Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-07-31
KATE SHELLY


KATE SHELLY
HOtU a Brave Girl SHUed a K0iIrO0d Train
and Many Lipes-- WiU Vanderbilt g. Co.
ResUard the HerOisn
[Chicago Times.l
While benevolent, wealthy and we'll
meaning people are engaged in raising 3
fund of S250,000 for the excellent wife of
our wounded President, it is fitting that
some persons of abundant means should
consider the case of Kate Shelly She is
not the wife, daughter or remote relative
of a President or of any other person
high in authority. Her name has not be-
come familiar to our ears as household
words" on account of the position of any
of her family or of her ancestors She
has never been abroad, neither has she
passed her summers at fashionable water
ing places in this country. She is poor,
very poor, girl, only Is years old, whose
father was killed by a railroad accident
several years ago, and she now lives with
her widowed mother in a little shanty on
the east bank Of the Des Moines river,
Boone county, Iowa, very near the track
of the Northwestern railway.
On the night of the 18th OF July there
was fearful storm. The current of the
river was raging torrent. The surging
waters washed the banks and destroyed
the foundations of the bridge across the
stream. Clouds of inky biackness shut
out the light of comet, moon and stars.
The occasional flashes of lightning only
served to render the scene hideous At inc
tervals the peals of thunder broke in on
the roar of the mad waters and the moan
ing of the winds There were no friends
or neighbors near Kate Shelly and her
widowed mother were in their cherries
shanty alone on that fearful night. They
thought of the time when their protector
was killed in the discharge of his duty as
a railroad operative. They were alone in
the world, and they drew close together.
They had no protector now but God.
They knelt and prayed to him.
There was noise, a crash-something
very different from the fall of tree or a
discharge of lightning. TWAS the fall
of an engine over the embankment. Kate
Shelly took lantern and went out to
brave the tempest. The wind blew out
her light; the rain drenched her scantv
clothing. Sometimes her steps were
guided by the flashes of lightning, and at
other times by the sense of touch. At
length she reached the scene of the
wreck An engineer who had saved him
self by catching hold of a branch made
his voice heard through the tumult of
the winds and waters. He was the only
survivor from the freight train. His
companions were crushed by the falling
engine Or drowned in the swift flowing,
deep waters. They had met the fate Of
her father-died in the discharge of duty
Kate Shelly did not remain long at
the scene of the disaster. She did not
stay to give aid to an acquaintance who
could sustain himself till relief could be
obtained. She did not return to her
mother. She knew that an express pas
senger train was nearly due, and that it
could only be saved from destruction by
conveying information to telegraph Of
flee. There was no one to convey it but
herself. There was telegraph Office at
Boone, on the side Of the river where she
was, but it was five miles away, and the
route tt it lay through wilderness She
could walk five miles through a wilder
ness, even with the wind blowing like a
hurricane and the rain falling in torrents,
but she could not reach the place in time
to give the alarm and save the train
There was another telegraph Office at
MoingOna, only mile distant. But in
the space of that mile was bridge
over 400 feet long, over river which pre-
scented the appearance of Niagara. 1t was
not made for human feet to tread. Its
only covering was ties and rails Kate
Shelly did not hesitate. She saw there
road that led over the bridge. On that
bridge, fifty feet above the watery
abyss, she endeavored to walk, but the
wind Frustrated her. She grasped the
tinibers and saved herself. Then ON her
hands and knees she made her way
across. She was in momentary expecta-
ton that the express train would come
dashing across the prairie and hurl her
into eternity. On her knees she crawled
and prayed; the blood from her wound
Cd limbs stained her clothing and the
timbers to which she chung. She reached
the shore in safety, and, forgetting her
WEAKNESS and exhaustion, ran half
mile to the nearest telegraph Office. AL
most breathless she told her story to the
astonished operators, and, fainting, fell
into the arms of one of them. An alarm
was sent over the wires. The train and
all it's passengers were saved by the hero
ism of this brave girl.
The telegraph operator, however, did
not send the dispatches to the Eastern
papers announcing the heroic achieve
ment of the girl who had prevented a
terrible catastrophe at the peril of her
life; that is probably the reason that
Mr.. Field and other members of the New
York exchange have not set about rails
ing a memorial fund for her. That prob
ably furnishes the reason why Mr.. Van
derbilt and other railroad capitalists have
not contributed large sum of money for
the same worthy object That must be
the reason why numerous cities, East and
West, have not presented houses and
horses to brave Kate Shelly and her
widowed mother. The fact that they
were poor and in a lowly station of life
could have no influence in preventing
people from giving We are all Ameri-
cans, and glory that no class distinctions
exist in this country. Now that
the report of this heroic act has
become known through the medium
of country paper, circulated in
the mails, the wealthy people of coun-
try that acknowledges no class distinc-
lions as they are recognized abroad will
not long delay to ittingly reward deed
of x,o1or Tho orno1 Of which ,,o1yor