The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-07-04
HERO ON A BICYCLE
BRAVE DEED OF A SOOROHER ON
TIE STREETS OF DENVER.

Car SW0oping Down ON . Little Child,
Rushes Feariessly in Front of the Car.
Grabs Up the Child and Carries 1t Safely
to One sids-PeopIe Cheer But the
Bieyeiist Goes or About His Business
Without SsoPpIng-BysterIcal Women
Then Ron to the ChlId's side.
Denver. Colo, July 3.-If either the
CITY Of Denver or the state Of Colorado
had cross OF honor or any decoration
that IT conferred for brave deeds, the
unknown wheelman that rescued little
child from death yesterday evening
should wear il on his breast. But there
man to wear It could scarcely be found.
He saved the baby and after that did
not even stop to listen 10 the applause.
Il was about O'Clock. At the inter
section Of fifteenth and Stout streets
there was a crowd OF considerable pro-
portions. People were waiting for their
homeward cars. Stout street cars
creahed around the curve, going out and
coming in. Up and down fifteenth street
there came and went Broadway cars,
Colfax cars. Eleventh avenue cars, Nine
teenth avenue cars. Twenty-Fifth avenue
cars. In a perplexing current Of travel
People ran to catch them or stood wait
ing, their arms full Of bundles. At least
half a hundred people were there on
the TWO corners where the cars bound
for the outskirts would stop.
On Stout street toward Sixteenth some
children were playing They laughed and
ran end tumbled IN childish glee. accus-
toned to the cars and ,.eeding them or
the people little. There was one little
tot in dersses, haxen haired and dirt
begrimed. not more than years old.
She didn't care a rap for the cars She
had played alongside them day In and
day out, and was not afraid of them
or their changing bells or their cross mo-
borneers. With childish audacity she ran
back and forth across the tracks,
thoughtless and Indifferent.
1t would be interesting to know what
freakish fancy struck that baby. She
stopped in her play, looked up the
sl eet toward where the cars were COM
ing swiftly, ran away from the ira ok
and then with the utmost deliberaton
stepped back between the rails. With
her little yellow head uplifted saucily the
inpudent tot stood quite still and looked
up at the great big white car thta was
coming down upon her.
1t was not ten feet away. The speed
was such that the car simply could not
be stopped in ten fet. The motorneer
ri Al hi !, l><
agely. The people heard the yell and
looked. Their hearts wet into their
mouths and they stood fixed in terror.
For an instant the most absolute silence
relgned over the corner OF fifteenth ard
Stout streets. The baby was as good
as dead crushed beneath the heavy cleo
trio car.
But at that instant wheelman came
down fifteenth street. He was Of that
sort known and execrated as the scorch-
er. His hack was bumped and his chin
ne knew his wheel.
The wheelman saw the baby and the
car and the people rooted in dismay to
the street and sidewalks. Quick as a
thought, simultaneous with the thought,
he sprinted. His wheel glided close by
the side OF the car, turned directly in
front of it 80 that the guard rail barely
missed his head. and shot across the
track. The space between the baby and
the car was not three feet, but 1t was
enough. The wheelman as he flashed
past reached out his right arm. grabbed
the imputent tot by rs dress and lifted
1t out Of danger.
The impetus he was under carried him
and his burden past the corner Of Fiji
teenth and Stout streets several yards
before he showed up and put the baby
down on the asphalt. He did not dis
mount 10 do it, but rode on out Stout
street toward Fourteenth. The crowd on
the corners broke into impetuous ap-
plause that could be heard block away
women ran 10 where the child
stood and after calling her little dear
and few other nee names told her
she ought to be padded. At all of which |
the baby smiled with the utmost good |
humor.