Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 201, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1913 — STORIES from the BIG CITIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

STORIES from the BIG CITIES

Boy on “L” Tracks Barely Misses Third Rail

CHICACK). —Mathew Blau, seven years old, is a baseball fan. Mathew lives with his mother at 1550 Mohawk street and there is nothing he would not do to help along the national game. That is why a Northwestern “L" express came to a stop the other afternoon with much sudden grinding of brakes. “My goodness gracious, I’m nearly ready to faint!” exclaimed Mrs. Roy Gaines of 1810 Berteau avenue, afterward. “Something had gone wrong, I know, and, leaning out of the window, there I saw a little barelegged boy running and hopping back and forth across the tracks. I thought he would be killed on the third rail before my very eyes. It was awful.” A Wilson avenue express, southbound, had just rounded into the stretch between Larrabee and Halstad street stations when E. H. Potter, superintendent of motjve power, who was standing beside the motora,' jammed on the brake. “Keep baby off the third rail till I can get to him!” he exclaimed, throwing

open the vestibule door with a jerk. “Stand still, little boy,” called Potter, but the little boy, bursting intc tears, ran down the track. Potter was aghast. He tried to call reassuringly. Then, as the child went skipping back and forth across the charged rails—trains were running on the three unblocked tracks —he started in pursuit, the passengers behind leaning far out the windows, expecting every moment to see the little bare foot strike the raised rail and the child fall to death. . Finally Potter, taking big risks himself, grabbed the youngster. “Say, you little rat,” he panted, “don’t you know the third rail’ll kill you?” “What’s the third rail?” whimpered Mathew. “Why, that’s the third —” began-Pot-ter, then grabbed Mathew, who was extending an inquiring toe. Mathew was put aboard and carried to Chicago avenue, where a local train could take him home. Assured he was not to be arrested, he wiped away his tears and explained. “I threw the ball way u 0 high in the air,” he said. “And It didn't come down any more. I climbed up, I did, and when I stlcked my head up through the tracks a train was right there. When it was gone I climbed Up to get my ball, and then you came-” A child of tbe same age was killed a year ago while seeking a ball at the same place.