Evening star., 1897-01-02
AT A RAILROAD STATION.

What Happened When n Drunken
Man Tried to Board IA Moving Train.
From the New York Sun.
'StaEding the other day on a railroad
platform waiting for train," said a trav-
eler, Il saw among the passengers who had
just got off a train-not the train that /
wanted-a well-dressed man Who was
drunk; he was noticeable on that account.
He went into the station, and the other
passengers disappeared, as people do after
they get off a railroad train. The people
who had been waiting for that train board
ed it, and the platform, a minute before
all In hustle, was now almost deserted,
except for a few who were waiting as 1
was for the train in the other direction,
and policeman.
''Out. from one of the station doors came
the man with the jag. He saw the deserted
platform, and then he looked up and saw
the train-his train-moving smoothly and
rapidly out of the station and gathering
headway all the time, and instantly he
made a break for it. running along the
platform at the start and obliquely off
upon the tracks OF course everybody on
the platform watched him, as people do
when they haven't anything to do, and
almost everybody was inclined to smile at
the ef1ort OF man to oVertake a railroad
train.
But this man was a runner, and he was
not only swift, but true. From the instant
he appeared through the door of the station
and saw the moving train and broke into
the run he never wavered. He ran as true
as die II he had been second later
he wouldn't have made it at all. AS 1t was,
he came alongside the last car of the mov-
ing train just back of the front platform.
We thought he would miss it even then,
but he made a squirt, came up level with the
steps. caught the handrail nearest to him
the one on the body of the car-made a
spring for the steps, at the same time
reaching for the other handrail-the one
on the forward part of the platform. He
got his feet up on the steps, missed the
front rail by a hair, swung around back
ward again off the step, and then hung
there for second or two. holding with one
hand the Fail he had grabbed first and
dangling from the corner of the car.
We'll. we had all stopped smiling some
time before that. The policeman and one
or TWO more had started a run up the
platform toward the train. They couldn' t
do anything: the thing had got to work
itself out now, but 1t was natural to make
a rush for the place. The chances were
million to one that he couldn't pull him
self up, and he could not In a second or
two he dropped. Of course there was an
even chance that he would fall outward.
clear of the car, as he might tumble in
ward under the car and be smashed What
actually did happen was this: He fell so
that he lay stretched out on the ground
parallel with the track and under the pro-
Jecting side of the car. If he kept still he
was as safe there as if he had been in
China. If he should roll over outwardIy
he would roll into safety: inwardly he
would roll into almost certain death If
he sat I'D he was sure to be hit by some
of the projecting attachments of the car.
IL was thrilling situation while it lasted
hat the man did do was to lie perfectly
still; he had been stunned or dazed by the
fall, and in second the car had passed
on and left him lying there, safe. The po-
ilcenan picked him up and brought him
back to the platform; he could walk then
ali right and talk, but he hadn't the faint
est realization of what he had just escaped.
For my own part, l never try to board
moving train. Life is much too short to
be fooled away in any such fashion as
that