A TERRIBLE MOMENT.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1123, 9 November 1883, Page 4

A TERRIBLE MOMENT.

Tho Ran Francisco Bulletin relates the following sensational occurrence : —‘An oil man living in Marshall county rciM'tlv net with an experience which he twill notsoon forget, lie was walking'down the Baltimore and Ohio luijroacl, about a mile beyond Mnnndsville, and near Tin "gin's mill, late in the evening, when he heard a train coming in tho distance. A few yards below was a bridge which the old man thought, he could cross before the approaching train reached it He Started rapidlv, but as be stepped upon the tie‘the train appeared in sight. It was srill some distance away, and he increased his speed in the hopes that he would clear the bridge. Suddenly his foot slipped on me of the oily lies, and he was thrown to his knees between the rails. As lie*rose he glanced t ward the train, and his blood must ha ,r e turned co'd when he saw it just coming into the covered Lrl ge at a speed which <j ick as thought annihilated ihe short distance between it and the i rumbling mm. A t the same time the engineer ‘ chap,’ Fleming, saw a dark f. nn in the headlight’s glare, realised the perilous situation, and four sharp, shrill screams from the whistle and the whet King of air brakes showed at once that he was doing his best to stop the train. In the moment of time which tiiis occupied the old man had seized his only hope of safety. V position where he had one chance in a million for his life suggested Itself, and without hesitation be lay down on the ends of the lies. His action was watched by the engineer and tileman, and its almost utter hopelessness was seen. They turned away with an involuntary exclamation ot horror, expecting the next instant to leel the jars of the wheels as they mangled his body to shreds The man had scarcely lam down when the train was on him and the cowcatcher ploughed him from bis nanow shelf If before ho lad lut one chance in a million for his life, it would now seem that even that chance was gone. But not so. In Ids fail the man struck upon one of 'hee cross beams which pass several feet below the track from side to side of the bridge. Ho clasped this with die strength of desperation, and clung to it until the train hud reached the otter side. Then with weak and trembling clutch he drew him-elf up to the track and cawled rather than walked back to s’ ore. There he sit down, scarcely bruised by his ranh contact with the engine or his fall, but sick with fright. As soon as the train could be brought to a standstill, t.'ondnctor Manning sent his brakesman, a man named Hillard, hack to see if the man was dead. What was their surprise to find him sitting 'bathe track unhurt, and, except by Ids scare, no worse for his feat till experience.’