Daily Capital Journal

AUTOISTS ESCAPE DEATH CHILD CLINGS TO ENGINE ROD.

Locomotive Crashes Into Car When Motor Goes Dead, Leaving Machine Helpless On Track-Occupants Jump.

Portland, June 6.-To the instinct of a child, perhaps inherited from our simian antecedents, to grasp the nearest object, is attributed today the saving of the life of three year old Lois Frazier, seated in an automobile struck by a Southern Pacific train near Clackamas Station.

The automobile, containing the child, her mother, Mrs. Ruby L. Frazier, and Mrs. James Linn of 1170 E. Taylor street, and her two children, 7 and 5 respectively, went dead on the railroad track with the train approaching. All of the occupants with the exception of the girl either jumped or were lifted from the machine. After the crash no trace of the child could be found in the wreckage of the automobile. A search of the engine revealed little Lois clinging to a brace rod running from the boiler to the pilot bed. She had instinctively grabbed it when the engine struck. One of her legs was broken but she was otherwise uninjured.

Child Left Behind.

The older people in the auto leaped to the ground and, just as Mr. Linn made a reach for the little Frazier girl, the crash came. The auto was hurled to the right of the engine a distance of forty feet, and the baby was literally picked up and placed on the pilot of the engine. The tot grasped hold of the rods which run from the boiler to the pilot bed, and clung there. In the meantime the train crew was making a frantic search under the wrecked auto for the body which they supposed was mangled, while Mrs. Frazier was screaming that her baby had been killed. The mail messenger on the train first rushed to the front of the engine, and there he found little Lois hanging on for dear life and screaming lustily for her mother. Mrs. Frazier refused to look at her baby when it was brought to her, saying that she knew that the child was horribly mangled. Tender hearted passengers finally induced her to take the baby and then the poor woman wept for joy.

The mother and child were taken to Portland where the baby was placed in a hospital. It was found that besides having a fractured leg, the little one was only slightly bruised about the face and arms. Her hands were covered with grease when taken from the engine, almost to death when turned over to her mother.