Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-11-08
MIRACULOUSLY SAVED
From Railroad Disaster, lightning
and Midnight Assassination.

An intensely-hot and breathless sum-
mer day brooded over the fields and
mountains of New York State. Seated
in one of the leading cars of the after
noon express train on the Freightsville
Brightsburg railway, I was speed
ing along, half asleep and extremely
warm, suffering all the discomfort
which dust and heat and flies combine
to bestow upon the summer traveller.
An old lady opposite me was nodding
over the pages of an illustrated paper,
while dissipated-looking young man
beside her was chewing tobacco, and
was, apparently, lost in thought. The
crying of a young baby from the fur
Their end of the car mingled vaguely
with my dreams. We were nearing
the station where we were to take sup
per-a small town known as Claynor.
Bumpity! bump! bump! bump! The
motion of the cars had changed with a
horrible suddenness. Startled broad
awake by the change, and too old a
railroad traveller not to know what it
portended, gazed out of the window
with alarmed intentness. The cars
were off the track-that I knew too
we'll We were running at full
speed, and the road lead alongside
of narrow stream down whose pre-
cipitous banks we might in another
moment be hurled. l saw the car in
front of the one in which we sat sway
and topple as though about to fall over.
If il did so, a general wreck and ruin
would ensue. Still bump. bump, bump,
went the car-wheels over the sleepers.
Then the motion of the train slackened,
grew slower still, and finally it came
to stand-still. Who were saved!
Goodness gracious! what are we
stopping for?" asked the stout lady,
looking up from her pictorial paper
Twenty minutes for refreshments,
ma'am," answered the youth beside
her. He was pale as death, as was
natural for one who had just looked
death IN the face, for he had fully con-
pretended our peril, but even in that
moment the strange recklessness
which is one of our national charac-
teristics had come uppermost.
As soon as the danger we had es-
capped became generally known, there
was universal chorus of cries and
explanations. some of terror others of
surprise, and some few of thauksgiv-
ing In the midst of it all most of the
passengers started to get out of the
cars to look over the wreck. We
found the engine and tender half way
down the embankment. The foremost
car had lodged against a small tree,
whose tough, tenacious roots, running
down the bank and spreading through
the earth, had enabled it to check the
onward motion of the train, already
slackened by the breaking of the coup
ling that attached the engine to it.
Humanity speaking. that tough little
tree had saved the lives of possibly
one-half of the passengers in the train.
As it was, nobody was hurt, save one
unfortunate boy who had been stealing
a ride, perched upon the step of one of
the foremost cars, and he was past
either surgery or prayers.
As stood gazing upon the engine,
standing on its head in the mud, we'll
known voice sounded in my ears, a
friendly slap tingled on my shoulder.
..Well, Brooks, can this be you?
Were we feilow-passengers without
knowing itpn
Istarted, turned, and warmly grasped
the hand that was extended towards
me.
aHow does the learned physician!
Well, this is strange renconter. And
where have you been this hot weather,
in the name of wonder? Rusticatine
among the mountains. eh?"
mo; have been to Brightsburg on
professional business. A stomach te
be analyzed-a man accused of having
poisoned his wife. I"
..And was it true bill?"
THAT can not say; that is not my
business to decide. My business was
In look for arsenic, and found enough
to have killed horse. 1t is for the
Jury to decide who gave it to the
woman. or If she took it herself
Heavens and earth, how hot it is!''
..And what are we to do now. won.
der. It will take ten hours at least to
clear the track, replace the rails, and
get things in good running order again
This is what the conductor tells me-
And tomorrow is Sunday, too-worse
luck. for they run no trains on this
road on that day, except the early
morning one.
DR.. Max Melfort buried his hands IL
the pockets of his linen duster. ant
looked around over the land
s.Have we got to stay here till Mon
Aav morniugp,' he queried, at last