Barton County Democrat

TRAIN VERSUS LIGHTNING.

Flyer Beat at Every Stroke and Arrived at Its Destination Ahead of Time.

Returning from Chicago a few nights ago, a Kansas City Star man was on a fast train when it ran through a big storm. It was going so fast that it was always at the next mile post. "The train slid into the storm," he says, "and was passing out the opposite side when a zig-zag streak of lightning on the outer edge took a shy at the engine just for luck and to put a competitor out of business, probably. It was a miscalculation and hit the ground more than 200 feet to the rear, tearing up sand and gravel like a mad bull in a dry river bed. Before the train could yank its full length from under the lightning again tried its luck, this time mad and spiteful, and in a hurry. But the engineer had caught on and in a joking sort of way jerked the throttle open a little wider. The train was fairly flying this time, screaming and hissing, bellowing and blowing in defiance of wind, thunder, rain and lightning. Again she missed, though only by 50 feet or less this time. The passengers were getting scared a little, though they realized no ordinary lightning could drop down on the roof while the engineer was awake. But as the train tore from under the big cloud another streak tried its cunning. More agile and quicker than the rest, it caught in the coupling link on the rear of the hindmost car. There was red heat in a moment, sizzling shrieks, and it sounded like cuss words all frightfully mixed up, and when the train pulled into the next station some jagged, dispirited, disjointed lightning dropped to the ground. The train went on seven minutes ahead of schedule on a six-minute run.