Rutland Herald

A NOBLE ACT.

A correspondent of the Boston Advertiser records the following singular instance of heroism and disinterested activity which was lately manifested in that city:—

On Saturday afternoon, that part of the Back Bay between the Providence railroad and Beacon street, was covered with young skaters, pursuing their beautiful but hazardous sport. A sudden cry announced that one of them, an Irish boy of about eight years, had fallen in among the broken ice. The report spread instantly through the crowd of boys—but for the hundreds amusing themselves there the danger was too great for sympathy to pass into action.—One youth, however, who but a few weeks before had found himself in the same perilous situation as this lad, from which he was fortunate enough to extricate himself without help for which he called in vain, started forward alone, without hesitation, to rescue the sinking boy. The poor little fellow in the water was supporting himself by seizing upon the ice, piece after piece of which broke in his grasp. His preserver hastened forward over breaking ice, till no foot-hold was left for him, and then, lying down flat on his breast, crawled on to where he might reach him.

The frightened boy was incapable of seconding his efforts, while the heavy boots and skates of the brave youth made his situation more hazardous every moment. Seeing a coachman near, he called to him to throw over his reins, but was told they would be too short for his purpose. An eel pole was found by one of the spectators, and pushed forward on the ice till it came within his reach: the boy, who had sunk once, and was stiffened with cold, was unable to clasp it in his hands, as he was desired: when his persevering friend with a presence of mind and judgment which would have been admirable in a man, fastened the end of the pole by its hook into the dress of the drowning boy—and now swimming, then crawling over the icy fragments, dragging his prize after him into perfect safety.

This modest youth, who merely mentioned on his return home, to account for his drenched condition, that he had got in at Back Bay, was Greely Stevenson Curtis, son of the late James F. Curtis, well known to many of our community for his active & gentlemanly superintendence of the Worcester Railroad.