Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1879-09-10
A Telegraphic Hero.
BY WILLIAM II. BUSHNELL.

1t was night in one of the fairest and
most prosperous southern cities. The sun
had gone down in threatening gloom. A
terrible, a loathing fear had fastened upon
every heart. Men looked anxionsly into
the face of every one they met to see if it
were not already stamped with the yellow
signet of gloom. The air was loaded with
pestilence; it was sucked in with every
breath, was given by Il touch of the most
holy kiss. There appeared no possible es-
cape-to be no end until the consuming
fire should die out for want of human fuel.
Hour by hour the list of mortality had
increased; day by day the victims had
been doubled. Physician and patient,
priest and penitent, the rich and the poor,
the sexton and the gravedigger alike had
fallen. Every home resource had been
exhausted; medicine, preventatives and
comforts had dwindled 10 nothing. The
once proud city was bankrupt in tending
to relieve the horrible suffering, save the
living, and fitting)y care for the fallen.
The one possible hope rested in telling to
health-blesscd lands of the needs, of whis-
pering by lightning lips to the warm SYM
pathetic hearts and open hands in nothern
cimes-a hope. hanging upon the most
brittle of threads.
A single telegraph operator remained OF
the once goodly number. One by one they
had fallen, and none could be found to fill
their places. The malice of the plague
seemed to have especially singled them for
destructon-to be determined to permi;
nothing TO stand in the way of wholesale
slaughter. Instrument after instrument
had been silenced. The shuddering north
waited in vain for news, and bowed in
deepest grief over the unbroken anxiety
waited sadly for the morrow.
From all, but one, death had taken the
power to transmit messages upon which SO
much depended; to all others near the
knowledge and practice had been denied
As he sat tortured with the weighty re.
sponsibility, with the horrible anxiety tha,
could never have found expression in
words, and sent northward the sickening
record:
Fever worse. Over one hundred new
cases to-day. Out of proper medicine,
blankets and ice. Many physicians dead
For the love of Heaven, send aid and sup
plies!'
Over one hundred new cases !" was re.
peated az ain and again by the mysterious
telegraph of the brain until the thought
usurped all others, and the heart of the
man beat tumultuously, and hot and un-
hidden tears came to his eyes.
"One hundred new cases!" he muttered
despairingly. "What if should be the
nextP God guard my dear wife and child.
If | should be taken away, what would
become of them? Mary! What in the
name of Heaven brought you herep"
could not stay at home, stay away
from you, with so many dying and dead
around me- Oh! it is horrible! What is
to be done, my darlingp' and she laid hel
bright-eyed baby in his arms, and, throw.
ing herself upon Il bench, gave way tc
tears.
ave are in the hands of higher Pow
er," he answered in the frmest tones he
could command.
Not so!' she interrupted, starting
wildly to her feet, and dashing back the
heavy masses of damp hair from around
the wan but still beautiful face" not so
We are simply tempting fate. Why dc
you remain here and court death? Hun
dreds are flying from the doomed city, are
SolnS HoItu anu " eaioty' vi, WHY VIII
you remainP"
",Duty commands me, Mary. Remem.
ber, am the last, the only operator left
and should desert my post, what would
become of the othersP'
And if you remain and perish, wha
is to become of our child, or me? Is mo-
our love more precious than all the world
than loud-mouthed but heartless praise
Oh, think of what you would don'
The strong man shook as one terribly
stricken with the aguc; his limbs trembleC
in every joint; drops of sweat stood rs
great beads upon his forehead; the hand'
that pressed his little darling TO his hear
twitched convulsively, and the voice il
which he attempted to respond was broker
and unnatural.
Mary, my dear wife, you know no
what you are saying. Suffering and low,
for our dear child have nearly driven yol
mad. Think of thousands of fond mothers
and beloved children whose lives M,
hanging upon my resolutions. If ! wer,
to fly, the city would become vast grave
yard. Medicine, physicians, nurses, com