The Parable of the Owl Express

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Improvement Era

Vol. XVII JULY, 1914 No. 9

The Parable of the Owl Express

A Recollection of Student Days

BY DR. JAMES E. TALMAGE

During my college days, now more than a quarter of a

century past, I was one of a class of students appointed to field-

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work as a part of our prescribed courses in geology, the science

that deals with the earth in all of its varied aspects and phases,

but more particularly with its component rocks, the structural

features they present, the changes they have undergone and are

undergoing —the science of worlds.

A certain assignment had kept us in the field many days. We

had traversed, examined, and charted, miles of lowlands and up-

lands, valleys and hills, mountain heights and canyon defiles. As

the time allotted to the investigation drew near its close, we were

overtaken by a violent wind-storm, followed by a heavy snow,

unseasonable and unexpected, but which, nevertheless, increased

in intensity so that we were in danger of being snow-bound in the

hills. The storm reached its height while we were descending

a long and steep mountain-side, several miles from the little rail-

way station, at which we had hoped to take train that night for

home. With great effort we reached the station late at night, while

the storm was yet raging. We were suffering from, the intense

cold incident to biting wind and driving snow and, to add to our

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discomfiture, we learned that the expected train had been stopped

by snow-drifts a few miles from the little station at which we

waited.

The station was but an isolated telegraph-post; the station-

house comprised but one small room, a mile away from the near-

est village. The reason for the maintenance of a telegraph-post

at this point was found in the dangerous nature of the road in

the vicinity, and the convenient establishment of a water-tank to

supply the engines. The train for which we so expectantly and

808 IMPROVEMENT ERA

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hopefully waited, was the Owl Express a fast night train con-

necting large cities. Its time-schedule permitted stops at but

few and these the most important stations but, as we knew, it

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had to stop at this out-of-the-way post, to replenish the water-

supply of the locomotive.

Long after midnight the train arrived, in a terrific whirl of

wind and snow. I lingered behind my companions, as they hur-

riedly clambered aboard, for I was attracted by the engineer, who,

during the brief stop, while his assistant was attending to the

water replenishment, bustled about the engine, oiling some parts,

adjusting others, and generally overhauling the panting locomo-

tive. I ventured to speak to him, busy though he was. I asked

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how he felt on such a night, wild, weird, and furious, when the

powers of destruction seemed to be let loose, abroad and uncon-

trolled, when the storm was howling and when danger threatened

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from every side. I thought of the possibility the probability

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even of snow-drifts or slides on the track; of bridges and high

trestles, which may have been loosened by the storm of rock- ;

masses dislodged from the mountain-side —

of these and other

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possible obstacles. I realized that in the event of accident through

obstruction on or disruption of the track, the engineer and the

fireman would be the ones most exposed to danger a violent ;

collision would most likely cost them their lives. All of these

thoughts and others I expressed in hasty questioning of the bustl-

ing, impatient, engineer.

His answer was a lesson not yet forgotten. In effect he said,

though in jerky and disjointed sentences: "Look at the engine

head-light. Doesn't that light up the track for a hundred yards

or more? Well, all I try to do is to cover that hundred yards of

lighted track. That I can see, and for that distance I know the

road-bed is open and safe. And," he added, with what, through

the swirl and the dim lamp-lighted darkness of the roaring night,

I saw was a humorous smile on his lips, and a merry twinkle of

his eye, "believe me, I have never been able to drive this old en-

gine of mine, God bless her! so fast as to outstrip that hundred

yards of lighted track. The light of the engine is always ahead

of me!"

As he climbed to his place in the cab, I hastened to board the

first passenger coach ; and, as I sank into the cushioned seat, in

blissful enjoyment of the warmth and general comfort, offering

strong contrast to the wildness of the night without, I thought

deeply of the words of the grimy, oil-stained engineer. They were

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full of faith the faith that accomplishes great things, the faith

that gives courage and determination, the faith that leads to

works. What if the engineer had failed had yielded to fright and

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fear; had refused to go on because of the threatening dangers?

Who knows what work may have been hindered what great ;