POETRY.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2307, 26 August 1881, Page 3

POETRY.

TAB ENGINEER’S MURDER. By Hbnet Mobpobd. <> Yes, I once committed a murder, Outside of the realms of law, That I s’pose the body of people Would not heed the worth of a straw; But I think I should sleep the sounder, Sometimes when the night winds wail, If I never remembered the ‘ murder,' Or never told over the tale. “No matter the road I was running, In one of the Middle States, So many years since that I wonder Why the sorrow never abates, I was young, and hasty, and savage, As youth is apt to be ; And my hand—my hand, you will fancy Was a trifle too ready and free. “ I was in my caboose just at evening, Say ’tween Holden and Fiddler's Run, Making time to reach Wayman’s siding For the up-train at five twenty-one— I had had a hot box at Grossman’s, And that put me four minutes behind ; So I felt like —the word is ugly, But the truth—like ‘ going it blind!’ “ Bound the curve, and running—say forty Or it may have been fifty—who knows, And there on the track, before mo, A black fiend at full scream arose ; A dog that sat down in the middle Between the two lines of rail, And howled, like a fiend incarnate, With a mixture of barb, yell and wail.

« Did I stop ? Not much! I just opened The throttle valve, by a mite, And over that dog she went flying, And over something else —white! I stopped her then with a shudder, And ran back ; in a mangled heap Lay the dog, and what had been lately A baby-girl lying asleep ! “ Have I never got over it ? No, sir! And I never shall till I die ! Why didn’t I heed the warning, If ’twas only a black dog’s cry ? I may have done many more murders, And ’tis likely I have on the whole ; But there’s none, when the night winds are howling, That lay such a weight on my soul! “ And what is the worst of my sorrow ? Don’t make the one grand mistake ! I shouldn’t grieve twice, I’ve a fancy, For the poor dead baby’s sake ! But the dog that was doing his duty So nobly, I grieve for him ; And I never repeat the story, But I find some sorrow for him.”