Smyrna times., 1871-02-22
Everyday Heroes.

Two simple little incidents come to us in
our exchanges which seem to us at least as
well worth the telling as the latest history of
adultery and murder One is the story OF a
poor acrobat out West, who dashed from his
giddy height to the ground; and who, when
the crowd gathered about him, raised himself,
mangled and bleeding, to gasp out entTeatieS
tor them to save the two girls lett unsupported
on the trapeZe. He refused to be lifted until
they were rescued, and in the agony of his fall
and shattered limbs was the only man in the
large audience who forgot his own necessities
and had the cool presence of mind to direct
how they should he brought down. When
they were safe, pain got the better of him.
and he was carried as dead off the stage. The
women were strangers to him.
The other story is OF little girl who wan
dered on to the track Of the Delaware Rail.
road as freight train OF nineteen cars was ap.
proaaching As it turned the sharp top of the
grade, opposite st. Georges, the engineer saw
the child for the first time, lew Down bra
kes, AM reversed the engine. But it was
too lat to slacken its speed in time, and the
poor ttaby got up, and, laughing, ran to meet
It, told the CONDUCTOR" says the engin-
eer, IF he could Jump off the engine, and,
running ahead, pick the child up before the
engine reached her he might save her life
though il would risk lis own, which he
he did. The engine wIS within one foot of the
child when he secured it, and they were 10th
saved. | would not run the same risk of say
ing child again by the way OF experiment for
all New Castle county, for nine out of ten
might not escape. He took the child to the
lane. and she walked to the house, and little
girl was coming after it when We left" The
honest engineer, having finished hi, days run
sits down the next morning and writes this
homely letter to the father OF the child, Gin
order that 1t may be more carefully watched in
future, and thanking God THAT himself AMI
the bnby's mother slept TRANQUILITY last night.
and were spared the lifelong pangs of re
morse. 1t does not occur 10 him to even
mention the conductor name, who, he seems
to think, did no uncommon thing in ri4king
ms own lie, unseen and unnoticcd on the 80
tary road for child whom he would never
probably see again. The moral of the story
to him and to the good clergymen who publish
es 1t was, apparently, that mothers should
keep their chldlen off the tr .ckS.
IL seems to us TO have different meaning.
| which every man can read for himself We
give the simple little story place therefore.
among the histories of the war, and murders
aud records OF the Police Court, for no prac
teal lesson, bur jus, as one would hang bit
| OF green landscape on his wall on Winter
! day. Alter all, IN spite of the transient rain.
Ihert Is unueT all summer and God. 1t Is
worth while to remind ourselves of that now
and then. We believe, too, with the plain
! speaking engine driver, that the conductor
did nothing more than eight out of ten manly
young fellows would have done in his position.
| Police reports and the daily press bring the
murders and meannesses of the world so con.
! stantly to the surface on week lays, and the
clergy open our eyes to human depravity so
clearly on Sundays, that we are apt to over
look the actual honor and integrity in the mass
OF ordinary people about us. We grow SO
bilious in our reforming zeal that it is worth
while to be shaken into more Christian chari-
ty, and convinced that it is not a matter of
wonder to find Bayard in the poor conduc-
tor of a treighttrain, or man in a circus rid
er.-N T. Tribune.