A HEROIC DEATH

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6099, 4 June 1881, Page 7

A HEROIC DEATH

Two workmen on the Baltimore and Ohio ■road :the other day gave a wonderful-evi-dence'/ of their, fidelity, deliberately choosing death to themselves in order to protect ■ the-lives .of-a-hundred others who were in the "care. of the company. About half-paat two o'clock that afternoon John Sullivan and his brother Michael were'at work on the .trackj near Demmier station. John Sullivan was the section boss' of the sab-division between McKesport and Port Perry, and he had made a tour along the track to see if everything ;was :in proper condition. He found a rail that was not quite straight, so he and his brother took a heavy trackman's crowbar and lifted the rail up to straighten Ji.-While' busy at work the afternoon accommodation train bound east with a heavy load jof passengers came along.) There was a, curve just below, the place where the men were, they'did'riot see the train until it was almost* upon them.' They took in the situation at a glance. The rail which they had been fixing was liftedup, and the huge'crowbar'wis wedged tightly in such a position that, the train' would certainly, be ■thrown from the track;unless .the bar were removed." On-one side of the track was a hill arid on the • other a steep' bank running i down to the river, so if the train were thrown off the tracks-while under a full headway of Bteam'there would undoubtedly be an appalling loss of life. The men seized the bar and ,began frantically to pull and twist it about. The engineer of the train' saw them, but could not stop. " He says that their efforts to free the crowbar and lower the rail were frantic and like the workings of madmen, and they seemed to forget their own danger. ,The bar was loosened and the nil lowered just as the train reached it, but the men who had done so nobly paid dearly for their daring. The engine struck them and killed John instantly, a,nd : mangled Michael so frightfully that hedied m a short time. I The men were married and leave families.' :