The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-08-11
An iowa Grace Darling.

When the wind and rain was pourinp
in torrents down the CANYON through
which the railway track from here to
Aoingona runs, on Wednesday night
of last week, a young girl of fourteen or
fifteen stood at her window at midnight
near the lower end of the ravne, watch.
ing the slow, forward creeping motion of
the pilot engine sent out to explore
the condition of the embankmcnts
and bridge. Suddenly, rs upon a
wcll.known trestlc, she saw it op and
its lights disappear. and knew there
| were human lives in danger. Rushing
out in the storm and TO the brink of the
chnsn, kittie Shelly called at the top of
her voice, with the hope that some
poor struggler in tho turbid waters might
hear her voice and be encouraged bv her
cry.
She was heard, aud back from the
swaying tree top, in which prccarious
perch the engineer had found another
lease OF life, came an answer to her
cheer, many times repeated. But the
swollen streams forbade hearing the di.
rcctions which were shouted to the young
girl, and she was left to her own resources
TO effect 4 rescue, which fortunately were
not wanting. Alone and guided by the
iilckering light of dim lantern, she COM
mcnccd her journey through the tall
wood to N1oingona, IL mile away, to sum-
mon help. She crcpt beneath the sway
ing branches, her face brushed the
switching undcrgrowth, wet to the waist
by wading through the little hollows Of
the hillside, each now running brook.
losing her way ut times, though every
foot of the route was Il known page un-
der ordinary circumstances, and at last
came out upou the long railway bridge.
Here light blew out, but she did not
hesitate. Across the slippery bridge ties,
for there were no planks, she stepped,
guided only by the ghastly flashes
of the lightning, while the wind blew
gale. and wrapped her skirts about her
head, drenchcd her eye with the cold
spray of the storm. Beneath her were
the waters whose embrace was death.
Six feet had they risin in an hour; ono
false step aud they would close over her
forever. They dashed and howled against
the piers and across the ice break camor-
ing for her, and licking out their foaming
tongues and flecking the trembling tim
bers with their froth. There must have
been Providence which guided little Ka.
tic Shclly's footsteps across that perilous
Pho9aSc III tilC awful tliRDt until the sale
ground of the western embankment was
reached and she fled through the black
darkness, with streaming hair and out
stretched bare and cleaning arms to the
lights Of the town, and in the cars of
anxious men at the depot shouted the
story Of the disaster and the cry for help.
Two men went down in That fatal
chasm and two widows and two families
of infant children call for the lost who
never shall return; b.. two other men
and two other families, to their dying
days, have cause to thank the good Lord
that he made a woman with the brave
heart Of Kate Shelly The cold, bust
ncss-like report will never tell it rs it is,
only whcn-"thc accident was reported
by the young girl and relief was prompt
ly dispatched" And when the fatal trap
in which poor Oimstcad and Pat Dona-
hue found their watery graves is again
filled up and traffic is once busy over
the spot, the great company will forget
the deed, or only remember it as an ac-
cident which brought about no suit for
personal damages against the company.