A man commonly known as “Billy” Cooper, of the town of Van Etten, was
walking on the railroad track at a point not far distant from his home.
In crossing the railroad bridge he made a miss-step, and, slipping, fell
between the ties, but his position was so cramped that he was unable to
get out of the way of danger. There, suspended in that awful manner,
with the body dangling below the bridge, he heard a train thundering
along in the distance, approaching every moment nearer and nearer. No
one will ever know the struggles for life which the poor fellow made, but
they were futile; with arms pinioned to his sides he was unable to signal
the engineer. The train came sweeping on upon its helpless victim until
within a few feet of the spot, when the engineer saw the man’s head and
endeavoured to stop his heavy train. But too late; the moving mass
passed over, cutting his head from the shoulders as clean as it could
have been done by the guillotine itself. Cooper was 60 years of age.
—_Ithaca_ (N.Y.) _Journal_.