A Heroine of the Engine

Evening Star, Issue 7340, 12 October 1887, Page 4

A Heroine of the Engine

The 'New York World' publishes the following from Bridgeport (Conn.) : For some time there has been a good deal of quiet talk among railroad men in this vicinity of the singular discovery made by the officers of the Naugatuck Railway Company, that a woman, disguised in male attire, had been running an engine on their road for many months. The fact has been kept secret by the railway officials. She is an English girl named Mattie Morgans, who came to this country about two years ago, after serving her apprenticeship as a stoker on the Great Northern Railway, between London and Edinburgh. She concealed her sex so cleverly that she readily secured a position as fireman on the Naugatuck, and was eventually promoted to the post of engineer, first on a freight and afterwards on a passenger locomotive, a post which she might have held to this day but for her voluntary retirement about six months ngo. Five years ago Mattie Morgans, then a pretty girl of nineteen, fell in love with Tom Winnan, an engineer of the" Flying Scotchman." Tom's run was from King's Cross Station, London, to York. The " Flying Scotchman " service includes a train from Edinburgh and one from London. The Government mail contract calls for a forfeiture of LI for every minute the train is behind schedule time. Several evenings aweek Mattie would wait at King's Cross and listen to Bow Bells and St. Paul's to ring out at seven o'clock. At that moment would come thundering into the station the " Flying Scotchman," Tom Winnan and the royal mail. She yearned to fly through the air with him. With Tom's earnest assistance she was duly installed as stoker under his charge, her rough fustian suit and face purposely besmeared with coal dust and oil, completely disguising Tom's sweetheart. Day after day the "Flying Scotchman," engine No. 362, with 7-foot drivers, flew over the rails at the rate of fifty-two seconds to the mile, honest Tom's hand upon the throttle, and ids sweetheart fighting at the fire box. Never minded she the steamj the dust, the roar. Tom's cheery words and encouraging smile were ever ready, and his strong arms saved her the heavy burdens, The engine had no cab, but instead the conventional English dash-board, an almost useless thing against a storm. Tom was very careful. Ho watched to see that no meddling engineer should observe that his "stoker" was a woman. So matters went on for a year. Tom and she were to have been married. But fate had decreed otherwise, Tom Winnan was killed. He was run over in tho switch yard by a shunted car, and died within an hour, his head upon his "stoker's" lap. It was then, in her anguish, that Mattie Morgans' grief betrayed her womanhood. She fled the country, and came to the United States. Her money was soon gone. Desperate at last, she determined to disguise herself again and apply for a place as fireman. She was not long in securing a situation upon the Connecticut railroad, and _after serving for nearly two years was appointed as engineer. " Yes," she said to the reporter, " I was appointed engineer of the night freight. I had a seventy-four mile run, and old Twenty-seven was my engine. The very first night a forward strap of the main rod broke.. I disconnected the main rod, covered the parts, wedged up and fastened the crosshead, and crawled twenty miles with only one side working, losing less than one hour of my running time. Then we got stalled in an up-grade and stood there until morning for relief. I never had any serious accident, but I have killed two men. Although it was nothing I could avoid, these accidents had a strange effect upon me*. It produced insomnia. I, could not sleep. Their faces were constantly staring at me. I began to run down in health, and my last accident drove me from my trade. "I was taken ill, and when at last I recovered I resumed my skirts. I am done, with my disguise, for I am going to be married. 'He'is a stationary engineer, and has charge, of the sixty-horse power engine in one of tho large manufactories." Mattie Morgansjs but twenty : four years old. She has light-colored banged hair,

large dark eyes, and is quite handsome. Her face approaches, perhaps, the masculine ; yet it lights up with pleasant smiles.