"FLAG NO. 5, QUICK"

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1605, 9 July 1887, Page 3

"FLAG NO. 5, QUICK"

Rec9Btly an expr©3s train on the Now York Central ran into a la ad-side. The engine left the track and turned over, bnt the coaches *' stayed oo," and beyond a severe shaking op none of the long list of passengers received !dj tries that an hour's flight would not 6ra;e. " Nobody hurt ; well, that'a lucky." Nobody 1 The train men knew better. They went where the dismantled engine lay, emitting its life, as it were > m clouds of shrilly escaping st am, A glance, and two writhing forms are discerned amid the scalding vapor. Ac j quickly as strong anna can do it, both are wrested from their infernal captivity and laid on hastily improvised ouchea One, the fireman, is (rightfully scalded, bnt life is before him yet ; the other, whoie fiim grasp on throitle and reverselever had cheated death of a Restful of prey, waa paying forfeit for his devotion to duty, and would never again whistle blithely for his division terminus. They gathered about him tenderly enongh, theae hulking fellows, who atare at death by day and by night for their pittances, and who conceal big hearts behind rough and uncouth masks, The dying man tries to speak ; eager ears band to caich hismesßige. Perhaps it is to someone m a little white cottage at the end of the ran: It comes at last m the baiting utoranco of one whose feet are already m the Valley of the Shadow ; " Boys— flag — Nc, 5 — quick 1" Horror 1 It had been forgotten, ia the distress of the moment, that another erpresa train was thundering aljng m their roar. It waa not too late, however. A mesßeDg&r was sent back with the little red fl tg, the approaching train was stopped, and our engineer was — dead. Would it be too much to call him a hero ?