The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-04-22
TRACK WALKERS PERIL.
His Narrow Escape From Death on q
High TrestIe.

Perhaps no large body of men in any
industry are exposed to so many dan
gers as railroad men. Thousands of
these faithful and heroic workers are
killed every year, and other thousands
are saved from death only by the mar
rowest margin, says the Chicago
Tribune. Some of these railroad
escapes seem almost miraculous, and,
| seeing them, many railroad men COM
fort themselves with a fataiisnl.
I'VE cannot die until our time
comes" they say, land so it's no use
to worry"
F.. S. Shepard. of Deadwood, S. D.,
used to be a track-walker on the Colo
RADIO Midland. On his division at that
time the track inspectors had no We
locipedes. and Mr.. Shepard was COM
PEELED to foot it, every day over ten
miles of mountain track. His invaria-
bic companion was a big St Bernard
dog named Bruno.
One day Shepard was inspecting the
track as usual when he came to trestie
No. A. a long structure across a gorge.
He paused at the end of the trestle
and looked at his watch. He had been
told at the last station that the Midland
express was an hour late and this
would give him plenty of time to cross
the gorge on the single track.
Man anu uOS SlaTCeQ across without
thought of danger. They had reached
a point near the center of the bridge
when the sharp warning signal of a
whistle was heard. Shepard looked up
and saw the express coming around a
curve, not more than a hundred PAGES
away.
"I was pa-alyzed with fear" he SAYS.
'I could not move forward or back
ward. Indeed. there was no use in
moving, for the engine was bearing
down upon me with frightful speed,
trying to make up lost time. Below
me, at least seventy-five feet from the
track level, was the rock-strewn bot
tom of the gorge. It meant death to
jump. 1t was death to stand STILL
Bruno, the dog, trembled and whined
at his masters feet. He understood the
danger, and when the locomotive was
not more than fifty feet away the dog
turned and jumped off the bridge. Mr.
Shepard instinctiEely followed Bruno's
example. There was little strength left
in his knees, but he stumbled to the
edge of the track and half fell outward
and downward just as the heavy train
went laundering by.
But some kindly fate was guarding
Shepard that day. In the language of
the railroad fatalist ''hs time had not
come" Instead of plunging down.
down, to be mangled on the stones at
the bottom of the gorge, he was sur
prised TO find himself hanging head
downward over the edge of the trestIe,
His left foot had caught in some way
between two ties just outside of the
rail The framework of the bridge
shook under the impact of the heavy
train, and every instant he expected to
be shaken loose. In the terror of the
moment he became unconscious and
did not know what had happened until
he awoke and found himself being Ia
ken out of the train at the next sta
ton.
The engineer had seen him, of course,
and had applied the brakes. When the
train came TO a standstill the crew
and some of the passengers ran back
and found Shepard still hanging, his
left foot firmly wedged between two
timbers. His only physical injury was
badly wrenched ankle but the ner-
vous breakdown untitled him for duty
for a long time.