The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-11-18
PURSUED BY A TRAIN.
A Mountain Girls Happy Idea Saved the
Lives of the Frightened Passengers.

Mountain Girls Happy Idea Saved the
Lives of the Frightened Passengers.
From the Washington Star.
speaking of experiences on the
road" said a New York travelling man.
Il had slight scrape one time on a
mountain road in Tennessee that may
be worth the hearing.
I'VE were coming down a long grade
OF 10 miles in a mixed train. That is.
we had a gondola loaded with ties as
the end car, with our two passenger
coaches and baggage car. and / should
say We were making about 20 miles an
hour on track that would be treat
ing US very kindly IL 1t didn't sling us
INTO eternity II we dared to add FIVE
miles an hour to our speed, when L
happened TO look out of the rear door
ana saw wild train of loaded cars
swinging down after us. They had evil
IDENTIFY started at a tipple which we had
passed only few minutes before. and
when l saw them they were going so
fast that they distanced the men on the.
ground, who made a run to get on and.
stop their further flight. / made a wild
rush for the conductor, but before 1
reached him he had ordered the en-
gineer to let out his engine for all she
was worth, and in this way keep ahead
or our chasers. Fortunately, we had
no women aboard, and the men could
be kept in better control. though 1t was
ali we could do to keep them from
jumping off,
1T was only a short time until we
began to see that our salvation lay in
the pursuing train flying the track. be-
cause we had reached our limit, and our
train was swaying and tossing so that
everybody was scared out of his wits.
1 know / was, and I just sat in my
seat and held on, waiting and listening
to the thunder of the train behind us.
which was not 500 yards away and
gaining every second. 1t was far heav-
Body went off the track 1t wasn't going
to be the coal train. 1 said moment
ago we had no women aboard. / meant
we had none to speak of.
There was one. but she was a home
ly mountain girl, who didn't seem to
know anything, and because she sat
quiet in the corner and didn't scream,
we thought she didn't amount to
enough to count. / was looking at her
in dazed kind of a way, when all of
a sudden she lit out of her seat as II
she had been shot out of 1t, and knock
ing everybody out Of the way, she
dashed out OF the rear door before any
body could touch her. and we thought
she had jumped off, but she hadn't. She
Jumped for the open car, hanging on
like cat, until she got to the far end
of 1t, and In a second she was tumbling
lnose ties OH AT the rate or q dozen a
second
They would hit the track and bounce
every which way, but she kept piling
them off the coal train getting closer
every second, and at last a couple of
them stuck up in a cattle guard, and
the next thing we knew there was a
terrific crash, rails and ties and tracks.
and coal cars flew. and the coal train
rolled over itself and went down the
hill in heap. BY George, as that girl
stood there in her plain calico dress
and her old sunbonnet and watched
that train pile up at her feet, thought
that Joan OF Arc, Cleopatra, Queen
Eliz abeth, Grace Darling and the lot
of them weren't patching to her, and,
as far as we were concerned, they
weren't.
"She had saved our train and our
lives, and we took her on with us in
triumph. Then we made up a purse for
her big enough to buy a farm with, and
I'll bet she's got more good clothes and
tewelry and books and trinkets and
things than any. girl in the mountains.
for we never forget her. She doesn't
quite appreciate some of the fine things
she has, but what do we care for that;
we aDpreciate her inst the sayna