And The Heifer Took A Ride

QUEER OCCURENCE TO A MOTORMAN ON THE D.Y.A.A. & J.

Cats Do Not Yet Understand Electricity and Many Are Killed by the Cars

"Do we kill many dogs?" said a motorman on the Detroit, Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor & Jackson line. "We kill a few but not so many as we do cats. Cats see the headlight at night and get on the track and are invariably run down. We don't see them until it is too late. They make a dive from the middle of the track and the wheels pass over them. No, we don't feel it when the wheels pass over them.

"The strangest occurrence in my experience was the other day when I ran into a young heifer. I didn't see her in time to stop the car but tried to stop. The cow catcher caught her, one end of the car bumped her and she was thrown over on the cow catcher and carried some rods. Of course I thought the cow was dead and stopped to get her off the cow catcher, but as I did so she jumped up and started from the track and the last I saw of her she was running down the road.

"Did I ever hit a man? Never but once. That was at the county house. He was walking on the track. As there was a path there and it was a custom for men to walk on the track there I thought he would step off and rang the bell vigorously. He kept straight on and I tried to stop the car. It had nearly come to a stop when it bumped him and knocked him over. He wasn't hurt, but I could not understand why he wouldn't get off the track for he was not deaf, and he would not explain why he paid no attention to the bell."