Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1892-04-07
UNDER A MOVING CAR.
SENSATIONS EXPERIENCED IN
FACING DEATH.
A Man who Fell Beneath Train Tells
What He Thought When Lies Lamp
Seemed About to Be EXtinguished-
Looking Into Eternity.
A Spectators Story.


To fall under a running railroad
train; to lie on the rail and see death
in the shape of big wheels approach
ing one at the rate of fifteen miles or
so an hour and only a few feet dis
tant, is an experience not given to
many to be able to relate. To drop
off a slippery step and tumble onto
the rail between the wheels of a
sleeping-car and yet escape with only
the loss of the flesh of ones heel is a
feat not often successfully accom-
plished. Yet this is what happened
to Chicago man recently.
How did it happen? What were
you thinking abOut?" he was asked
the other day
WELL" he replied, Il had no time
to find out how it happened, but | do
remember a good many things that
thought of while it was happening.
Now, it seems utterly impossible to
me that such a flood of thoughts
could flash through my brain and
leave their individual and distinct
impressions, as did in the almost inn
meaSurably short space of time that [
lay on the rail in front of those
wheels. 1t is said that just at the
moment Of ones death the whole do
ings of lifetime are held up for re-
view in less time than it takes to
wink ones eye. | can readily believe
it. In less than q second | thought
of the many accidents of which |
had read 1t flashed through my
mind that | had often seen men cred
tied with Willful negligence or reck-
less intention in allowing themselves
to be killed or MANNED, and there |
was on the track, ready to furnish
another illustration. Yes, sir: there
| lay, flat on my back on the rail, and
saw the wheels of the after truck of
the car come rolling along, and only
few feet away. 1t almost seemed
as if | felt them crushing and grind
ing my bones. yet | had, it seems,
time to think, also, of how easily
fellow gets killed.
Il thought how foolish it was to
accuse others Of fOolhardinesS in get
ting run over while | myself was
about to become a horrible example.
L L
lightly engineers and conductors,
and helped to take the blame from
them and put it on the fellow who
got killed. But my greatest regret,
in the time I had to think, was that
| had so often adversely criticised the
man who got run over.
strange as it may seem, however,
these were not half my thoughts. |
realized that | was yet alive, in the
best of good health, every bone and
limb sound, so to speak. and the next
instant | would, | felt be ground
into pieces, and my flesh and bones
scattered over the railroad track.
There was no power in the world to
help me. so it seemed: not all that
the engineers or conductors or brake
men could do would be of any avail.
Then it flashed through my mind that
| was on the brink Of the other world.
and l had not even a chance to make
one repentant prayer. | wondered
what it would mean for ME.
while these ideas were flying
through my mind must have made
some sort of an effort to escape. |
have no knowledge of how | did it nor
the least notion of how | accom-
plished it, but | did roll off the rail
outward. The wheel caught my heel,
though at first it seemed as if my foot
was cut off above the ankle and | was
powerless to move it. | managed to
get onto my right foot and balance
myself on that for a second. to get my
thoughts together as to what | should
next do. 1t has taken me ten or fif-
teen minutes to tell this thing, but it