Chasing a Locomotive — 408
A friend who lately indulged in a chase after a locomotive declares it “the silliest thing a sane man can do.” This is his account:—“Rushing out from the refreshment-room on the platform, I saw my train moving off ‘gradually,’ with about seventy-five yards the start. I have been counted a good runner in my time, and for the first hundred yards I gained on it. Then for about a quarter of a mile it was ‘nip and tuck,’ at the end of which I concluded that steam was more than a match for muscle, and ‘caved.’ The last I saw of my train it was ’going it’ around a curve at the rate of twenty-five miles an hour, the passengers waving their handkerchiefs at me, and cheering vociferously. As I walked sheepishly back to the dépôt, a thought came into my head that it might run off the track in going round the curve at that rate of speed, and I am afraid that I rather encouraged the idea.”