Page:George Collins - A Strange Railroad Wreck.pdf/54

40 as they switched the cars. I always thought I could do that. Mentioning my Idea to the woman with whom I stopped. It met with Instant approval—anything to avoid feeding me. She cut off my long hair, supplied me with some old clothing belonging to her son, and I started out. But I applied to several railroads before coming to this one, and was very hungry when Mr. Tuckle first saw me.

And now, dearest, you know the story of my unhappy life. If I am dead when you read this, I am sure of your forgiveness; if In another part of the country, I can only hope that you will not feel too bitter toward me.

Good-bye! Although of your own sex, I can truthfully say I never loved any person on earth as I love you.

It was never discovered what shattered the glass in the signal, but the general supposition is that the weight of the heavy semaphore arm, being thrown from a horizontal to a semi-vertical position, caused this small round piece of red glass to break and fall to the ground, exposing the white light through the opening. The denseness of the fog prevented the engineer or fireman from seeing the position of the wooden arm; in fact, train crews seldom look for anything but the color of the light at night. This is usually visible so far from the tower that the position of the arm cannot be seen.

The oldest railroad men on the M————— Division said they had never heard of a similar accident.