efore we could get it
out. Talk about making things strong--that beer-keg was a wonder!"

"I had a more exciting experience than that," said another official--he
was in the freight-handling department. "It was a long time ago--yes,
back in '63. I remember getting out at a station near Cincinnati to look
at some soldiers, and before I knew it the train started. I was up by
the engine, and as the drivers began to turn I jumped on the
cow-catcher. You see, I had often ridden there, being a railroad-man,
and the engineer knew me.

[Illustration: "AS THE DRIVERS BEGAN TO TURN I JUMPED ON THE
COW-CATCHER."]

"Everything went well for a few miles, and I sat on the bumper enjoying
the rush of air, for it was a hot summer's day; but presently, as we
swung around a curve, the engine gave a fearful shriek, and just ahead I
saw a farmer's wagon crossing the track. There were two old men on the
seat and an old white horse in the shafts. The men were so busy talking
they never heard the whistle, or perhaps they were deaf. Anyhow, we were
right on them before they looked up, and then they were too dazed to do
anything. One of them made a grab for the reins, but I saw it was too
late, and I drew my legs up off the bumper and leaned back against the
end of the boiler (I must have made a picture as I crouched there); and
the next second--"

"Well?" said somebody.

"Well--I guess you wouldn't care to hear how things looked the next
second. We struck the white horse just back of his forelegs, and I had
him on my lap for a hundred yards or so. No, it didn't hurt me, but it
wasn't pleasant. The two old men? I don't think they felt anything, it
was so sudden; they just--passed out. No, I didn't see them; but I can
tell you this, I've never ridden on the cow-catcher of a locomotive
since that day."

There followed some talk about fast runs, and all agreed that for
out-and-out excitement there is nothing in railroading to equal a man's
sensations in one of those mad bursts of speed that are ventured upon
now and then by locomotives in record-breaking trials. The heart never
pounds with apprehension in a real accident as it does through imminent
_fear_ of an accident. And so great is the nerve-strain and brain-strain
upon the men who drive our ordinary fliers, that three hours at a
stretch is as much as the stanchest engineer can endure running at fifty
or sixty miles an hour.

"So you see," said one of the officials, "the problem of hi