Morning journal and courier., 1881-06-06
How a Child Was Saved.

But SILL love the cawing of the crow.
Il How Child was Saved.
Remarkable Inc.u.rt of the Railroad
Accident at Bear swamp.
The Philadelphia Times gives an interest
ing and vivid account of the fatal disaster on
the New York division of the Pennsylvania
railroad, near Trenton, N. j., on Monday, as
| told by Mr. Peter Henry Deacons q travelling
salesman. The father of the babe mentioned
was Mr.. Augustus Ritter, a Philadelphia
bookkeeper, 36 years of age, who was one
of the two passengers killed, the other being
Mrs. Lucretia Pennington, also of thiladel-
phia. The latter was 50 years of age Mr..
Deacon says:
| 1--WE left New York at twenty minutes past
three. It was the fast express. We were
| due in Philadelphia, I understood, at ten
minutes of five. The train had four passen-
ger cars and baggage car. First was the
smoking car, then Pullman parlor car, and
after that two regular passenger coaches. 1
| was in the next to the last. There were
| about thirty in this car. 1 sat on the right
| hand side front, on the seat next but one to
| the front door. Directly opposite sat
| gentleman and his wife and baby. l remem-
| ber those passengers particularly, because
| the baby, pretty little thing In white lace
| cap, was being danced upon its mothers
| knee, while the father kept teasing it We
| came along. Directly behind this family
-sehind me sat an elderly gentle
| man. German, think. 1t about ten
| minutes of four when we began to get near
trenton. 1 remember looked at my watch
and thought we had been travelling about an
hour. I began to feel sleepy and braced my
feet against the aisle end of my seat and my
head against the car window, and had closed
my eyes when heard woman scream. Be-
fore had time to know what it meant the
car was thrown violently to one side, careen-
1Ofth nd
opposite me. With my feet braced against
the end of the seat and my body leaning the
other way could not, of course, go In that
direction. but was thrown with my head
against the window, which caused it to go
crashing through. l wore stiff black hat,
and that, am satisfied, saved my life. The
pane went crashing to pieces, and when the
car regained its balance my head came back
inside again. And just now was the stra ngest
part AS the was pitched back into po-
sition again the little baby was thrown
square into my arms while the father, who
sprang to catch it, seized hold of the little
lace cap as the baby went flying to and
tore it off its head and retained it in his
hand. The woman was thrown across
the aisle past me, toward the car
door. Then reaction came in an instant,
when the car, with a quick sunden, sharp
Jerk, more violent than before, careened
over This time felt myself going with it,
when the strong hand of the passenger in
the seat behind jerked me back toward the
broken window, and felt myself, baby and
all going out knew no more till found
myself lying in a swamp about three feet
below the railroad track, and the baby in my
arms 1t was not hurt My head almost to
my eyes was buried in mud. One shoe was
missing from my foot, which was likewise
imbedded in the mud it had caught between
the seats when they came crashing together,
and being easy to draw had slipped Off and
left my foot free.
ooh, it was fearful when l opened my eyes
and looked up. Our car had been smashed
like an egg-shell. I can't compare it to any
thing else. AS it careened over the second
time the hindmost truck wheels of the car III
the rear-which had jumped the track and
ran right alongside ours on the opposite side
from which had been thrown out, until it :
had turned a complete somersault on end and
dropped its hind truck, wheels and ALL as it
WERE from the air-as our car careened over
the second time this heavy truck came crash
ing down on the roof, right overhead the
seat where the man had sat with his wife and
baby The first thing 1 saw after got up
was the woman running about, wringing her
hands and crying for somebody to save
her husband The German who sat in
the seat behind me when the accident occur
red came up to where was and took the
baby. 1t not hurt. rushed to the
other side of the car, and there was sicken-
ing sight The father had his body halfway
out OF the window when the trucks came
,rashing down on him, smashing ID the roof
like an egg shell and falling right across his
waist His brains were oozing out, blood
was streaming all over his face. and he was
quite dead. / don't think he lived an instant
after the truck struck him. In one hand he
held his baby's little lace cap, and it could
not be gotten out of his fingers
The wife was rushing wildly about, scream
ing for somebody to come and get her hus-
band out 1t was not with two or
three passengers, one of them with
the baby in his arms, had taken her in hand
that she could be gotten way. lie passen-
gers got axes and cut the husband out 1he
old lady who sat in the seat behind the dead
man was also badly crushed, and, I think,
died few minutes afterward. If it had not
been for the passenger in the seat behind me
pulling me back, I too would have been
crushed to death under the heavy truck and
the baby along with me. How the mother
was saved, I don't know. When the car
pitched over the second time she was thrown
aslant the aisle past my seat and toward the
door She was crushed between the seats and
seriously hurt Afterward she and her baby
were cared for by passengers, VINO raised
purse of money for her and took her to the
hotel Her husbands watch was also given
her by the German, who took 1t OIL bis per-
son in my presence"
How a French Reporter Distinguished
Himself
from the Parisan.]
One of the most brilliant feats of French
reporting is the following. 1t happened at
the time when the great Tropmann murder
case was agitating Paris and France and
when everybody was eager for details