In the year 185- I was running an engine on the ---- road. My engine
was named the Racer, and a "racer" she was, too; her driving-wheels
were seven feet in diameter, and she could turn them about as fast as
was necessary, I can assure you. My regular train was the "Morning
Express," leaving the upper terminus of the road at half past four,
running sixty-nine miles in an hour and forty-five minutes, which, as I
had to make three stops, might with justice be considered pretty fast
traveling.
I liked this run amazingly--for, mounted on my "iron steed," as I
sped in the dawn of day along the banks of the river which ran beside
the road, I saw all nature wake; the sun would begin to deck the
eastern clouds with roseate hues--rising higher, it would tip the
mountain-tops with its glory--higher still, it would shed its radiance
over every hill-side and in every valley. It would illumine the broad
bosom of the river, before flowing so dark and drear, now sparkling
and glittering with radiant beauty, seeming to run rejoicing in its
course to the sea. The little vessels that had lain at anchor all
night, swinging idly with the tide, would, as day came on, shake out
their broad white sails, and, gracefully careening to the morning
breeze, sweep away over the water, looking so ethereal that I no
longer wondered at the innocent Mexicans supposing the ships of Cortez
were gigantic birds from the spirit-land. Some mornings were not so
pleasant, for frequently a dense fog would rise and envelop in its
damp, unwholesome folds the river, the road, and all things near them.
This was rendered doubly unpleasant from the fact that there were
on the line numerous drawbridges which were liable to be opened at
all hours, but more especially about daybreak. To be sure there were
men stationed at every bridge, and in fact every half-mile along the
road, whose special duty it was to warn approaching trains of danger
from open drawbridges, obstructions on the track, etc., but the class
of men employed in such duty was not _noted_ for sobriety, and the
wages paid were not sufficient to secure a peculiarly intelligent or
careful class. So the confidence I was compelled to place in them was
necessarily burdened with much distrust.
These men were provided with white and red signal lanterns, detonating
torpedoes and colored flags, and the rules of the road required them to
place a torpedo on the rail and show a red signal both on the bridge
and at a "fog station," distant half a mile from the bridge, before
they opened the draw. At all times when the draw was closed they were
to show a white light or flag at this "fog station." This explanation
will, I trust, be sufficient to enable every reader to understand the
position in which I found myself in the "gray" of one September morning.
I left the starting-point of my route that morning ten minutes behind
time. The fog was more dense than I ever remembered having seen it.
It enveloped every thing. I could not see the end of my train, which
consisted of five cars filled with passengers. The "head-light" which
I carried on my engine illumined the fleecy cloud only a few feet, so
that I was running into the most utter darkness. I did not like the
look of things at all, but my "orders" were positive to use all due
exertions to make time. So, blindly putting my trust in Providence and
the miserable twenty-dollars-a-month-men who were its agents along the
road, I darted headlong into and through the thick and, to all mortal
vision, impenetrable fog. The Racer behaved nobly that morning; she
seemed gifted with the "wings of the wind," and rushed thunderingly
on, making such "time" as astonished even me, almost "native and to
the manor born." Every thing passed off right. I had "made up" seven
minutes of my time, and was within ten miles of my journey's end.
The tremendous speed at which I had been running had exhilarated and
excited me. That pitching into darkness, blindly trusting to men that
I had at best but weak faith in, had given my nerves an unnatural
tension, so I resolved to run the remaining ten miles at whatever
rate of speed the Racer was capable of making. I gave her steam, and
away we flew. The fog was so thick that I could not tell by passing
objects how fast we ran, but the dull, heavy and oppressive roar, as
we shot through rock cuttings and tunnels, the rocking and straining
of my engine, and the almost inconceivable velocity at which the
driving-wheels revolved, told me that my speed was something absolutely
awful. I did not care, though. I was used to that, and the rules bore
me out; besides, I wanted to win for my engine the title of the fastest
engine on the road, which I knew she deserved. So I cried, "_On! on!!_"
I had to cross one drawbridge which, owing to the intervention of a
high hill, could not be seen from the time we passed the "fog station"
until we were within three or four rods of it. I watched closely
for the "fog station" signal. It was white. "All right! go ahead
my beauty!" shouted I, giving at the same time another jerk at the
"throttle," and we shot into the "cut." In less time than it takes
me to write it, we were through, and there on the top of the "draw,"
dimly seen through a rift in the fog, glimmered with to me actual
ghastliness the danger signal--a red light. It seemed to glare at me
with almost fiendish malignancy. Stopping was out of the question,
even had I been running at a quarter of my actual speed. As I was
running, I had not even time to grasp the whistle-cord before we would
be in. So giving one longing, lingering thought to the bright world,
whose duration to me could not be reckoned in seconds even, I shut my
eyes and waited my death, which seemed as absolute and inevitable as
inglorious. It was but an instant of time, but an age of thought and
dread--and then--I was over the bridge. A drunken bridge-tender had,
with accursed stupidity, hoisted the wrong light, and my adventure was
but a "_scare_"--but half a dozen such were as bad as death.
It was three weeks before I ran again, and I never after "made up time"
in a fog.