--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Talmage, James Edward collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 17 number: 9 published: 1914-07 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'James E. Talmage, "The Parable of the Owl Express," *Improvement Era* 17, no. 9 (July 1914): 807–808.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1709unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1709unse start_page: 807 end_page: 808 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1914-07) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1709unse publication_year: 1914 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1914, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Parable of the Owl Express — 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- — 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 ; 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 — 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 ; 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 — 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 — from every side. I thought of the possibility the probability — 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 ; 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 — 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 ; fear; had refused to go on because of the threatening dangers? Who knows what work may have been hindered what great ;