Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 November 1859 — Thrilling Incident A Conductor on a Cow-Catcher. [ARTICLE]

Thrilling Incident A Conductor on a Cow-Catcher.

Our readers will doubtless recollect reading a thrilling incident, published by us some time since of an engineer, upon sortie western railroad, having crawled down on the cow-catcher of the engine and saved a child, which was playing upon the road, from destruction, by throwing it off’ the track. An incident pf precisely the same nature, and displaying as much heroism, occurred on the' Pennsylvania railroad last Friday, the particulars of which we gather from the Hollidaysburg Standard: “As one of the freight trains coming East rounded a sharp curve-, near Barree Siding, a statiori about twelve miles west of Huntingdon, the engineer saw a small shild sittingin the middle of the track, playing, unconscious of its danger. He instantly whistled down breaks and reversed his engine, but the weight of the train and the high speed at which it was running rendered it impossible to stop before reaching the child, which must inevitably have been crushed to death. In this emergency, when most men would have stood paralyzed with horror, the conductor of the train, Daniel McCoy, with steadiness of nerve that has few parallels, ran to the front of the engine, craw led down on the cow-catcher, and holding himself with one hand, leaned as far forward as possible, as he approached the child, with a sweeping blow’ of the other, he threw it off' the track. It was the work of an instant, and required a steady hand and cool head to accomplish it, but he was equal to the emergency. The train was immediately stopped, and on going back the child was found lying at.the foot of a small embankment, some thirty or forty feet from the track of the road, alive and kicking, but somewhat stunned and bruised. The child belonged to a farmer named Neff', residing immediately along the road.”