The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-11-13
THE DAUGHTER OF THE
DARK.

driver by trade, met with an accident
whereby he was permanently disabled.
As he was taking his engine out of the
shed in the morning pipe burst, frag-
ment OF the pipe struck his left knee
with such violence that when discharged
from the hospital, he liEiped out with a
stiff leg, and carried the assurance that
his knee would be stiff all his life. The
steam had so scalded the right side of his
face, that cheek, foeehead and chin were
deeply SCARED, and, worst of all, the
right eye was so injured that the orb had
to be removed. After the accident a
flaw was discovered in the pipe which
had burst Several complaints had been
made of the engine before; the locomo-
tive superintendent was to blame, and
through him the company. So, upon
Michael Crane signing a document dis
charging the company from all further
responsibility with regard to himself and
the accident. they handed his solicitor a
cheque for four hundred and fifty pounds
as compensation for the injury sustained
by him. -.-s- (
The accident was very sad one, and
awoke a good deal of pity for Michael
Crane. He had been married Just year
to the daughter of a small shop-keeper in
little Devonshire town. She was still
short of twenty. They were both young,
and by and by there would, the neig ghbors
said sympathetically, be still younger
beings looking to them for bread, and
here were his trade and his strength
taken from him in fone moment, and ut
such an important period of his life. If
the accident had occurred before his mar
riage, or when his future family were
grown up and in the way of doing for
themselves, it would be so much easier to
bear. Death would have been prefera-
BILE. That would have left his wife free,
with four hundred and fifty pounds if
not more, in hand. and no dread of fu-
ture responsibilities. What good was
four hundred and fifty pounds to them
as they were? Neither had the least
faculty for business, or knowledge of it.
Surprising no children came, the money
might last them seven years; but in
seven years he would be no more than in
his prime, and she still young, and then
what should they do?
Much talk took place among the neigh
bors and friends. In the end, further
sum Of seventy pounds reached them;
fifty from friendly society, and twenty
the result of subscription among the
engine drivers and stokers of the COM
pany.
Michael Crane took advice of the sec
retary of the Independent Metropolitan
Engine Drivers Association, and invested
five Hundred pounds in an annuity for
his wife's life. Thus he was sure they
would have forty pounds year during
their joint lives and she the same during
her life should he die first. He could
get no more than thirty pounds year on
the two lives, and, as he put it:
"Thirty pounds is neither here nor
there for two people, but forty is some
thing. It'squeer ii after a bit l can't
make few shillings to keep myself and
any little ones God may send us, and
she'll have all the more for herself and
them if | 90 first" ...
When 1877 came round it found Mich
ael CRANES worldly affairs much i'm
proved. He was now forty-eight years
of age, still childless, and paid secretary
of the Independent Metropolitan Engine
Drivers Association. Before the accident
which made him bind in one eye and lame
he had been clever and popular among
his fellows. As the years went on he
had developed mentally, and had gath
cred to himself the admiration and con-
fidence OF the men around him. So that
in 1873, the secretary dying, he got the
secretaryship with a weekly salary of
three pounds.
In 1877 there was no secretary of any
branch Of trades union in London
more respected than Michael Crane. He
was low-sized, keen, energetic, pale,
slight, ight-bearded and bent. Over the
cavity beneath the right eyebrow he
were a black glass to conceal the I'M
pleasant void. Over the other eye be
wore an ordinary convex clear glass, for
already he was growing long-sighted in
the remaining eye. The dark patch
made by the one black glass lent his
countenance grotesque and whimsical
appearance. Even those who knew him
best and were in the habit of meeting
him daily could never fully divest their
minds Of the idea that the spectacles
with the odd glasses were assumed for
joke, and that sooner or later Michael
Crane would indicate the way in which
the joke lay. When strangers met him
they we're always inclined to laugh, and
generally did smile, at the deliberate
comieality of his face.
But Michael CRANES joke never came,
his face never relaxed. In all London it
would be hard to find one whose views
of life and things was so sincerely grave.
In his youth he had been ardent and
melancholic.i His dreadful accident and
years had tended to discipline his enthu-
siasm. He was religious without using
any specials forms of religion, puritanical
without code, sincere out of his natural
temperament, and grave out of an unform-
ulated theory that men who are not
grave must be rascals. o.
For man Of his position and oppor-
tunities he was well informed. In speech