National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-04-10
TRUE HERoLSMAr THE PRS MOUTH.

tFrom the New York Herald
Two or three weeks ago an accident did not
occur near Scranton, Pa; the newspapers miss
ed q sensational horror; and dozen men, in
stead Of being hurried into eternity withou.
time to breathe prayer, walked quietly home
to their dinners, quite unconscious that death
had had them by the threats. 1t might, after
all, be worth our while to look into the cause
of the loss of this tragedy to the world; we
should have been keen enough TO unearth the
guilty party if it had occurred. The facts are
briefly these: 80
In tAs largest anthracite coal mine in the
State, the care Of the engine BY which the cars
for passengers are lowered and hoIsted Is placed
in the hands of Scotch Irishman, an ordinary
fellow enough. The cable, necessarily of great
weight and thickness, passes through the roof
of slightly-built shed under which he stands.
One morning, as the man stood smoking his
pipe, his hand upon the lever, his mind very
probably busy with his dinner, and surely not
wrought up to any heroic rapture of resolve,
the ascending car Qoaded with coal) at one
end of the cable, broke, and tell crashing into
the dark shaft, to be shattered into 4 thousand
fragments.
He knew that in the next minute the cable,
released from the strain, would fly back and
fall with crushing weight on the rickety beams
and boards of tho roof. Death was absolutely
certain II he did not escape from the shed. But
If he took his hand from the lever, the descend
ing car, full Of men, must fall one or two hun
dred feet. He had but one instant to face bis
death and theirs, and to choose between them.
There was boy in the back of the shed; the
man motioned to him with bis head to 90 out.
Then he frightened his hold on the lever. The
loosened cable struck and caught somewhere
below against the side Of the SHAFT. Surely God
meant it should so strike. It was the delay of
but breath Of time; but II was enough. The
car grated with jar against the ground far
below; its occupants stepped leisurely out,
while the man who had saved them above
threw himself from under the shed Just as its
roof, beams, pulley and all crashed down on
the spot where he had been standing. We do
not know the mans name, and should scarcely
need to publish 1t II we did. Fame or reward
jar somehow against the deed itself.
There is wholesome tonic for all of Us In the
certainty, which Is forced upon us now and
then, Of the unknown, unmeasured resources
of courage and heroism and unhinching integ-
rity to duty which we possess smong what we
choose to call the mass of the people. 1t is,
after all, only when man reaches the GER
tainties Of middle age that he is not surprised
every new day by the knowledge Of how ad-
nirahle crew has been put into the world for
Its long voyage; how many Of the women are
gracious and finely natured; how many men re- |
spond promptly to the call of honesty or duty
or even self-sacrihce because It Is the simple |
and natural thing for them to do.
We will congratulate ourselves, then, not |
that his class can boast one such brave fellow |
as this scotch-Irish engineer, but that, like |
King Harry over Percy's grave, we believe that |
"has thousand such he."