Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1917-02-07
WIFE OF DENVER BUSINESS MAN
LED IN RELIEF WORK
AMONG INJURED.
DUBBED "LiTTLE MOTHER"
BY OTHER PASSENGERS
Ripped Up Sheets Of Pullman Cars and
Her Own Petticoats to Provide
Bandaees-Orsanizcd Rescue Brigade
and Instructed Others in First Aid
Measures.

Walnut, Feb. Who do YOU think
showed the greatest amount of bravery
an coolness and common horse sense
just after the Rocky Mountain limited
left the Rock Island tracks Monday
night and took pell nell header into
a corn field near Walnut?
Who was it. do YOU suppose, d-
rected the work Of rescuing mangied
and suffering passengers of the coaches
which turned turtle when the train
plunged over Il twenty foot embank-
ment,
And who do you guess it was VINO
knew just what soft, soothing words
and bandagins to use to make painful
bruises cause less agony?
1t was exactly ninety pounds OF
femininity, known in the news dis
patches as Mrs j. c. Barker, wife
of a we'll to do business man, who
was on her way TO her home at 1876
Pearl street, Denver. from New York.
1.-The Little Mother" was what men
and women passengers called her after
she had made burning wounds feel
cooler: had led rescuinS parties to
wrecked coaches where men were
pinned to the debris suffering pitifully;
had adro;tly ripped up sheets from
Pullman berths and taught clumsy but
eager men assistants how to bind up
wounds.
Mrs. Barker was the heroine OF the
wreck.
She was asleep in a Pullman when
the train Numbered over the embank-
merit. over and over the coaches
rolled. She was thrown out: an ankle
of one leg and the knee Of the other
were sprained. Jounced around in the
tumbinS car. she was sorely bruised
But did the Little Mother think OF
her own hurts?
She did not. No sooner had j. Is.
Claiborne. 1926 Rutland avenue, Des
MONIES, smashed in window. ana
helped her out of the wrecked coach,
than she promptly organized rescue
brigade. Passengers on the i'll fated
limited who returned to Des Moines
last night declared emphatically that
had it not been for Mrs. Bankers hur-
ried organization of first aid corps,
there would have been a number of
fatalities.
Uses Petticoat For Bandages.
The hospital relief train from Allan
tic, did not arrive until two hours al
ter the wreck occurred. Mrs. Barker
small and slight of figure, danced here
and there about the wreck, in the light
of the burning baggage car, giving or
'ders, suggesting relief for some pain
tortured person, carrying bandages ana
water encouraging the first aid work
ers and saving human life.
once, the amateur ambulance men
working under Mrs Barker's directions
ran out of bandages. Near by man
was bleeding from long cash on his
arm and hand And over by the side or
an overturned coach cowboy named
Harold Kinney was sitting. gritting his
teeth to suppress the pain from brok-
en- collar bone and crushed leg. Ban
dages were needed badly.
wait, III get some bandages." cried
Mrs Barker, stage manager of the field
hospital. And she came back. In her
hand she held white petticoat, and
with q laugh she tore it into strips for
bandages. Then the rescue work went
on.
Many of the women who suffered in
the wreck thanked Mrs. Barker with
tears in their eyes. DR.. Thomas j.
West, Of Denver, who walked far to
minister to the wants Of the suffering,
congratulated Mrs. Barker for her
nerve and aid to the suffering.
"Why," laughed Mrs. Barker, after
the wreck victims Had been brought
to Atlantic, Il did nothing to make
a fuss over. OF course was glad to
relieve as much suffering as l could.
Dear me, it was perfectly killing to see
those clumsy men trying to bind up a
wound when there was a little blood in
sight" And then she laughed again.