The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1868-05-19
A CURIOUS INCIDENT.
Story ofa Sunerer-Carrying The.
atrical Display too Far-Wooder-
full Escape Of a Little Girl.

atrical Display too Far-"ouder
full Escape OF n Little Girl.
Mr.. BriDghurst, proprietor of the Ed
itors and Printers Journal, Logansport
ILL.,, was among the wounded by
the Erie murder. He is described as &
hurcnlean looking fellow, very model
of manly strength, was Colonel of the
Forty y.sixth Indiana regiment, and wa:
for four years in the thick of the fight
Having perhaps a morbid dislike to
sleeping cars, Mr.. Bringhurst had occu.
pied q seat with his little girl in the
seventh car-last but two. Mary, a
pretty child eight years old, was seated
in his lap, her head leaning against his
shoulder. His seat was on the north
side of the car, and in about the mid,
die oft. He had slept on and off dur.
ing the night, and with the others was
conscious during his waking moments
that the train was going at great speed.
Mr.. Bringhurst uses very expressive
phrases now and then. He said, "She
was going like old Harry" The first
inclination that there was something
wrong was the humping of the. car
ahead of him on the sleepers, then that
of his own. He leaped from his seat,
sat the little girl down on it, her head
toward the aisle, and made for the bell,
rope. A fellow passenger, young man,
had already seizedit; it came away in
his hand; it was broken fnrther ahead.
The car now began to tilt, and he to re-
alize what was about to happen. The
people began to rise. He made toward
his child, but before he reached her the
car turned over, and with the first con-
cussion he lost all consciousness.
When he recovered his senses, or
rather partially recovered them, he
found himself seated on the ruins of a
Car. He had at this time no conscious
ness whatever of what had happened,
felt no pain, remembered nothing about
his little girl. But he did feel rather
uncomfortably seated, got up and moved
back few PAGES, and sat down again
upon some timber probably one of the
uprooted telegraph poles with his face
towards the ruins. AS the flames arose
up from the burning car before him, and
the shrieks of the wounded and dying,
and the shouts of others arose with
them, he fancied he was in theatre
among the spectators of new seDsa-
tion: He remembers clearly his feelings
of annoyance at the scene. He thought
they were carrying the spectacular
drama too far; he thought it was too
real. The continued shrieking of the
people and the loud voices of men close
by him brought him to the impression
that something was the matter, bat
what he coald not make ont.
lnncv ha in thto nnn1tftnn nf
semi-insanity he does not remember.
Perhaps only minute, possibly twenty
or thirty. At last he began to surmise
that things were not just as they should
be, and hailed man he saw passing
"Hello, where am Iir "Well, you are
pretty near Port Jarvis, l guess" was
the reply. "Don't think it," said Mr..
Bringhurst; "what in the world would
bring me that roadp "Don't you want
to go up abovcp said the man with the
lantern. II guess you'd better; you're
shook up Il bit-look at yourself" He
did so--his clothes were in rags; there
was blood upon his hands and face. He
thought he had better go. They brought
a stretcher, put him on it, and carried
him up the embankment to the cars.
He had Not once thought of little
Mary all this time. After he had been
laid on seat, and before his recollec-
tion had sufficiently returned, so that
he could recognize that he was alone,
somebody came TO him and said
scpIlqQp't be uneasy, friend; your little
&r. Bringhurst; "bring Her afoBgp. : said id.
Mary was brought, uniDjured, save by
slight scalp wound. But what was
Mary's story Stranger than her faith
er's. Mary says that what she remem-
berS is, that she woke up suddenly, (she
was asleep when her father laid her
down, found herself on the bank, and
saw the cars rolling down before her !
She sat there until somebody took
her away. How did she get out of the
car all but unhurti How did
she reach her position up near the top
of the embankment in time to see the
cars rolling DOWN. We have heard a
dozen theories about this-one of them
is, that the child passed out through
the window; in fact, was shot through
by the sudden check of the cars mo-
mentum. Another is, that the car in
which she was, was one OF the Ill put
together ones, above referred to, the
sides of which flew open, and that she
was left behind by the run in its down
ward flight. Either of these supposi-
tions brings us as near to solution Of
the matter, probably, as ever we shall
get.