A PLUCKY ACTION

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3056, 17 April 1917, Page 5

A PLUCKY ACTION

STOPPING RUNAWAY HOESES.. Au eye-witness forwards the follow/ ing account of a plucky, action :— There .was a critical: live minutes in! Willis Street last evening. The. timer was about 5.45, when the narrow thor-, oughfare is always! inadequate to the* surging traffic. The cause of danger: was a pair of ruuaway horses harnessed to a heavy lorry, aiid madly career- • ing up the etreot. Driver there was none, and the. moment called for a< man of quick decision,'fleet of foot y . stout of arm and'heart. And the man: . was near. He sprang from the foot* , path by Macarthy's Buildings, sprint-f ed along the road at an. angle converg-j ing to the runaways, with, the leap ofr an athlete he was on the vehicle, and' was at once in deadly peril. A tram-* car was approaching, and a motor-cars was leisurely proceeding up the streets To the bystanders it eeemed inevitable*' that the horses would smash into the rear of the motor-car. At the last moment they swerved on to the trani track and crashed into the front of the tram,'right opposite Mercer Street. Al shaft was broken, and the brave fellow hurled off hist feet. - Another swerve arid the horses had cleared the vehicle from the tram, and were racing-■: forwards the junction of Willis.and Man* ners Streets. Every: citizen; of; Wel-»: lington knows the' congestion .of "traffic) at that'corner between 1 five and : six o'clock. Serious—probably fatal—consequences seemed inevitable. Thepluokj , ; man on the lorry struggled to his feet, climbed out between' the fear-maddened I horses, obtained the reins, and, exerting his strength,.had them quickly, checked and absolutely stopped before the corner was reached. It was a splendid deed, in .which decision promptly discarded, the risk to himself, whilst equal quickness, of foot, muscle of arm and nerve of heart averted danger to others.'. -Such deeds are worthy of praise—and'something more. Those who were In a. position to observe the moment when the.horses swerved from the motor-car and collided with the tram felt a sickening certainty that, the man who had risked his life in the pub]ic welfare'had himself been badly-injured, and the pleasure felt at his emergence from such danger practically unscathed was no less than the unlimited admiration of his plucky act. • ; . ' . :■",.>'