PRESENT DAY PLUCK.

Thames Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 14661, 15 April 1915, Page 3

PRESENT DAY PLUCK.

RECORDS WHICH SHOW WE ARE JUST AS HEROIC AS EVER WE WERE.

Nothing, according to some pessimists, is as good as it used to be,, and a very favourite score of complaints is that the present is an effeminate age—that . the present generation is soft, and has little physical strength and no pluck left. For the purpose of refuting this accusation, the contributor has run through some files of English papers for the past eighteen months or so, and he,, has in front of 'him notes sufficient to make twenty articles of the length to which he is limited. Last June, a crane was being moved along the quay at Workington when it upset and fell, into the harbour, carrying with it the craneman, Stephen Johnstone. When the splash was over, it was seen that the . crane was upside-dow.n, '■ with only its wheels and base above the surface, and that the cranernan - was stuck tight with only his head above water. COOLNESS UNDER DIFFICULTIES Thomas Quayife, the dock-master. . dressed as he was, instantly sprang into the water, and swam out to Johnstone. The latter's first words were : "Is the tide coming in or going out ?" '•'ln," said Quayle. - , "Then," said Johnstone quietly, "I am done !" Quayle did not lose his head. By his orders, a new crane was brought, and, with the hook in his hand, he dived and lastened it to the machinery in which Johnstone was entangled. By this time, the water was over Johnstone's head. The crane being set in motion, the wreckage 'in which Johnstone was entangled was lifted, but the crano ashore was not powerful enough to lift it far, and +Jje tide was still rising. • The plucky Quayle was the only man who refused *to give up hope. Diving again, more deeply than before, he got the crane-hopk fast at a level, and, rising once more to ; the surface, shouted to the men to heave. BRAVERY REWARDED. This time they were more successful. Johnstone was lifted clear. Quayle managed to liberate him, and then, in spite of having spent half and hour in and below the water, put in another twenty minutes in helping to restore Johnstone. The feat for which Thomas Reynolds, Canadian railway conductor, received the Albert Medal was of a similar but even more sensational character. Reaching the bridge over Spanish , River one January day in 1910, part of his train left the line and plunged through a foot and a half of ice into ten feet of water. The dining-car, in which Reynolds was, began to fill rapidly. Everyone left alive was panic-stricken and screaming. Not so Reynolds. Tearing down a hat-rack, he smashed one of the thick plate-iglass windows, and through this opening got several passengers out. But the, wreck settled so fast that the car filled almost to the roof. Reynolds dived out of the window, fgreed his way between the side of the car and the jagged ice,, and, clambering on top of the .car, at once began wrenching the fanlights from •the roof. His soaked clothes froze solid on him, but he would not give up, and, unaided, tore an opening., through whiclh he rescued two more passengers. * , Then someone- threw him an axe, and with this ne burst the whole roof open, and got the rest of the imperilled ones out. 'LOOK AFTER THE CHILDREN." About eighteen months ago a mes-senger-boy was knocked down by a taxi-cab in Piccadilly and badly ; hurt. The policeman who picked him up asked il 1 he was injured. Instead of replying, he took a telegram from his pocket and begged the constable * to deliver it at once. About the same date a postman, named Cutland, doing his round, "near Wellington, Somerset, fell and broke his arm. Though in great pain, he insisted on finishing his •round, a distance of three milea, and delivering the rest of his letters. ' As for women, where in srident history would you find a ca r=e of bravery to match that of Florence Jane Letchfield, who gave her life rather than frighten the children under her charge ? Miss Letchfield was a {nurse at the Beddington Isolation Hospital. One night she accidentally set her clothes afire. If she had run into the children's ward near by, there ' were blankets in plenty with which slie might have extinguished the flames. Rather than alarm them, she ran past the ward door a n<l down the corridor. PJvery shred of clothing was burnt oft her ; but her last words were : "Look after .my kiddies." .