Woman Saves A Train.

Farmer’s Wife Waves the Fast Mail to a Standstill Before a Burning Bridge.
Special to the New York Times.

Springfield, Ill., July 19.-The pluck and presence of mind of Mrs. NELLIE SULLIVAN prevented a disastrous wreck on the Chicago and Alton Railroad this morning. Mrs. SULLIVAN lives near the track two miles north of Pontiac. She is the wife of a farmer, and was alone when she awoke early yesterday morning and noticed that there was a fire on the railway right of way at a gulley near her home.

It was yet dark, but a faint streak in the eastern sky proclaimed the hour when the early morning train would arrive. It was hardly possible that the railroad people had received warning of the fire, and if the bridges had burned, the passenger train would dash into the gulley with it load of human freight.

Springing from her bed and without waiting to more perfectly dress herself Mrs. SULLIVAN ran out of the house where she could get a good view of the trestles. She was about to turn back to secure a lantern, but just then she heard what she believed to be the distant rumble of the on-coming train. Picking up one of the blazing brands that had fallen from the burning bridges, the woman ran down the railroad track as if her life depended on the speed she made.

Engineer SID SMITH, who was pulling the night mail train had his engine running at high speed. The light, moving now backward and forward, the engineer knew to be a signal. As quickly as possible he began to slow down the engine. The fire man thrust his head out of the cab and exclaimed:

“Lord, man it looks like a ghost.” Then the engineer looked again as the engine slowed down and saw that the signal was being wielded by the spectral-appearing figure of a woman.

The engineer brought his train to a stop, and then Conductor ROBERTS hastened forward to ascertain the cause of the stop. In the meantime Mrs. SULLIVAN hastened home to dress. It is announced that the Alton handsomely rewarded Mrs. SULLIVAN.

The New York Times, New York, NY 20 Jul 1889
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Transcribed by June. Thanks June!