Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-02-28
Remarkable Escapes of Eminent Men.

OOLno years ago u young man 0OlQlu8 n
subordinate position in the East India
Company's service, twice attempted 10
deprive himself of life by swapping a
loaded pistol at his head. Each time the
pistol missed fire. A friend entering his
room shortly afterward, he requested him
to fire it out of the window; it then went
off without any difficulty. Satisfied thus
that the weapon had been duly primed
and loaded, the young man sprang up, ex-
claiming, II must be preserved for some
thing great" and from that moment gave
up the idea of suicide, which for some
time previous had been uppermost in his
thoughts. That young man afterwards
became Lord Give.
Two brothers were on one occasion
walking together, when a violent storm of
thunder and lightning overlook them.
One was struck dead on the spot; the
other was spared, else would the name of
the great refOrmer, MARTYR Luther, have
been unknown to mankind.
Bacon, the sculptor, when a tender boy
of five years old, fell into the pit of =
~soAp-boiler, and must have persisted had
not q workman just entering the yard,
observed the top of his head and deliver
ed him.
When Oliver Cromwell was an infant,
a monkey snatched him frem his cradle,
leaped with him through a garnet window
and ran along the leads of the house. The
utmost alarm was excited among the in
mates, and various were the devices used
to rescue the child from the guardianship
of his newly-found protector. All were
unavailing; his would-be rescuers had
lost courage, and were in despair of ever
seeing the baby alive again, when the
monkey quietly retraeed his steps and de-
posted his burden safely on the bed. On
a subsequent occasion the waters had
well-nigh quenched his Unsuitable ambi-
ton. He fell into a deep pond, from
drowning in which a clergyman named
johnson was the sole instrument of his
rescue.
AT the seige of Leicester a young SOL
dier, about seventeen years of age, was
drawn out for sentry duty. One of his
comrades was very anxious to take his
place. No objection was made, aud this
man went. He was shot dead while on
guard. The young man first drawn after
ward became the author of the "Pilgrim's
Progress"
Doddridge, when born, wa so weakly
an infant he was believed to be dead.
A nurse standing by fancied she saw
some signs of vitality. THUS the feeble
spark of life wa saved from being extin-
guished, and an eminent author and con-
sistent Christian preserved to the world.
John Wesley, when q child, was only
just preserved from fire. Almost the mo
ment after he was rescued the roof of the
house where he had been, fell in. Of
Philip Henry a similar instance is re-
corded.
John Knox, the renowned Scotch re-
former, was always won to sit at the head
of the table with his back to the window.
On one particular evening, without, how
ever, being able to account for it, he would
neither himself sit in the chair, nor per-
nit any one else to occupy his place. That
very night s bullet was shot in at the
window purposely to kill him it grazed
the chair in which he sat and made a hole
in the foot of a candle-stiok on the table.
Many years have now elapsed since
three subalterns might have been seen
struggling in the water off st. Helena
one of them, peculiarly helpless, was fast
succumbing. He was saved to live as
Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington.
The life of John Newton is but the his
tory of marvellous deliverances. As a
youth he had agreed to accompany some
friends on beard ola man-of-war. He ar
rived too late the boat in which his
friends had gone was cpasized and all its
occupants drowned. On another oeca-
sion, when tide-surveyor in the port of
Liverpool, some business had detained
him, SO that he came much later than
usual, to the great surprise of those who
were in the habit of Observing his unde-
punctuality. He went out in the
boat as heretofore to inspect a ship, which
blew up before he reached her. Had he
left the shore a few moments sooner he
must have persisted with the rest on board,