Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 December 1895 — STRUCK BY DEATH’S HAND. [ARTICLE]

STRUCK BY DEATH’S HAND.

Grewsome Experience of Engineer on a Far Western Train. ~- —“Seeing the picture of that dead man Tff y esteraay's journal reminded me of an experience of my own wuich A will never foiiget,” said Henry Billups, a retired engineer of Denver, Col., at the Kimball. "Why it should do so I cannot tell, as there is nothing similar in the two cases, hut it does, and 1 will relate tiie,incident. It occurred when I was running a night train on; t)ie Santa Fe road, back in the ’7os. —This particular night had been stormy and threatening, and the flashes of lightning were frequent and intense. We were running ahead of our schedule, hi order to makea siding in time to aliow an extra to pass us, ayd were traveling, I suppose, at the rate of about thirty or thirty-tive miles ail hour. I was sitting with my face close to the forward window of the cab, gazing straight IKiRcT of electricity a man's arm and head suddenly burst ' tvith great force through the glass and the open hand struck me sq pa rely in the fare. 1 was. dazed for an instant by. the blow, and held blindly to the side of the cab. -My tirst.-thought was that somi* tramp was trying to hold tip the train to rob thejiasSengers, and acting on the idea I seized my wrench from its place and dealt the intruder a blow on the head -with all my might. The fireman, thinking I had killed the man, shut off steam and we slowed down and took our lanterns to examine the strange visitor. I could not describe the feeling that crept oyer me when I climbed upon tlie engine and looked at the man whom I believed had attacked me. His entire body below the arms was gone. It was easy to understand vyliat had happened. He had been struck by the rapidly moving cngiiuinfffl his body severed as with a knife, the lower half falling to ontygide and the head and arms flying straight through the cab window.”—Atlanta Journal.