Kimball enterprise. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1883, 1883-07-13
A HAWkEYE HEROIN NE.

How Kate Shelly Saved Several Lives In the
the Recent Northwestern Railway Accident
"A Daring Passage of Bridge in the
Night.
The Boone, Ia, Standard says: When the
wind and rain was pouring in torrents down
the canyon through which the railway track
from here to Moingona runs on Wednesday
night of last week. young girl of fourteen or
fifteen stood at her window at midnight nea
the lower end of the ravine, watching the slow
forward creeping of the pilot engine sent out
10 explore the condition of the entertainments
and bridges. Suddenly, as it passed upon q
vel! known trestle, she saw its lights disap-
pear, and knew there were human lives i'll
danger. Rushing out into the storm and to
the brink of the chasm, Kittie Shelly called at
the top of her voice, with the hope that some
poor struggler i'll the turbid waters might hear
her voice and be encouraged by her cry. She
WAS heard and back from the swaying tree
top, Ill which precarious perch the engineer
had found another lease of life, came an an
swer to he., cheer, many times repeated. But
the streams forbade hearing the directions
which were shoated to the Young girl, and she
was left to her OWE resources to effect a res
cue, which fortunately were not wanting
Alone, and guided lv the hickering light Of a
dim lantern, she commenced her journey
through the tall wood to Moingona. a milo
swaying branches, her face brushed by tho
switching underground, wet to the waist by
wading the little holows of the hillside, each
now a running brook, losing her way al times,
though every foot of route was a known Hage
under ordinary circumstances. and at last caissc
out upon the long railway bridge. Here hei
light nlew out but she did not hesitate.
ACROSS THE SLIPPERY BRIDGE TIES,
for there were 10 planks, she stepped, guided
only by the CHASTITY flashes of lightning, while
the wind blew gale and wrapped her skirts
about her head and drenched her ewes with
the cold spray of the storm Beneath her were
the waters whose embrace was death Six feet
had they risen in an hour; one false step and
they would cloae over her forever. They
dashed and howled against the piers and across
the ice break, clamoring for her, and licking
out their foaming Tongues AID fiecklng the
trembling timbers with their froth There
must have been Providence which guided
little hattie Shellys footsteps across that peril
Gus passage in the awful night until the safe
ground of the western embankment was
reached and she fled through the black dark
ness with streaming hair and outstretched
bare and cleaning arms to the lights of the
town, and in the ears of anxious men at the de-
pot shouted the story of disaster and the cry
for help. Two men went down in that fasSl
chasm, and two widows and two families of
infant children call for the lost who never
shall return; but two other men and two other
families, to their dying days, have cause to
thank the good Lord that he made one woman
with the brave heart of Kate Shelly. The
cold, business-like official report will never
tell II as II Is, only what-'the accident was re-
dispatched. And when the fatal trap in
which poor Olmstead and Pat Donahue found
thelr Watery graves, is again filed up and
traffic once more is busy over the spot, the
great company will forget the deed, or only re-
mcmoer 1t as an accident which brought no
Il
pany.
FROM the Ogden Reporter: On last Wednes-
day night when O'Neii Donahua and Olmstead
went down to death, when the elements and all
things terrestrial seemed blaze OF fire, the
rain deluging the earth, a noble girl, but fifteen
years OF age, was watching and praying for
those whose duty called them out over the
railroad in the fearful storm. Kate Shelly.
whose father was killed on the railroad some
years ago, lives with her mother Just on the
east side of the river, and nearly opposite
where the engines made the fearful plunge
and Donahue and Olmstead lest their lives,
nilss Shelly and her mother in their rigils, heard
the crash, as the engine went down. and reali-
zing what had happened. Kate took lantern,
ana amid the hurricane of wind, the deluge of
water, the ince ssant glare Of the lightning and
peal upon peal of deep-toned thunder, left her
nome and started for the wreck. Her light
soon went out but she felt her way through the
woods and fallen timbers to the edge of the
dashlns waters that covered the drowned men.
she could hear, above the roar OF the tempest,
sns voice OF Wood, the engineer, who had
caught in tree top. She knew that the ex.
press, with its load OF passengers, WAS nearly
que, and none to warn them of their danger
she, young GIRL was the only living being
who could
PREVENT AN AWFUL CATASTROPHE,
Inc telegraph Office at Moingona or Boone,
was the only place where she could notify the
oftlcers. To Boone WAS five miles over hills
ana through the woods, and before she could
ger there the express would have passed To
hoingona was only mile, but between here
and Moingona was the Des Moines river ten
or fifteen feet above it's natural height and to
cross this she must pass over tho railroad
bridge, sixty feet above the rushing waters
she must cross this bridge four hundred feet
long, with nothing but the ties and rails. the
WIND blowing gale, and the foaming, seeth-
ing. muddy waters beneath Not one man in a
thousand but would have shrunk from such
TASK Not one man in five hundred vino would
nave went over at any price, or under any cir
cumstances. But this brave, noble girl with
me . nerve of giant, gathered about her her
lo"lne skirts, and on hands and knees she
crawled over the long, weary bridge Slowly.
put put surely she went. Tie after tie was passed
IL was time for the express train to come dash
ing over the bridge, and to hurl her down to
death amid the dark and muddy waters of the
raar,hs, ata1 & rushing river Slowly she nears the
o'nei shoFe. 1oe blood from her laceratad
knees mas stained her Dress but she docs not
talter. She reaches the shore, and tho remain.
ing half mile she flies. almost. tc the telegraph
office. Breathless, and in broken accents she
tells her tale of death and destruction. and
faints In the arms of the by-standers. The
wires set at work. and more horrible disaster
averted Of Kate Shelly We have no more At
present to tell We believe the officers Of the
Northwestern cannot be unmindful of the dutv
they owe this brave girl
Trick on a traveller.
''Man About Town" in the Nsw York Star
Andrew Dam, of the Union Square
Hotel, told me story the other day
that is too good to be lost. 1t appears
that among the guests af the hotel was a
maiden lady from the rural districts,
Dam noticed that about 9 o'clock every