A Heroic Rescue on the Tracks
A longshoreman narrowly saves an Indigenous child from an oncoming switch engine near the Northern Pacific dock.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A. Johnson, a longshoreman, is regarded as a hero by his fellow workmen as the result of a thrilling rescue of an Indian baby from beneath the wheels of a switch engine in front of the Pacific Cold Storage company's office yesterday. The child, belonging to the tribe of Alaska Indians camping near the Northern Pacific dock, was playing on the track, when the engine ran in on the switch under good headway and was almost on top of the baby before its dangerous position was noticed. Mr. Johnson, who was but a short distance away, took in the situation at a glance. With a bound he reached the child and succeeded in dragging it almost from beneath the wheels of the engine, uninjured. Quite a number of the older Indians saw the narrow escape of the young member of their band and were profuse in their thanks to the rescuer.
“With a bound he reached the child and succeeded in dragging it almost from beneath the wheels of the engine, uninjured.”
This incident highlights the precarious lives of Indigenous families camping near the industrial waterfront in early 20th-century Tacoma. It underscores the danger posed by the city's rapidly expanding rail infrastructure, which frequently intersected with the homes of displaced and marginalized people.
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