SAVED BY A BRAVE WOMAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7567, 20 February 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

SAVED BY A BRAVE WOMAN.

A slight cave-in took place recently at the Fairmount Colliery, near Pittston, Pa., which was only : saved from resulting in a terrible catastrophe by the presence of mind of a | woman. The area affected by the cave-in I was about an acre, the ground settling about | five feet. The main track of the Lehigh and Susquehannah division ,of the Philadelphia and Reading Road crossed the disturbed area and the track was badly torn. The freight train bound north had just passed before the cava-in took place, and the nine o'clock passenger train south was due in ten minutes. By a most fortunate circumstance a woman who had been to the house of a sick friend passed up the track just after the cave-in took place, and seeing the condition of the traok, instantly realised the frightful accident which would happen if the train dashed on to the twisted and distorted rails. She ran swiftly up the track, met the train about four hundred yards from the spot, and standing on the track waved her arms and shouted. The engineer, seeing the woman by the gleam of the headlight, put on the airbrakes and revelaed his engine, stopping within one hundred yards of the cave-in. A frightful catastrophe was thus avoided, as the train was full of passengers. No buildings stood on the disturbed area, and no damage was done beyond that to the track and colliery. What is the extent of the latter cannot be learned, as the mine has been idle for some time.