The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1878-11-27

have heart. could catch criessto me-
thar a should be saved. / could sec
| women wild with pity. All. what could
their pity do.for me3 Yet that, perhaps
was the saving Of my life. Any thing
any thing TO make me forget the ever,
rus..---, waters tina Increasingly flashed
by my feet and disappeared.
"Men were crowding the river bank
They were consulting, could see, ex
citedly, debating what should be Gone.
There lis q rush Of some from the
crowd. Time passes, ages to me, in nv
agony. Atflast boat comes borne on the
shoulders of boatmen at q run. They Law
It at the waters edge. Delay! delay
Oh, God On, God There is a rush OF
Others with coil of cable, not rope: rope
they knew would be murder.
II see them boring the boats sides
passing the cable through -knetting IT.,
mailing it securely.
'The boat is towed along the still side
water far UP the stream. The crowd FOL
low IT. What will they do? God! what
Will they do2 What sane being will ven
ture his LIE to save mine2 Della y! delay .
They have stopped, Talk chatter! will
they never act9 Oh, dear God, help him
: bless him! A canoe pulls out from
shore, with the boat in tow. The canoe
as we'll as the boat, has cable secured to
It, by which those on the bank regulate
us drlft down stream. How strongly it
struggles up and out into the full flood
Both cables are secured round trees and
paid out by numbers. g.
Fighting UP and across the tide, drift
ed doW1 it as the cables slack their
length, ! watch--with what hungering
eyes The canoe steals inch by inch to
where it and the boat holds it are in a
line with, my feet. 4T The set of some, cur
rent drlfted me to the rock stand on.
the boat is detached, straining on the ca
ole, guided, too, by rope from the nea
~ stationary canoe. The current sets ii
toward me. 1t is brought up by the
strain OF the cable ashore. Still it drifts
nearer and nearer.
where are moments in life that swa1-
low up all the rest of existence in our
memories. They haunt US awake. We
cream them always. If I should be a
Methuselah with centuries OF breath it
seems to mo one thought would always
absorb all others, as Aaron's snake de-
voured Pharoah's magician's serpents.
l remember nothing else but that I
woke out OF dream of hell in bed at
Forsyth's | was told had been in death
agony with BRAIN fever. What mattered
that7 l was out of the torment of the
damned. felt the blessedness of peace,
OF safety, of life wrung from death.
They dared not tell me it was real
that all I am now telling you had been
awful reality--that / had dared az the
boat drifted abreast of me to risk leap
into it--that, on the very edgd and utter
BRINK OF perdition, the strength of scores
ashore asl had overpowered the rushing flood
that amid the shouts and tears and sobs.
not OF women only, but Of bearded, iron
nerved men, had been lifted senseless
from the boat and borne to enjoy brain
fever safely in the hotel yonder.
"Do you think have told you lie or
q bellevable truth--the bare fact? [ know
1t IS plain truth, and yet only half credit
myself. Well, stranger, dream or truth,
! never forget it; it's part of lue always.
God save any one from ever trying, in
fact Or fancy, such an experience as mine!
y. IN ow'you know why I don't see any !
thing of beauty in Niagara. Ileave that
to be discovered by those who never came
50 near to being a real part Of it as I did.