much speed was put on the other engine, and although Bigley opened her up as wide as he could the n..*- - engine kepther distance.All of a sudden the engineer beard a terrific crash come from where the other engine was. and the light went out. Ho bad no more doubt that the locomotive hod smashed into something than that lie was holding n throttle. He kept on to give assistance, slowing down when approaching the place where the smash lip had occurred, but he went on and 011 and didn’t come to any wreck.In fact, there wasn't any wreck that I could be found. The road was perfectly free, and Bigley pulled on to the terminal. When he got there he collapsed. When asked if he had run anybody down or anything tike that he couldn’t answer for a time, and when he righted himself he would not say anything about his experience, hut went to tlie superintendent and toid him that nothing could induce him to run over that part of the road again. The superintendent got the story out of him and knew what it all meant, but he didn't let on. if he had given out that Bill Burton’s ghost was cavorting around the place where he had been killed he wouldn’t have been able to get an engineer to take trains past it for love or money,“All right, Bigley,” he said. ’Til give you a different run entirely. But I don’t want you to say anything about this business. I think your nerves have been overstrained, and that has caused the apparition. But the men on the road are easily influenced by a superstitious story, and It wouldn’t be well to have your illusions get out.As this occurrence was kept pretty close, the date was not noticed, but just a year from that time another engineer bad the same experience. Then it leaked out, or, rather, he told all about it, and somebody suggested that perhaps Bill Burton's ghost was up and doing ori the anniversary of his death. They looked up the date and found that the accident and the two occasions ori which the backing light was seen all occurred on the 23d of November, the day Burton was killed.After that the only trouble the management had to get engineers to take a train past the place was on the night of the anniversary. One of the men, Tom Logan, who had been connected with the road for many years and bad nerves tough as an elephant’s hide, used to do the job. The president and superintendent went on the locomotive on one anniversary, and they must have scared Burton away, for nothing was seen of the headlight nor has anything been seen of it since.Evil in Yielding to Temper.Temper ia the greatest enemy to a natural healthy life. It affects the secreting glands, changing healthy fluids into poisons, and shows itself plainly not only in impaired vitality, but even . In the face—in feature and complexion ! alike.Amateur.Some saintly folk is this town are always throwing the game of poker at our unoffending head, says a Georgia editor. “We want to say, once for all, that we don't know the game. If we bad known it we'd be richer, at this writing, by a house and lot, a gold watch and chain, and a real diamond stud.”—-Atlanta Constitution.
Newspaper Details
Spencer Herald
Spencer, Iowa, US
Wed, Apr 22, 1914
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 03 Jul 2024
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