Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-06-15

The street Sensation Of the season-A Idt-
tie Boys Life Saved by n Little Prima
Donna-Adnlina Patti Heroine In Ac-
tual Life.
A day or two since handsome and ele
gantly-dressed little boy, FIVE or six years of
age, was crossing our crowded Fourth-street,
and, attracted by some object on the other
side, failed to see the street railway car COM
ing rapidly toward him. The driver seemed
equally unconscious of the little bright-eyed
fellows position on the track; and the horses,
rafting over the pavement at unchecked
speed, were now within two feet of the over
absorbed diminutive.
smile was playing round the boys lips;
for he had seen his mother coming out Of a
jewelry store; and she at the moment recog-
nized him and his imminent danger.
The elegant lsdy's cheek blanched, and
her eye was riveted in horror upon the spot
where her first-born, her only child stood
almost underneath the horses feet
She could not speak, nor move: she was
frozen with terror. She seemed to have time
only TO utter a-prayer for the soul that must
in moment pass from that crushed and
bleeding form and her hands were clasped in
agony as she saw, and could not save, the
object that was dearer TO her than life;
precious to her as promised Heaven.
She had ceased to hope she had forget to
pray. Her eye was swimming from the gath
ering view of the unacted tragedy, and wild
scream Of despair, such as announces the
breaking Of the heart the eternal severance
of life and love, was rising TO her lips, when
Behold, little form darts like lightning
from the opposite sidewalk catches the child
in its arms just as the horses feet cast the
dust upon his faultless toilette and places
him safe and unhurt by his mothers side.
"Thank God y in suppressed voice, more
an exhalation than an exclamation--were the
only uttered words that fell from the mother;
tongue.
Again the little figure rustled back with It's
silken folds and expanse of crinoline, and
was lost among the gay promenaders ere the
mother could determine to whom she was
indebted for the preservation of her child
She remembered only a deep, dark eye, suf.
fused with tenderness; a soft cheek in which
a new bud of determination had unfolded in
crimson beauty; pair of carmine lips parted
with heroic purpose--and nothing more.
The fitting figure was like vision, not tC
be remembered, never to be recalled. II
seemed as if some good angel had descended
in answer to the mothers prayer, anG
snatched the innocent child from the out
stretched hand of death.
All passed off in one-tenth less time than
1t has required to relate it-indeed, it wa!
the work of n moment.
The ripple in the stream of life was SO rapiC
in its subsidence that few of the throng OBJ
served it; and they who saw the inciden
could not understand its termination. They
too, looked for the little figure that haC
rushed before the horses feet, and then hast
ened away; but it was lost to them as to tn,
| parent panied with unspoken gratitude
| They who, a minute after, observed the
heightened color and the peculiarly lustroul
eye of that girl-like figure knew not tn
cause; and more than one who paused u
to murmur of the pet primG donna as sh
passed, "Adalina Patti is indeed beautiful, i
| she not?" dreamed not how the consciousness
of that noble act had filled her frame wit
angelic loveliness.
Dear Adalina, amid all your triumphs Of
the operate stage; though you be smothere,
with flowers, and deafened with the plaudit
of thousands of listening worshipers, hang
ing in delight upon your silvery tones, n
moment of your life will, or can, b
| prouder than that in which you saved lif
so loving and so loved, and returned tn
sister angels of Hope and Joy to mother
bosom, where the dark fend, Despair, ha
already entered, to be cast out forever by th
exorcism of divine impulse and a generou
heart!