Cow Takes Bump: Stops Train and Saves Life of Toddling Youngster

Benedict, N.D., Dec 5—A peaceable old mooley cow by sacrificing her life at an opportune time undoubtedly saved little Elmo Lillehaugen, two year old son of Mr. and Mrs. E M Lillehaugen, from death under the wheels of a Soo line freight engine.

Little Elmo had set out on an exploring expedition which carried him onto the tracks of the Soo line, down which he was toddling oblivious to the rumble of a freight train thundering down upon him through a cut only 100 yards distant. The train crew did not see the youngster. They did, however, discover the cow, which ambled out onto the track just as the train left the cut. The engineer immediately threw on the air, and the train came to a stop after it had bunted the bossy into eternity, and with the pilot of the engine within a few feet of the paralyzed youngster, who had discovered his danger too late to act.

Both the engineer and fireman declare that but for the cow's sacrifice, the youngster would have been killed, as it would have been impossible for them to have stopped in time to save him, had they not seen the cow first. The frantic mother had witnessed the whole scene from the doorway of her home, and it was a very grateful woman who bundled in her arms a badly frightened small boy.

Bismarck Tribune, 12-5-1917