New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-11-17
n me for nothin,. She amt

himself IN such a cloud that she could hard
ly see the clock.
Mad &c slipped out TO the gate. She ga
4 often there, looking up the road. The TIVE
| old people sat inside thinking of the day.
] when they were young.
! She was restless, and fitted over the Gin
I der sidewalk, following a magnet whict
J would have drawn her from the centre OF
I the earth. To the road, of course. How
often had she watched the rails conYelging
| horizonward until they sharpened them
selves to a needle point. The railroad had
! a fascination for Madge. When girl she
! used to follow her grandfather to his work
and hide among bushes to see the big
4 freigbts numbering by, and the express
trains whirling into town like screaming
4 land demons. She had heard Of the sea, and
! the spell it had upon sailors, but she saw the
railroad and felt the spell, which nobody
seemed to remark, that it cast over inland
labors. She saw her boy playmates sucked
1 up by "the road" heard her grandfather
l tell Of hairbreadth escapes from collisions,
] of cool courage in men VINO placed
( themselves between the people they car
] ried and most horrible death. She
had learned the power and mission of ''the
! road" In short, she was as loyal daugh-
! ter Of the rail as any Maine shippers child
Q is of the sea. Madge had affinity for an
| engine To this day her throat swelled,
4 bC1 o hluuIGIg N uTA t+LG SICdJ LlOh "a
I swept past her. Charley drove an engine,
and his engine was, in her eyes, a fitting ex
| penent of the strength and beauty of his
manhood. Such was the romance of her
| little dry life. Everybody must have his
enthusiasm. She had been in the towns
great depot at night, arrived from holiday
] trip, and had laughed aloud to see some
busy engine hurrying up and down, pick
! ing up freight like @ hen gathering her
otio1ynvo. jo,Il apoJ1uIR tn
deaten a multitude, now concentrating his
strength and painting slowly away at the
I head Of its charge, She had walked from
sleep t0 hear them calling to each other
through the darkness, and translated to
herself what they said.
1t was proper thing tor Madge to be an
engineers wife. She thought it fitting
thing to be Charley's wife under any cir
CumstanCes, assure you. There was now
only little strip of time between Madge
and Charley. She looked over that little
strip, and saw just how it would be. They
were to have a cottage on q clean street;
her grand parents, if they became intrm,
were to have a home with her; "and these
two little hands" said Charley, will make
me the dearest nest; Ill be SO glad to run
INTO it at night
Madge's pink face took on rose as she
thought of all these things, looking up and
down the cut to see if the track was clear
1t was clear. She felt relieved and foolish
about coming out there through twilight to
spy for Chariey's welfare, and much in
clmed to hide from the smoke rising far off.
But those unstable sandy walls towering
over his way; Madge watched them jeal-
Ously. just as the thunder of the tram
could be heard, her heart stood still to see
them dissolve, like pillars ground down by
some malicious Samson, and piled upon the
track until nothing could be seen tor yards
but one long hill of earth and stones
Now, little Madge, if there is heroism in
you, it must meet and lassO that iron beast
whirling hundred people upon death! A
hundred The whole world was in the en-
CINE house. He wouldn't try to save him
self when he came upon the life trap She
saw how he would set his lips, bend nerve
and brain to the emergency, she saw how
Car would crush into car, the wreck lie over |
a burning engine and Charley be ground |
and oharred under them adj
O, sublimely selfish woman She flew |
over the track like a thing of wings. 1t |
was life and Charley, or death with Char |
ley. The headlight flashed up through the |
dusk. There were matches i'll her pocket; |
she sCraped them on rail, and tore off her |
apron. q, they wouldn't ignite, and the |
cotton would but shoulder. 1t is rolling
down on her swift as air. Bless the loom
which wOve the cloth which made the cot
ton apron She tossed it, blinking and
blazing above her head, walking slowly
backward. The red-eyed fury roared down
at her, but you can't terrify woman when
her mind is made up. 1t should run over
her before it should reach the sand heap.
She YVES seen. The engine rent the eve |
ming with its yells; the brakes were on
her lasso had caught tit could now be
stopped in time. she darted aside, but the
current was too strong for her. She was
dizzy, tell and clutched in the wrong direc-
ton. Poor, poor little fingers
Now the people pour out; they run here
and there. Women are crying perhaps
because they weren't hurt. The engineer
larts along like mailman. looking under
5he train. There, dozen feet before the
engine, rises a sand hill. Everybody wants
% know how they were stopped before they
'Ounded the curve.
"Here she is II shouted Charley, striding
Up with limp bundle, like king who had
acrifced to the good of the State. ''She
noFed the signal, and stood up to it until
saw her-untll We almost run her down |
There's half the fingers cut off her left handI
here what do you think of that now, for ]
he woman who saved you all ?" holding up
he mutilated stump.
God bless it! y prayed an old gentleman,
aking off his hat. |
"Amon!" roared the crowd With one
reath they raised three shouts, which shook {
he sand hills until they came down band
OmGly a second time, Charley standing {
b0ve their enthusiasm with the fainting '
hid in his arms, like regent holding some i
oval infant s
g Let me see her, sobbed first one woman
ben another. So Charley sat down and let |
hem crowd around him with ice water, r
Ologne and linen for bandages. He even |
ave the men "a glimpse Of her Waxy face, t
lst unfolding to consciousness. Like all /
Western people, they wanted to pour out |
leir hearts in q purse" Madge hid her |
ice on Charley's blouse, and would none S
it," g
He carried her home at the head Of a V
recession, which stopped before her grand v
-ther's hut, and Cheered her " last appear |,
nee" So do people froth up in gratitude. o
An hour afterward, when the neighbOrs fl
ere dispersed, and Caspar stood con- t.
need that ian ingen" might not be the
9st brace for Madges nerves when her a
md was dressed, and her grandmother %
as quavering psalm in the corner, | b
adge turned such look on Charley as d
-en that stout hearted fellow could not / VI
and. He leaned close to her, and not hay | Ii
G yet washed the smoke off his face, was
Vulcan like a lover as you could desire. | ii
1t Madge always saw the god, not the me- W
anC.
''Oh, Charley! how can make little r.
at for you now After the feeling of to- To
ght is over you will wish that you had I
arried anybody rather than manned t.
rlg ="
Unwise MadgeY She drew her fate upon %,
rself. do aver that to this day her nose I'll
much fattened by the vicehke punish o.
mt Charley made her suffer for that z,
eech. ~
When he came in next evening he laid a y
per in her lap and watched the pale face
pand and blossom while she read a deed he