Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1874-03-14

!
The occasion of this misunderstood
lug is briefly told Wilson made one ol
Il little pleasure party Tor Il ueighborine
village, that was spending an afternoon
i'll n shady retreat on the banks of mil
/ stream. There were three or four young
men and half dozen maidens and, as
| 1t happens ON such occasions, some
rivalries were excited among the former.
| These should only have added piquancy
to the merry intercourse of all parties,
and would have done so, had not the
impatient temperament of Logan car
ried him little beyond good feeling
aud Il generous department toward
others. without due reflection, yet in
10 sarcastic spirit, Edward Wilson made
a remark on some act of Logan that
irritatcd him exceedingly. An angry
spot burned instantly on his cheek, and
he replied with words of cutting insult
so cutting that all present expected
nothing less than II blow from Wilson
as his answer to the remark. And to
deal a blow was his first impulse. But
he restrained the impulse and it re-
quired more courage to do this than to
have stricken the insolent young man
to the ground. A moment or two Will
son struggled with himself, and then
turned off and marched slowly away.
His flushed and then paling face, his
quivcring lips and unsteady eyes, left
on the minds of all who witnessed the
scene an impression somewhat unfavor-
able. Partaking of the indignant ex-
ctement of the moment, many of those
present looked for the instant punish
ment for his unirstifiable insult. When,
therefore, they saw Wilson turn away
without even defiant answer and
heard the low, sneeringly uttered word,
Coward !" from the lips of Logan,
they felt that there was a craven spirit
about the young man. coward we
instinctively despise and yet, how slow
we are to elevate that higher moral
courage which enables man to brave
unjust Judgment, rather than to do
what he thinks to be wrong, above the
mere brute instinct which, in the mo-
ment of excitement, forgets all physical
consequences.
As Edward Wilson walked away from
his companions he felt that he was re-
garded as q coward This was for
him bitter trial, and the more so,
/ DtcdltSt iIlcIt WIS one III Iiltt llltlc
group of startled maidens for whose
generous regard he would have sacri-
ticec all but honor.
1t was, perhaps, half an hour after
this unpleasant occurrence, that Lo-
gan, whose heart still burned with an
unforGiving spirit, encountered Wilson
under circumstances that left him free
to repeat his insulting language, with
out disturbing the rest of the party,
who were amusing themselves at some
distance, and beyond the range of OBJ
scrvation. He did not succeed in OBJ
tanning a permanent encounter, as he
haG desired.
Edward Wilson had been for some
time sitting alone with his unhappy
thoughts, when he was aroused by sud
den cries Of alarm, the tone of which
told bis heart too plainly that some i'm
mnent danger irlpcndcd. Springing
to his feet he ran in the direction of the
cries. and quickly saw the cause of cX-
citcmcnt. Recent heavy rains had
swollen the mountain stream, the turbid
waters of which were sweeping down
with great velocity. Two young girls,
who had been amusing themselves at
some distance above in boat that WAS
attached to the shore by long rope,
had, through some accident, got the
fastening loose, and were now gliding
down, far out in the current with a
fearfully increasing speed, toward the
breast of milldam some hundreds of
yards below, from which the water was
laundering down a height of over twcn-
ty feet. Pale with terror, the poor
young creatures We're stretching out
their hands toward their companions on
the shore, and making heart-rending
cries for succOr,
Instant action was necessary, or all
would be lost The position of the
young girls had been discovered, while
they We're yet some distance above, and
there happening to be another boat out
on the nAlldam, AMI that nigh at hand,
Logan ard two other young men had
loosed it from the shore But the dan
ger Of being carried over the dam,
should any one venture out in this
boat, seemed 50 inevitable, that none of
them dared to encounter the hazard
Now screaming and wrinGing their
hands, and now urging those men TO
try and save their companions, stood
the young maidens of the party on the
shore, when William dashed through
them, and springing into the boat, cried
out,
"Quick, Logan ! Take an oar, or all
is lost"
But, instead of this, Logan stepped
hack a pace or two from the boat, while
his face grew pale with fear. Not an
instant more was wasted. AT u glance
Wilson saw that if the ladies were
saved, it must be by the strength of his
own arm. Bravely he pushed from the
shore, and, with giant strength, born of
the moment and for The occasion, from
his high, unscltish purpose, he dashed
the boat cut into the current, and,
bending to the oars, took direction at
an angle with the other boat, toward
the point where the water was sweeping
over the dam. At every stroke the
light sEitt sprung forward dozen feet,
and scarcely half q minute elapsed ere
+ Wilson was beside the other boat. Both
We're now within twenty yards of the
| fall, and the water was bearing them
down with velocity that strong
rover, with every advantage on his
side, could scarcely have contended
against successfully. To transfer the
frightened girls from one boat to the
other, III the few moments of time left
ere the down sweeping current would
| bear their frail vessel to the edge of the
dam, and still to retain an advantage,
| WAS for Wilson inpossihla II, 1.i