It placed us in a pretty bad fix because just at this time we had a yard
full of freight, a good deal of it perishable, and it was imperative
that it should be moved at once or the company would be out a good many
dollars. The roundhouse men and a few hostlers were still working, so it
was an easy thing to get a yard engine out. Bennett, myself, Burns, the
second trick man, and Mr. Hebron, the division superintendent, went down
in the yard to do the switching. There were twenty-three cars of Texas
livestock and California fruit waiting for a train out, and the drovers
were becoming impatient, because they wanted to get up to Chicago to
take advantage of a big bulge in the market.
I soon found that standing up in the bay window of an office, watching
the switchmen do the yard work and doing it yourself, were two entirely
different propositions. When I first went in between two cars to make a
coupling, I thought my time had come for sure. I fixed the link and pin
in one car, and then ran down to the next and fixed the pin there. The
engine was backing slowly, but when I turned around, it looked as if it
had the speed of an overland "flyer.
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