Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1893-07-13
G.. H. C. AFTER TROUT.
A Graphic Account Of An Accident
That Might Have Been Fatal.

Special Correspondence New MEXICAN.
F1NNs CABIN, Pecos Forks, July l2'
In company with several Santa Feans
in search of the festive trout, mountain
air and a rest, left Santa Fe on Monday
at IL a. IN. Monday night we spent
nder the hospitable roof of Mr.. F. H.
Strong, at the famous Valley ranch, and
6 o. m. found us on the road to the forks.
Our driver was Thos. Jones, trusty,
careful man, and the vehicle was one of
Lowitzki's mountain wagons, we'll built,
three seated and comfortable, with can
vass top-but the wheels are rather high,
and this lends top-heavy feature to the
rig when loaded that came very near
proving disastrous for some of our party.
Between Cooper's and the Rivera set
tle1nent the road is mountainous, rocky
and siding, and just after passing the
Rivera bridge, our outfit toppled over
and rolled topsy-turvey down the EN-
Griswold and the two little girls were the
only occupants of the vehicle at the time.
Mr.. Sherrard Coleman had gone on 100
yards in front to spy out the road and
Mrs. Cross and l were walking thirty
feet behind the wagon, having gotten out
to Tighten the load. We saw the rear
upper wheel strike cobble stone, and at
the same instant the rear wheel on the
lower side of the road dropped into a
chuck, giving the vehicle just enough
momentum to set it swaying. We saw it
tremble and reel to and fro once and
then all went over, the horses falling
backward on the wreck that pinioned
down Miss Griswold and my little daugh-
ters. The next three moments were fer
us full of terror, despair and hope. The
driver had gone down the embankment
entangled in the reins, but fell clear of
the wreck. He saw the danger of double
disaster and at once sprang forward to
control the horses, one of which was down
and kicking and the other was actually
on top of him. At this moment Mrs
Cross had one of the horses by the bit
struggling to keep him from falling
backward. The rear wheels of the upset
wagon were in the very waters edge
and if the team had fallen backward there
was possibility that the whole outfit would
slide into the river, thus endangering the
lives of those in the wreck by drowning
This never occurred to me at the time
but Mrs. Gross and the driver acted on
that cline of Defense" as it were, while
pulled away the shattered top, the
crushed seats, boxes, blankets, etc, and
went hunting for the inmates of the
vehicle. There was not sound from
within and that instant was awful, bat
presently Miss Griswold rolled out from
under the wreckage and then found the
children. They were fastened down head
first and held there by the thin Stats in
the wagon top, so that had to break the
Stats away from their heads and faces, to
release them, but all this time could see
their little legs kicking vigorously and
knew then that good fortune was on our
side.
A few moments later the three plucky
ones from the wreck we're sitting on a
rock eating ham sandwich, and after
two hours of patching up the rig and
gathering in scattered articles, we reached
our camp, full of thankfulness over our
escape from serious disaster.
G.. H. G.