AN AMERICAN HEROINE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 167, 9 November 1881, Page 1

AN AMERICAN HEROINE.

Readers of the Ogden (Iowa) Reporter have just been regaled with the following specimen of" tall " descriptive writing:—" On last. Wed nesday night, when O'Feil, Donahue, and Olmstead' went down to death, a noble girl, but 15 years of age, was watching and praying for those whose duty called them out over the railroad in the fearful storm. Kate Shelly, whose father was killed on the railroad some years a«o lives Avith her mother just on the east side of the river, and nearly opposite where the engine made the fearful plunge and Donahue aud Olmsteacl lost their lives. Miss Shelly and her mother heard the crash, and, realising what had happened, Kate took a lantern, and, amid the hurricane of wind, the deluge of water, the incessant glare of the lightning, and peal upon peal of thunder, left her home and started for the wreck. Her light soon went out, but she felt her way through the woods and fallen timbers to the edge of the dashing waters that covered the drowned men. She could hear, above the roar of the tempest, the voice of Wood, the engineer, who had caught in a tree-top. She knew that the express, with its load of passengers, was nearly due, and there was none to warn them of. their danger. She, a young girl, was the only living being who could prevent an awful catastrophe. The telegraph office at Moingona or Boone v/as the only place where she could, notify the officers. To Boone was five miles over hills and through the woods, and before she could get there the express wculd have passed. To Moingona Tvas cniy a mile, but between here and Moingona waa the Des Moines liiver, 10 or .15 feet above its natural height, and to cross this boo must pass ovtrr the raijroad bridge, 50 feet" above the rushing waters, yhe must cross this brijge, 400 -leet long, with nothing but the ties and rails, the wind blowing s gale, and the foaming, seething., muddy .waterß. beneath. Not one man' iv a thousand but would have shrunk from Buch a-tasfc. -Not- one man in fivt* hundred would have gone over at any, price or under any circuoiptanecs. But' this brave, noble girl, with the nerve of a giant, gathered about her her flowing skirts and on hands and knees- crawled over the long weary bridge. Tie alter tie was passed. It was time for lhe express train to come dashing over the bridge, and to hurl her down to death amid the dark and muddy waters of the roaring, rn.shing river. The blood Irom her lacer.-ied knees haa stained her dress, but she doea not falter. She reaches the shore, and the remaining half mile she flica s almost,. to the teltgraph office. Breathless and in broken accents, she iells her tale of death and destruction, and faints in the arms of tbe bystanders. The wires were set at work, and a moat horrible disaster averted."