THE ENGINEER WHO FORGOT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11872, 25 January 1902, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE ENGINEER WHO FORGOT.

A MELANCHOLY SCENE. A serious railway accident occurred recently hi America, which resulted in the death of two persons and the serious injury of a large number. A San Francisco paper has the following:-— 'A little wife 'trying to be. brave but with tears in her voice, a hollow-eyed husband with, . ; head sunk on his breast, his unseeing eyes f seeming to probe a hopeless picture; a, little yel-low-haired girl clinging to his hand, weeping—that is the picture of the household of the engineer who forgot.. On the threshold of John Coffey home crouches the shadow of a great fear. John Coffey sits within, distraught, sore wounded in body, his spirit racked with the old, selftorturing question, Am I my brother keeper?" The shadows mock him and point to a crimson stain upon his brow.. "Ho will not go to the hospital," said John Coffey's wife. "His spine was hurt when he jumped from that terrible engine. He will hot eat. He lias touchcd no food since yesterday. He sits there, brooding and brooding, and I can't help him. It s terrible. John did his best— know it— but who will believe it now?"

Engineer Coffey pulled himself together. " How many were wounded?" he asked, speaking low. " They told mo three or four were dead. No? Thank God! there were 110 more than two. Maybe it would have been better if I had made the third. Fourteen years' hard work and faithful service and then —this."

Coffey was asked to make a statement. " Up to this time I have steadily refused to speak of this terrible accident, except to Mr. Agler's secretary, to whom I made a written statement," "he began. _ " I admit that I had received my orders. I knew 1 was to stop at the switch to let No, 10, south bound, take the siding. No, the orders were not misunderstood. Both I and the fireman read them. After leaving San Ardo we compared watches. It was a dark night. At the switch there are no houses, no landmarks of any kind, only the switch light in a ploughed field. I did not notice it until we were abreast of it. I had been greatly worried over the actions of the engine. It's a new one, and very powerful. The machine did not behave properly. I can't be more explicit about the trouble with the engine ; that is between me and the railway officials. But the fireman and I were both busy insideand we forgot the switch. I have no excuse, only that I forgot. I saw the switch light race by. Then the conductor pulled the rope which operates the little signal whistle in the cab. Instantly I reversed. With almost the same movement I put on tho emergency air brake. No, the conductor did not put on the air brakes. All he did was to signal me. "We were rounding a sharp curve. I could not see any light ahead, but I knew that No. 10 was due. I had a heavy train. We were pounding along nearly thirty miles an hour. I jumped down to the cab steps and looked out. There was the light of No. 10 swinging around the curve ahead. I knew it was all up. I don't know what became of the fireman. I waited until we were past the siding. To jump there would have meant death. I jumped. A car length beyond the engines crashed together. Everything was! confusion. The air was white with steam. And there were the cries of the people in the train—"

Coffey paused, a look of anguish on his face. His sunken eyes, full of misery, closed tight. "Mv back," he explained, and sat quiet awhile. Then his forehead dropped into his spread palms. . The engineer who forgot was remembering. . The little girl with the yellow curls had hidden her face on his shoulder. The young wife looked into his white face with eyes that were swimming. " Don't, John," she said. ; • The door opened and Coffey's brother, with his workingman's lunch box and his faded coat, greeted the engineer who forgot. There was a mist in his eyes and a quaver in his voice. "John," he said, "it might have happened to the best engineer this side of heaven. Mother does not know— not well to-day." John Coffey put his face in his hands. He was remembering. " Don't tell mother," he said. "It would kill her."

"John Coffey is a sober and an honest man," aver the neighbours of the engineer. "He never drinks, and he spends all- his spare tiaie with his family." Coffey has lived a good many years there in his little house on Sixteenth-street. Yesterday he refused the invitation of the high railway officials to rid home in a Pullman, preferring to hurry to the city on the limited in order that he might see his family two hours earlier. .