Walter Gabriel Emmons, 30, exhausterman, saved John F. Reilly, 31, garage helper, from drowning, Mount Vernon, New York, December 11, 1935. At night Reilly jumped from a bridge into water 11 feet deep in Eastchester Creek and drifted in a current of two m.p.h. The temperature was 36 degrees above zero. After another man had made several attempts to throw a ring life-preserver on a rope to Reilly, Emmons, almost fully clothed, dived from a bulkhead seven feet above the water, got hold of the life-preserver, swam 90 feet to Reilly, and pushed the life-preserver under him. Emmons then took hold of the rope three feet from the life-preserver and swam toward the other bank. Reilly twice slipped from the life-preserver; and each time Emmons placed it under him. Finally he wrapped the rope around Reilly’s shoulders and then held the life-preserver and the rope with one hand as he swam. He called to men on the bank for a rope and continued to swim with great exertion. After towing Reilly 100 feet, Emmons got footing three feet from the bank and reached it where it was seven feet high and steep. He pulled Reilly partly out of the water. Emmons was stiff and benumbed. A rope was thrown to him, and the men began to pull him upward. Emmons then slipped and fell but immediately got to his feet and was pulled to the top of the bank. Holding to a rope, a policeman descended the bank and pushed Reilly up to the others. Emmons sustained serious injuries in his fall.
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