The Narrow Escape of John Long
A young man is nearly killed after being dragged fifty feet by a train at the Chehalis depot.
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.
John Long this afternoon attempted to board a rapidly moving engine at the depot. He slipped and fell between the platform and cars and was dragged about fifty feet before the train could be stopped. When picked up his clothes were torn to shreds, his head and face gashed in half a dozen places, one ear torn off and hanging by the skin, and his body covered with cuts and bruises. Strange to say not a bone was broken, nor was he rendered insensible. He was taken home after his wounds had been sewed up and was able to walk about without assistance. He is a young man about 23 years old and a nephew of ex-State Senator J. H. Long.
“When picked up his clothes were torn to shreds, his head and face gashed in half a dozen places, one ear torn off and hanging by the skin.”
In an era before robust workplace safety standards, the railroads were sites of constant peril for workers and commuters alike. This account of survival is miraculous for the time, highlighting how frequently such industrial accidents occurred in small Washington depot towns.
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