The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-04-02
BILLY HAYES CLOSE CALL
THE NERVE or IN ENGINEER IN
THE FACE OF DEATH,

Song of Praise Instead of the Sound His
Incident of a Nebraska railroad Wreck.
There's wreck UP beyond on Wes-
ton" shouted the doctor, awakening
me about half past in the morning by
pounding on the wall that separated
| his room from mine. do you want to
| go?"
| Give me ten minutes and I'm with
you," I replied. Fifteen minutes later
| we went down together to partake of
steaming black coffee and toast in the
| dining room of the little Nebraska ho-
! tel.
The doctor was the railroad surgeon.
| The wreck, he said, was caused by a.
| washout, and the wreSing train was
waiting to take us to the scene. Some
| men were badly hurt, how many we
didn't know but it was hurry call"
| We cleared his office of bandages and
| plasters and cotton, gathered his in
struments into the cases, reused up the
night man at the drug store, got oil
and anaesthetics and went
Three miles beyond Weston, where
| the road straightens out on a long
down grade, was the wreck. The hea-
| Wy through freight train had gone
| through culvert about o'clock that
morning. The lookout who had been
riding on the engine had seen, in the
glare of the headlight above him, the
| CLEAN of the rails across the little gull
| ly at the bottom of the hill, and the
| gully itself running half full of water.
| He had seen the cross ties in their
| places, and he thought the track was
sound. What he did not see was that
| the cribbing of ties on which the track
had been laid across the gully had been
| washed out.
IL he had been standing on the
ground he might have noticed the sag
| of the track where the cribbing had
gone; but the rocking of the engine
disturbed his vision. The engineer and
fireman in the cab behind him, strain
ing their eyes over the track ahead
| saw no more than he, and the big train
| smashed into the gully. The engine got
nearly across before the track gave
| away. Then the strain broke the coup
ling and the first Of the freight cars
dived under the engine and blocked up
the gully. The engine sank back on
the wreck, and the box cars damned
themselves into the locomotive in a
hopeless tangle.
When the trainmen recovered from
the shock and ran forward to see what
was the matter, they found Keefer, the
lookout, lying on the bank Of the gully
a Iaer 10 1yya Il
he got there; but he must have been
pitched backward as the engine went
down rear end first. Costello, the fire.
man, was pinned into the cab by the
roof of the box car Billy Hayes, the
engineer had been thrown forward
through his cab window and was
caught by the leg between the injector
and the drive wheel.
The trainmen got Costello out of the
cab and took him and Keefer back to
Weston, where we found them. Co.'S
tello had a broken arm and a badly
damaged shoulder. We stayed long
enough to make them as comfortable
as possible and then went on to see
about Hayes.
It was after 10 O'clock when we
reached the wreck, and Hayes had
been suffering desperate agony for sew
en- hours, but he had not flinched or
shown a sign of weakening, the men
told me- in all that time. And although
he knew it must yet be hours before he
could be taken out, if inleed he could
ever be got out at all, he kept stout
heart
The heavy guard over the rear drive
wheel had been twisted up and in to-
ward the injector. Hayes was caught
by the wreck, and for a few minutes
after the accident it had poured a
stream of boiling hot water on his
back.
Turn and twist as he might he could
not get away. He struggled so hard
that he broke his leg, and then, des-
pairing of getting free by his own eff
forts, he sank back to endure.
He told his mates how he was caught
but they could not help. They had no
tools for such work as must be done to
release him, and the best they could dc
was to stand on the bank of the gully
and shout encouragement to him
| They had sent for help, and until the
wreckers came there was nothing tc
do but wait.
While they waited new peril rose
which none had foreseen, and which
proved anew the courage of Billy Hay
es. The wreck had fallen in such a
manner that it acted as a wing dam
across the gully, and the men watch
ing on the bank noticed that the water
t was rising rapidly Hayes saw it, too
and thought that if it would only rise
high enough, it would ease little the
pain of his scalded back.
= He watched the water bubbling and
: rushing about him, and saw in the gray
light of the dawn how thick and yellow
| with mud it was. Steadily and with
amazing swiftness the water rose
Then one of the watchers on the bank
r saw what made the hearts of them al
beat more quickly with the sudder
realization of a new danger. The water
/ was rising below the wreck almost az
: | rapidly as it rose above it.
: Then they understood. 1t was MOI
the dam of wreckage that was swell.
e ing the gully stream; it was the new
I flood from the nights rain. The fields
e had been soaked full by the heavy rain.
= fall, and it seemed as if all the water
: that had fallen that night had to BIZ
carried off by that gully. The stream
| | rose above Hayes waist, and thu
r grateful quenching of the fire in hi.