Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1896-01-02
SAVED THE PASSENGERS
An American Woman Who Is Cr.,..-
Than Joan of Arc of France

An American woman Who Is Great.
| Than Joan of Arc of France,
! From the Washington Star: "Spea,
| ing of experiences on the railroad
said a New York travelling man, 81 had
slight scrape one time on mountain
road in Tennessee that may be worth
| the hearing We We're coming down
! long grade of ten miles in mixed train
That is we had a gondola loaded with
| ties as the end car, with our two pass.
enger coaches and baggage car. and
should say we were making about TWEEN.
ty miles an hour on a track that vould
be treating us very kindly if it did NOT
sling us into eternity if we dared to
add five miles an hour to our speed
when I happened to look out of the
rear door and saw wild train of load.
ed coal cars swinging down after us
They had evidently started at tipule
which we had passed only few min.
utes before, and when I 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. l made wild rush for the con.
ductor, but before l reached him he
had ordered the engineer to let out
his engine for all she was worth, and in
this way keep ahead Of our chasers.
Fortunately we had no women aboard
and the men could be kept in better
control, though it was all we could do
to keep them from jumping off. It was
only short time until we began to see
that our salvation lay in the pursuing
train flying the track, because we had
reached our limit and our train was
swaying and tossing so that everybody
was scared out Of his wits. | know
was, and just sat in my seat and held
on, waiting and listening to the thun.
der of the train behind u.s. which was
only 500 yards away and gaining every
second. 1t was far heavier than ours
and l knew that if anybody went off
the track it wasn't going to be the coal
train. said a moment ago that we had
no women aboard. l mean we had none
to speak of. There was one, but she
was homely 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. l was looking at
her in dazed kind of way, when all Of
a sudden she lit cut of her seat as il
she had been shot out Of it, and, knock
ing everybody out of the way she dashed
out OF the rear door before anybody
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 it, and in second she was tumbling
those ties off at the rate Of a dozen
second. They would hit the track and
bounce every which way, but she kept
piling them off, 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 tics, 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
ana her old sunbonnet and watched that
train pile up at her feet, | thought that
Joan OF Arc, Cleopatra, Queen Eliza
beth, 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 purse for her big
enough to buy farm with, and I'll
bet she's got more good clothes and
jewelry 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 appreciate her, just the same"