Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1864-07-29
RAILWAY fRlfELIYa nj ENGLly1.
A FrIghtful PeriIous PositiOn.


(from the London Star, July 81
How many terrible warnings are needed
before railway companies can be induced
to adopt rational precautions? OF the gre
vious bodily peril in which travellers upon
the iron road are placed by their entire
isolation from those who control the move
ments of the train, we have already had
many striking illustrations. We have
now to record another fearful example of
the result Of obstinate persistence III a
course long since eemphstically condemned.
Among the passengers leaving London yes
tenday by the llO P. NJ, train on the South
Wester Railway was a young lady who
found herself in compartment Of which
man was the only other occupant. Soon
after Kingston station had been passed this
fellow insulted her by gross advances,
and feeling herself shut up alone with him
in the rapidly moving carriage she resolY-
ed to escape from him at the risk Of her
| life. How she succeeded in getting out we
are not informed she was first seen by
Mr. H Stokes, whose letter we published
this morning, standing on the footboard,
and clinging with one hand to the door
| handle of the compartment adjolngIng
that in which he was sitting, the train
was travelling at the rate Of forty miles
an hour Leaning as far as was possible
out of the window he contrived to grasp
her wrist, and draw her towards him, and
ultimately to place his arm around her
| waist. No sooner had he obtained n firm
hold of her than she tainted, and in faint
ing slipped. Ifin this movement she had
come in contact with the handle of the
door of Mr.. Stokes compartment, he must
inevitably have fallen out, and both
would, in all probabilities, have been
killed. As it was, he was COM
PEELED, cramming his body out of the
window, to support the dead weight of
this poor lady in u swoon while the train
made its way over five miles of ground.
He had no means of making known his
situation and that of his fainting burthen
to the only individual whom the knowl-
edge could have been turned to good ac-
count, and such of his fellow passengers
as might chance to perceive his position
were in this respect as powerless as him
self At length the attention of the guard
was directed to the carriage by the shouts
and gestures of the laborers who were at
work in the fields skirting the line, and
who were naturally Mortified at seeing this
poor creature hanging almost by a
thread between Time and Eter-
nifty. Then the train was stop
ped, and the young lady was rescued
from a peril which must inevitably have
proved fatal to her but for the courage of
Mr.. Stokes, and the strength which ena-
bled him to give effect to his gallant
promptings-though his power to aid her
would most likely have failed if help had
been much longer delayed. Will this
startling incident-which, after all, only
exhibits one form Of a danger which shows
itself in many other shapes-sufice to
arouse railway directors to a sense OF their
dnty? If not, it assuredly ought to act
upon the public as an ample incentive to
bring to bear upon these gentlemen press
ure which they would find it impossible to
resist.
The man, whose insulting advances
drove the young lady to place herself in
the perilous position above described was
given into custody at Marlborough Sta
boA-