Backer v. Chicago & North Western Ry. Co.

Plaintiff a boy eight years and ten months old, a strong, alert, bright and intelligent boy possessed of all his faculties, familiar with the surroundings and the short cut across the railroad right-of-way and knowing the danger, attempted to cross defendant’s railroad tracks. He ran, stumbled and came in contact with a box car of a “slow moving” freight train of twenty cars; fell under the car and his leg was cut off a few inches below the knee.

The evidence discloses the following physical appearance and surroundings in the locality at the time of the accident. The defendant railway enters…