The record-union., 1897-03-01
BARELY SAVED FROM DEATH.
Thrilling Runaway Accident Yesterday
Afternoon.
A Buggy Team Plunges Into the
American River With DIR. Miiii-
ken and Wife.

DR.. c. IT. AIiTil1en and wife had an
experience yesterday that neither OF
them will care to repeat if they were TO
live a hundred years.
They narrowly escaped being dashed
to death during a runaway. only to be
hurled into the American River, where
they were saved from drowning by the
very prompt action of several men VINO
FASTENED to their assistance.
The doctor and his wife set out in
buggy in the afternoon to enjoy drive
in the balmy spring air. They had
pair of spirited horses from the Tele-
graph Stable, 1922 ] street, and light
buggy They drove down X street ana
turned northward into Seventh Just
then the horses took fright at the Sal
walton Army Corps music and started
to run.
Increasing their speed at every jump,
the horses tore through Seventh street,
while crowds of people gathered on the
sidewalks to watch the rapidly disap-
Fearing vehicle, expecting at any mo-
ment to see it wrecked by collision with
an electric wire pole and its occupants
dashed to the ground and perhaps
killed.
But DR.. Milliken managed to avert
collision by keeping the maddened
horses in the roadway. a half-mlle
ahead was the high railroad emhank-
ment known as the north levee, on the
other side of which lies the old bed OF
the American River, now with fifteen
or twenty feet of water in it. The
horses were going at full speed, and 1t
was impossible to turn into any of the
streets running at right angles without
overturning the buggy or dashlng upon
the sidewalk, and DR.. Milliken decided
to take the chances of checking the
horses speed when they reached the
railroad embankment. Possibly he did
not know that to. cross it would plunge
the team, himself and wife into the
water
The street led up to the levee by an
easy grade, however, and the horses
never for a moment checked their speed.
The sight was a thrilling one to those
who watched the buggy and its occu-
pants pass up and over the grade, then
down the other side and out of sight.
Hacks, pedestrians, wheelmen and
others We're following as fast as possi-
wrecked before it reached the embanlS-
ment.
When the followers of the runaway
reached the levee they found the horses
fiCundering in the water and DR.. Mil
liken exerting himself as best he could
to save his wife from drowning.
With one arm about his wife, he man
aged with the other to grasp the limb
of a bush or small tree, and thus kept
their heads out of water until those who
had come to their rescue had procured
a rope at house near by and thrown 1t
to them. BY this means they We're
drawn to the bank and rescued in an
exhausted condition. They were speed
lily placed in a hack and driven to their
home, while the men who had gathered
at the scene were devising means to
rescue the valuable animals that were
floundering about in the water.
This was a difficult and slow task
Among those who reached the spot
within few minutes after the horses
plnged into the water was Dick May,
Jr. Dick was reared by the river ard
is not afraid of water, even though it be
cold.
He saw at once that the only way to
save the horses was to reach them and
if possible pilot them to the shore. In
an instant May was stripped to his un-
derwear, and he plunged into the cold
water and swan out to the horses. One
VAS already drowned, but he was deter
mined to save the other if possible.
A couple of hundred men stood on the
bank and endeavored to boss the job"
hut did not care TO risk their lives for
the sake OF saving one horse. May
reached the horses, and just then
Chinaman was seen coming to the res
cue from the vegetable harden near by
in a s1iff May called the Chinaman
to where he was, and got into the skiff
Holding the head Of the surviving horse
above the water he had the Chinalaan
paddle to tsea place where the grade
runs out into the water.
AS soon as they reached a spot where
the horse could get his fore feet on the
ground May left the boat and set about
cutting the horse loose. Then he was
Joined by John Morrissey, a waiter in
the Vienna Restaurant, VINO had also
stripped and gone out to try aud save
the horse.
Morrissey held the struggling and
nearly strangled horse while Nav cut