A driver, not on duty, had been drinking, and was, in company with his
fireman, walking in the vicinity of the Edgware Road, when he suddenly
started violently, and seizing his mate’s arm, shouted—
“Hold hard, mate—hold hard!”
“What’s the matter?” cried the fireman.
“Matter!” roared the driver, “why, you’re a-running by the red light;”
and he pointed to the crimson glare which streamed through a glass bottle
in a chemist’s window.
“Come along; that’s nothing,” said the fireman, trying to drag him on.
“What, run by the red light, and go afore Dannel in the morning?”
retorted the driver, and no persuasion could or did get him to pass the
shop. He was a Great Western man, and the “Dannel” whom he held in such
wholesome awe was the celebrated engineer, now Sir Daniel Gooch, and
chairman of that line. He was then the locomotive chief, and renowned
above all other things for maintaining discipline among his staff, while
they cherished a feeling for him very much akin to what we hear of the
clannish enthusiasm of the ancient Scotch.