Page:The American Magazine volume LXIV.djvu/595



HE President and most of the dirertors along with some of the chief officials of the road were seated 1 the rear section of the special car, smoking and telling stories. These had a wide range and were so interesting that, though the hour became late, no one pro- posed to go to l>ed. The rhythmic rumble of the Irain gave a sort of diapason accom- paniment to the stories of strange acci- dents, of lucky opportunities seized, of moving crises and the like. All were in- terested.

In the course of a lull the youngest of the p>arty, being the Division Superintendent, and in a sense the territorial host in charge of the party, remarked to the handsome gray-haired President that while all these strange talcs were new to him, and dealt mostly with a period before he had been born, yet he knew enough of the President's history to understand that there was no accident of fortune which had brought him to the front.

The President stopped smoking a very large cigar and looked into the young man's face until it was full of blushes and the heart was full of tremor. Then the Prea- dent laughed and remarked:

"I might as well tell it now. I never yet have told it, but I guess it won't hurt — I am the great accident in American rail- ways."

There was a murmur of protest in which the superintendent had the most volume.

"Not," pursued the President, "but that I might othenvise have got along after a fashion, but I am sure I would not have been here except for a combination of cir- cumstances which none of you will tielieve unless I assure you it is true and can prove it in a court of law if neces-sary."

That settled it. The President was a taciturn man, and those who knew him best understood that when he had a story to tell ihe best way was to let him give it out in his own way.

The President laughed, looked at his cigar and threw It away. Then he bent forward as if talking to a syndicate of hankers concerning a very large deal.

Before I was thirty I had run a locomo- tive for some years in the East, and I do say that I considered myself equal to the best. Then came one of the strikes so 577