Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-07-15

One of the most amazing instances of escape
from sudden and apparently inevitable death
occurred few nights ago on the Hudson river
railroad. A man named James Carter of Hugh
sonville, was walking up the road on the down
track by night, about a mile south of the New
Hamburg Station. On his back he carried a
trunk. Suddenly a train hove in sight, thun.
derlng down the track on which Carter was
walking. 1t was an extra freight train and
moving very fast 70 see the red glare and to
hear tue crashing advance of the engine was the
work of one moment; in the next Carter had
leaped for safety upon the other track. But it
was stumbling from Scyla upon Charybdis.
The startled man could not hear, for the roar of
the freight train, a new enemy that was close
upon him. AS he jumped upon the up track,
the Pacific express came hurting along upon it
at his back, running forty miles an hOur The
engineer saw Carter, shut off steam, and whist
led down brakes" But it was too late. The
speed OF the locomotive was hardly slackened
when II struck the poor fellow, and he and his
trunk were flung twenty feet into the air.
Probably it was thousand to one at the mo
ment of collision that Carter would never draw
another breath. Yet he is alive and well TODAY.
The case proved to be one of those astonishing
exceptions to ordinary experience that we in.
stinctively call miraculous. When the shin
Dunbar was wrecked some years ago off sydney
Heads, she foundered near a sheer precipice,
almost absolutely smooth on its surface and
that smooth wall, far above the reach of any
common waves, is a single tiny crevice, or shelf
a few feet in length. 1t was a thousand to one
when the Dunbar went down that no one on
board would be saved. But the very fury of
the tempest that destroyed his ship was one
poor mariners salvation. He was tossed nm
into this crevice by monstrous wave as neatly
as a billiard ball is shot into pocket. There
he lay insensible, but he was found in time to
save him, and was hoisted to the top of the
precipice above. The chance of his going into
the crevice when the Dunbar broke m was
rather less than that of throwing pea into A
nail hole in wall twenty feet off, The chance
of Carter being saved when his body was struck
by the engine seems even less. But when he
fell it was on the fore part of the engine. His
clothes caught in what is called the "draw bar, 4"
his person not striking any part of the
locomotive at all. Thus, when discovered,
he was lying across the iron bars of the "cow
catcher" with his head down and hisIfeet up-
the head being within two or three inches of the
rails. The train dashed furiously on, Carter
continuing to hang in his perilous position until
itreached New Hamburg. Carter had been seen
by the fremen in the meantime, and one of
them had crawled down the engine and seized
his clothes. clasping with the other arm the FLAG
staff. At New Hamburg the train stopped, and
Carter was taken off. He was insensible, but
soon revived with simple remedies, and was
found to be absolutely unhurt There was not
even scratch or abrasion oi the skin, and Car
ter lived TO tell an experience doubtless I'M
known, with one possible exception, to any other
living individual.
We believe it is true that lady is alive who
has gone through something Of this kind This
was at Cold Spring Station, some wears ago
She was crossing the track in a wagon, and was
in like manner struck by locomotive The
horse was instantly killed. and the wagon
smashed to atoms. But the lady, strange to
say, after being thrown into the air. was caught
~ H. IT ~ 4.
thing as one plays the game of "graces"- and
carried on unhurt. She was rescued as soon as
the train could be stopped, and sustained no in
jury. This case strongly resembles Carter's,
and we fancy there is no other recorded parallel
and even the experience of this fortunate lady is
less surprising, not to say incredible, than the
later one VIC have lust been enabled 10 cbroni.
cle.-N Y. Times,