e occurrence.
But the clever management of the engine had been noticed by a peasant in
a field, and Hodge, in his wonderment, began to talk about the affair all
round the country-side. Then the story found its way to a station
master, and thence to headquarters, and an inquiry brought the matter to
light, and ended in the two men being advised not to do the same thing
again. It was held that under the circumstances the train should have
been stopped.

ENGINE DRIVERS' PRESENCE OF MIND.

An able writer upon railway topics remarks:--"I have alluded to a
driver's coolness and resolution in an accident, but no chronicle ever
has or ever will be written which will tell one tithe of the accidents
which the courage and presence of mind of these men have averted. A
railway ran over a river--indeed, it might be called an arm of the sea:
as it was the inlet to an important harbour, provision was obliged to be
made for the shipping, and so the piece of line which crossed the water,
at a height of seventy feet, was, in fact, a bridge which swung round
when large vessels had to pass. I need hardly say that such a point was
carefully guarded. At each end, at a fitting distance, a man was placed
specially to indicate whether the bridge was open or shut. One day, as
the express was tearing along on its up journey, the driver received the
usual 'all right' signal; but to his horror, on coming in full sight of
the bridge, he found it was wide open, and a gulf of fatal depth yawning
before him. He sounded his brake-whistle, that deep-toned scream which
signals the guard, and he and his fireman held on, as before described,
to the brake and regulator. The speed of the train was, of course,
checked; but so short was the interval, so great had been the impetus,
that it seemed almost impossible to prevent the whole train from going
over into the chasm. Had the rails been in the least degree slippery,
any of the brakes out of order, or the driver less determined, there
would then have occurred the most fearful railway accident ever known in
England; but by dint of quick decision and cool courage the danger was
averted; the train was brought to a standstill when the buffers of the
engine absolutely and literally overhung the chasm. Three yards more,
and a different result might have had to be chronicled.

"Some of my readers may remember an incident in railway history which
dates back to our first great Exhibition. I mention