The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1873-09-20

yors-A PIucky Young Lady-shs IL
Blown Up seventy Feet, nnd COLnes
Down URinjured.
From the St Louis Democrat, Aug. Isl
Miss Beckie Cohn, of Jefferson, Texas,
and her cousin, Mr.. W, SolomonskS, of
Paris, Texas, two Of the survivors of the
Wolff disaster, arrived in this city byirail
from Memphis yesterday afternoon.j A
Democrat reporter at once sailed forth for
the purpose of interviewing them. Mr..
Solomonsky is wholesale and retail deal
er in clothing, etc., at Paris, Texas, also
having branch of his establishment at
Honey Grove, in the same State. OH ar
irving in this city he and Miss Cohn bro
reeeded to the residence of Mr. DFessneF, at
2205 Franklin avenue, where they were
seated when the reporter called. il
Miss Cohn occupied a rocking chair,
which had been drawn up to the, door TO
give her the benefit of what air was stir
ring. She was evidently very tired! but
greeted the reporter kindly; and, Upon
being asked to tell her story, did so quite
readily and naturally. From what fol-
lows it WILDE seen that she can properly
lay claim to being lady. of great presence
of mind. 1t may be well to state here that
she spoke very reluctantly of her good ac-
tions, and that the newspaper man had to
resort to little pardohable strategy to
bring them TO the surface.
She comn1encedsby stating that she took
passage on the steamer George g. WolH
at Shreveport, and that when the vessels
boilers exploded, she and a party of ladies'
and gentlemen were seated on thepOrt
guard, near the boilers. This party con-
sisted of herself, Mr.. Solomonsky, Miss
Tyler, Mrs. Frisbie and child, and afrold
gentleman from Memphis, named Nelson.
When the crash came, Miss Cohn was
thrown sixty or seventy feet in the air,
and fell into the water ia mid stream! She
grasped spasmod Ideally at nothing, and had
gone down three times before she succeed
ed in clutching large log, to which a
rope was attached. She then 6irifted clown
about a hundred yards and saw a man in
the water. He turned out to be an attache
Of the Transatlantic Circus, and she caught
hold of him by the foot with one hand,
while she eltiiig to the rope with the other.
He told her to release his foot, which she
did, transferring her hold to his neck He
then told her to take his arm, and said that
he would we them both. This she also
did. and they both were successful in
getting on the log. They worked hard to
reach shore and succeeded in doing so in
about an hour. the wind helping them
considerably. On nearing the shore the
barber of the steamer was seen, Dhe ne
was too excited to know what to d@. ana
was only brought to his senses when MISS
Cohn shouted for pole. He finally hand-
ed her one, and she and her companion
reached terra JiypsG. On reaching snore
Miss Cohn saw her cousin floating some
distance below. and at once proceeted to
take measures to save him. No rope was
to be had except a short one which the
circus man succeeded in finding. The
lady at once, tore off her skirts and made
an addition to the rope, with when sne
finally drew him ont of the water.
She saws she had presentlment p1 Inc
accident: that she had notfelt safe curing
the entire trip; she could not feel secure
and so certain was she that an acelden'
would happen to the beat, that she bad hel
cousin show her how tb use life-pfeserv
er the day previous. She was bruised
about the head and mouth and had enc o
her legs slightly hurt, but on theiWholt
congratulates herself at having Jared ns
worse Partaf her baggage was DESTROYED "a
Mr.. Solmonsky says he was seated VIII
the party on deck, when it began 20 ram
His cousin proposed that they go INTO Tn,
cabin, but at his suggestion they reflnaInee
on deck, going to the left of the stack
while Mr.. Nelson went to the right
While they were sitting there peal o
thunder was heard, and Miss Cohn asked
him if there was danger in case a storm
came up. He replied that in storm TN
boat would be, tied up; and no lsoone
were the words ont of his mouth than tn
explosion occurred. He knew nothing
until he struck the water, among a lot
boards. and tried to raise his head halt
dozen times before he finally succeeded
He could not swim, land buoyed nlmsel
up with the timber as well as possible
He saw Miss Cohn clinging to the lo
about 800 yards above, and also saw tw
men trying to launch boat from tn
Wolff, which had drifaed ashore. de ais