from
Gravesend, had some extraordinary experiences, such as perhaps had hardly
ever occurred on a single journey. On leaving Dartford, where some
passengers were taken up, the train was proceeding towards Greenhithe,
when the driver observed on the line a donkey, which had strayed from an
adjoining field. An endeavour was made to stop the train before the
animal was reached, but without success, and the poor beast was knocked
down and dragged along by the firebox of the engine. The train was
stopped, and with great difficulty the body of the animal, which was
killed, was extricated from beneath the engine. While this was in
progress, a balloon called the "Sunbeam," supposed to come either from
Sydenham or Tunbridge Wells, passed over the line, going in the direction
of Northfleet. The two aeronauts in the car were observed to be short of
gas, and were throwing out ballast, but, notwithstanding this, the
balloon descended slowly, and when some distance ahead of the train was,
to the horror of the passengers, seen to drop suddenly into the railway
cutting two or three hundred yards only in advance of the approaching
train. The alarm whistle was sounded, and the brakes put on, and as the
balloon dragged the car and its occupants over the down line there seemed
nothing but certain death for them; but suddenly the inflated monster,
now swaying about wildly, took a sudden upward flight, and, dragging the
car clear of the line, fell into an adjoining field just when the train
was within a hundred yards of the spot. The escape was marvellous.

PULLING A TOOTH BY STEAM.

"Dummy," is a deaf mute newsman on the Long Island Railroad. Lately he
had suffered much in mind and body from an aching tooth. He did not like
dentists, but he resolved that the tooth must go. He procured a piece of
twine, and tied one end of it to the tooth and the other end to the rear
of an express train. When the train started, Dummy ran along the
platform a short distance, and then dropped suddenly on his knees. The
engine whistled, and dummy cried, but the train took the tooth.

A HEAVY SLEEPER.

It happens, in numerous instances, that virtuous resolves are made
overnight with respect to early rising, which resolves, when put to the
test, are doomed only to be broken. Some years ago a clergyman, who had
occasion to visit the West of England on very important business, took up
his quarters, late at night, at a certain hotel