Page:The Wreck of a World - Grove - 1890.djvu/30

14 miles in the hour, suddenly pulled up a few yards short of a fallen tree which blocked the line, it might reasonably have been supposed that some very singular development had taken place, quite transcending the confines of scientific engineering. Will it be believed, however, that though at first startled, yet after a few instances of a similar prescience on the part of their machines, the engineers were pleased to regard them as evidence of superior workmanship, and by shallow untenable arguments silence, though not convince, their own easily-satisfied minds and the credulous questionings of the public? But there are some subjects concerning which the truth is so disagreeable, nay, so terrible, that the world prefers to ignore or explain it away rather than face the reality, and this was a remarkable instance. So the inventing and perfecting of automatic machines went on as steadily if not as merrily as ever.

The deputy manager, Cornelius J. Hanap, who had the entire charge of the "loco" department, was a shrewd, hard-headed, middle-aged New Englander of the old Puritan stock, with all the valuable Puritan qualities except the Puritan creed. A hard worker