University of Santa Clara - Redwood Yearbook (Santa Clara, CA)

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THE REDWOOD. 11 THE COLLISION. It was on one of those calm, quiet nights, when the very silence causes a feeling of suspicion and fear to creep over the mind of man, that Dave Hatheway.the sturdy engineer of many years ' service, met with a. terrible experience, the very recital of which, evei at this day, sends a cold chill through the veins of the listener. Dave was a brave fellow, but withal a firm adherent to the belief that the destin y of mortals is dependent on and de- termined by those external occurrences which are commonly called portentous. The night before the accident he had an awful dream, and on his way to Avork he passed on what he considered; the wrong side of a telegraph pole. ' ' Jim, ' ' he said ; as he stepped into the engine, addressing his fireman, I wish this ride were called off, I feel as if something is going to happen, and, to tell the truth, I ' m a little shaky. Nonsense, replied the other, trying to dis- guise his own fear (for anything that went wrong with Dave al ways affected him.) Don ' t be foolish, old boy. There ' s nothing U. fear a night like this. ' ' Oh, I ' ll go all right, but I wish I hadn ' t dreamt so. In a few minutes the train was rumbling along in the foot- hills of the Mexican Sierras, which, for their irregularity, ar - not by any means an ideal place for railroad travel. It was a cattle train and so there was a sense of lonesomeness in the hearts of Dave and Jim as the cars wound in and out through the hills like a gigantic serpent,now dodging around a bluff, now shooting through a gap to avoid a longer detour, or puffing up a somewliat steeper grade chosen in preference to a deeper cut; and then rattling down on the opposite side with a creaking of the brakes. Occasionally the track doubled back on itself, runniui: ' ; for a few more miles in the opposite direction. Such was the roa l on which Dave Hatheway had his heart-rending experience, and over which he had driven his engine on many and many worse nights than the present, but he will go over it no more. He was going ahead at a lively pace, when, the road suddenly changing, he rounded a curve where the track, sloping gently to- wards the brow of a hill, ran through a narrow cut, which had been made for it. But, oh, horror ! there at the end of the cut,

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10 THE KEDWOOD. Above and below there ' s a rumble, Then a mighty and deafening roar Like the wild Titian ' s horrible grumble Or the waves as they dash on the shore. And the mountain-top angrily thundered, As if fires of hell were set free. And the home of my boyhood was plundered On that sweet little isle in the sea. Oh ! the sad, sick ' ning thoughts of the morrow, As I gazed on the bleak St. Pierre ! Oh! the pangs and the heart-rooted sorrow, As I heard the dread shouts of despair I All my fond hopes forever are broken, And chaos reigns over the lea. And scarcely remains there a token Of that sweet little isle of the sea! Alas, I am weeping and sighing, — For the dead, who have gone to their graves I I am counting my dear ones as dying And my tears mingle deep with the waves ; But they live, and they shall live forever, They are waiting and waiting for me. Where the bonds of our love naught will sever. On the shore of Eternity ' s sea. JOHN mORDAN, ' 05.

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12 THE REDWOOD. right in the middle of the track, he saw a light, awful for its brightness and proximity. ' My God! gasped the engineer, in a frenzy of despair. ' There is a train in front of us ! ' ' With this he clutched at the reversing lever, the fireman whistled for brakes, and there was a prolonged death-like silence as the sound of the whistle echoed through the hills like the shriek of sudden death. The brakemen leaped to their places and those of the crew who were in their bunks in the caboose sprang up in terror at the im- agination of what the sudden whistle might portend. Out in the cab of the engine the two men waited for the shock which would tell that two swiftly moving trains had tried to pass on a single track. There was no chance to jump, so they closed their eyes and waited. The engineer had done his duty. With n wild plea to Heaven he prepared his soul for its flight from the body. The thought of home, of his dear wife and children flashed across his mind and in anguish he exclaimed: Good God have mercy on us! just as the train came to a standstill. Dave, called out the fireman, Sve ' re all right! Dave looked up and to his amazement the dreadful head-light was no longer in front of him, but by some peculiar means had shifted to the left. Jim, he said, recovering breath, ' ' it looks as if wc stopped just in time to avoid a collision with the moon ! Thank God it was the moon, for I didn ' t feel like dying just then. Nor I, answered the fireman, as the engine once more be- gan to puff and run along as before. The collision was in anticipation merely, yet Dave Hatheway was frequently reminded by his comrades of the memorable night when he all but demolished the moon. L. S. DEGNAN, ' 03.