The tribune. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1874-1876, 1874-12-16

the streets, with the ef,inning of that
dazed look coming on b is face which L
noticed the other incoming. Things
went along in this way for some time,
until the morning OF n day made ever
memorable, in the City OF Monuments,
by q sad disaster which plunged all its
inhabitants into sea of grief. On the
4th of July, 1885,, the day opened
bravely, flags f1oated, cannon roared,
and Christ's church bells laid aside
their dignity and merrily chimed out
Yankee Doodle" A grand picnic
excursion had been arranged at Riders
Grove on the Susquehanna railroad, q
few miles from the city, and thousands
of gayly dressed people filled the va
rious trains going to and from the
grove. .-.--
After the festivities of the day had
ended, the pleasure seekers were all
gathered into a long train of cars and
with merry voices and joyous hearts
were speeding rapidly homeward, when
in an instant of time there was crash,
a chorus of wild shrieks, then an in
stantof silence succeeded by the groans
OF despair: from mutilsted host of
victims. Two trains had collided. The
difference of minute in two watches,
the lapse of single instant of watch
fulness on the part of an engineer, and
three SCORE of ynangled corpses, and
three times three score of wounded men
and women lay crushed in the debris
of the shattered traius.r -.s a.:
It was midnight when the relief train
which had been sent out to the spot
started for the city, and among the
dead laid out in the baggage car lay the
form of Dora crushed out of all sem
blance of beauty. Charity draws the
mantle of forgetfulness over the sins
of the dead, yet it is neither uncharita-
BILE nor unkind to say that it was. bet
ter for Dora that she passed away
to travel to its bitter and inevitable end
the road in which, she had set her way
ward feet. z~.-
The effect of the disaster upon old
Biles was terrible. He blamed himself
and vented curses on the day heD-was
born he raved until exhausted nature
gave way in him. and then settled down
into that. semi-idiotic condition of mind
SO painful to see in one whom we have
known in brighter times. His sole oc,
cupation now was the adornment and
beautifying of the grave of'Dora, in the
shady center OF Greenmount cemetery :;
and on any afternoon the poor old man
could be found seated by its side. His
friends, seeing that unless some change
could be effected in him he would soon
sink into hopeless imbecility, succeeded
in persuading him TO sell his farm and
try the effects of an entire change of
place and scene.s 1t cost him a terrible
struggle to make up his mind to leave
the one green spot on earth to him
the grave of his child, but he had yet
strength of mind remaining to see that
unless he made some effort he would
sink hppelessly into despair.
And so, with man y pang, he turned
his back upon his home. But the
young, vigorous manhood, instead of
inspiring him with energy and life, was
too much for his grasp, and the money
he brought with him was soon rapidly
melting away in unwise operations, in
which he was made the dupe of unscru-
pulous or visionary spectators. The
poor old mans helpless state, and some
little inkling of his unhappy history
which had gained currency through let
ters from home among the Baltimore
ans hers, -awoke a feeling of sympathy
for him, ,sand kindly merchant man
aged to rescue, before it-was all gone,
o sufficient sum to yield, in the way of
little stipend amounting to-a
few dollars a week, just sufficient to
keep body and soul together, which is
now, paid to him at Stated intervals.
During the. existence of the Monumen-
tai Fire. Company, principally COM,
posed Of former residents of Baltimore,
Old Biles was always welcome to the
engine house.
He would stand by the old engine,
whose panels were decorated with views
of the City of Monuments, and caress
its sides with loving touch, as though
it were q connecting link binding him
to the green earth where lay buried his
broken heart in the grave of his child.
For hours he would sit on the wooden
ench outside the door, gazing into
vacancy, and an occasional look of
shadowy happiness would pass over his
as though apassing angel
had stopped in pity to lay the hand of
sympathy upon his frosted hair.
/ had entirely lost sight of him for
some years, until my meeting with him
as above related the other morning,
and as his life story flashed through
my brain, my quicker footsteps had
oyertaken and passed Old. Biles with
the same old sad look in his face, and
his bent, decrepit, aimless walk, pass
ing along among the busy throng Of
men with the air of one in dream.
: n Tie New York Constitution. %,
The question Of the validity of the
new fcOnStit tutional amendments of the