Wilkins's heroic rescue of a woman from a railroad track

“The train on which Wilkins was came around a curve just west of the tunnel’s mouth at the rate of about twenty miles an hour. As soon as the engine was on the straight track Wilkins, glancing ahead, saw a woman in the track of his engine, and as he watched her she stepped hurriedly over to the Erie rails, where she stood, apparently waiting for his train to pass. As Wilkins’ train was borne down on her an Erie passenger train shot out of the tunnel behind her at the rate of thirty miles an hour. The roar of both trains was in her ears and she was paralyzed with fear. In a few seconds the Erie train would be upon her, though the Northern would reach the point first. Wilkins grasped the situation at once. Slow down; I'll jump for her, said he to the engineer. It was a desperate risk of his own life. When his engine was about thirty feet from the woman he jumped. The Erie train was within sixty yards, and a slip meant under the ponderous wheels; but the fireman did not slip. He saw terror held her there. She was no light weight, but Wilkins raised her in his arms and leaped to the strip of sand beside the track. Her feet had scarcely cleared the rails when the express thundered by, the wind of it covering the woman and her rescuer with dust. — Millennial Star 58:45”