Delaware weekly Republican. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1841-188?, 1857-05-21
WHOLE NO. 1920.
A TOUCHING INCIDENT.

A correspondent of the Blair County (Pa.,)
| Whig furnishes that paper with the particulars
! of the following interesting incident of which
| he was an eye witness. 1t occurred on the
| line of the great internal improvements Of that
State. II was one of those acts of genuine
kind-heartedness which fill the mind with the
| involuntary consciousness that there is some
thing of the angel still in our common nature.
AT the point this side ofthe mountain, where
occurred the transhipment of passengers from
the West, was moored u canal boat, awaiting
the arrival of the train ere starting on its way
through to the East. The captain of the boat,
tall, rough, sun-browned man, stood by his
craft experimenting the lahors of his men,
when the cars rolled up, and q few minutes
after party Of about half dozen of gentle
men came out, and deliberately walking up TO
the captain, addressed him some thing after
| this wise:
! "Sir, we wish to so on East, but our further
| progress depends upon you. In the cars we
have just left is a sick man whose presence is
disagreeabe. We have been appointed a
committee by the passengers to ask that you
| will deny this man a passage in your boat. If
| he goes, We remain what say your"
Gentlemen" replied the captain, &c / have
heard the passengers through their committee.
Has the sick man Representative here ?'
To this unexpected interrogatory there was
no answer; when without moments pause,
ing, beheld, in one corner, a poor, emaoiated,
worn-out creature, whose life was nearly eaten
up by that canker worm, consumption. Tho
mans head was bowed in his hands, and he
was weeping. Tho captain advanced and
spoke to him kindly.
go, sir, said the shivering invalid looking
up, his face now lit up with trembling expec-
tation, '' are you the captain, and will you
take me? God help me The passengers
look upon me as breathing pestil0nce, and
are SO unkind You sec, sir, l am dying, but
oh, if am spared to reach my mother, l shall
die happy. She lives in Burlington, sir, and
my journey is more than half performed. l
am poor painter, and the only child Of her in
whose arms l wish to die"
60 You shall go,'' said the captain, Sc if l lose
every passenger for the trip"
BY this tim e the whole crowd of passengers
We're grouped around the boat, with their bag
gage piled on the path and they themselves
awaiting the decision Ofthe captain before en-
gaging their passage.
A moment more and that decision was made
known, as they beheld him coming from the
cars with his dying burden cradled in his arms.
Pushing his way through the crowd with the
sick man, he ordered Il mattress to be spread
in the choicest part of the boat, where he laid
the invalid with the care of parent. That
done the captain ordered the boat to be got
ready for starting.
Dlll d new leeHns seemed 10 possess inc as
toniShed passengers--that of shame and eon-
triton for their inhumanity. With one COM
mon impulse they walked aboard, and in few
hours after another committee was sent to the
captain, entreatng his presence among the
passengers in the cabin.
He went, and from their midst there arose
a whte-headed man who, with tcar-drops in
his eyes, told that rough, sun-browned man,
that they felt humbled before him, and they
asked forgiveness. 1t was u touching scene.
The fountain oftrue sympathy was broken in
the heart of nature, and its waters swelled up,
choking the uttegancc OF all present.
On the instant, purse was made up for the
sick man, with u g God speed on his way
home, to die in the arms of his mother.