The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1880-01-15

And I, pilgrim stranger" etc.
Passages Of scripture appropriate to
the beginning of the year were read by
Rev. DR. Talmage, and the sermon was
% follows:
snbjeCt:-The Rail- Train Falling Into the River
TAy.
TEXT-Nahum ii, A: The Chariots shall
rage in the streets; they shall jostle one
against another in the broad ways; they
shall seem like torches; they shall run
like the lightuings.
Ifthat be not an express train under
full hesdway at night what is it2 The
use of steam may have been one of the
lost arts. Robert Fulton and James
Watt, thousands Of years .afterward, re-
covering what was known in the days
of Nahum, the prophet. While reading
the text you hear the clash of the car
coupling the roar of the wheels and the
terrific velocity which any night may be
heard on the iron track between New
York and Buffalo, between Cincinnati
and Pittsburgh, between Charleston and
Savannah, between Edinburgh and Dun.
dee.
For moral and religious advantage l
call to your minds the precipitation Of
the Scottish railroad train last Sabbath
night through the bridge across the
River Tsy. All the surroundings of'that
accident are 80 vivid in my memory that
I cannot refrain from this sermon. On
the morning Of the 9lst Of last July l
coneulted with friends at Dundee wheth-
or had better take the rail train on the
way to Glasgow, or go part the distance
on the Tay. Advised to the latter,
stepped on board the steamer, Star
0'Gowrie, her flag futtering in the
strong gale that blew, although at the
same time the sun was flooding land
and water and sky with golden glory. l
had seen the Hudson and the Rhine, but
the beauty and magnifcenCe of the
river Tag that summer morning for some
reason thrilled me as no other landscape
ever did. The banks, adorned with
signs of present wealth and historical
remiuiscenCe, now lie in my mind like
summer dream of paradisical beauty.
From its birth at Loeb Tay to its trans
lation into the German Ocean, it is one |
long enCbantment. There are orchards
and farmsteads and mansions. Elcho
Castle, Landlords Abbey and Round
Tower Of Abernethy, and BalnabreCh
Castle, suggestive of the past till you al.
most see the fash Of ancient Claymores
and hear the battle-shout of Robert
Bruce and Wallace and Thomas De Lon.
gueviIle, and the challenge of the Clan
Chattain to the Clan Inhele. Did ever
such bright sky look down into so en-.
chanting river between such historical
banksP But the present must attempt
to outdo the past, and wonder il isl
Fairy like for exquisiteness and majestic
for arching spans, the bridge across the
Tay. In ten or fifteen minutes from the
Dundee docks we come under it and
have full opportunity of examining the
structure, which is the pride of Great
Britain, "Have you any thing like that
in America" said ruddy Scotchman,
and 1 answered, Nothing like it," Near
two miles long and with eighty seven
spans, eighty feet above the surface of
the water, the best view that can be OBJ.
tanned oft we had that morning from
the decks Of the Star 0'Gowrie. No
suggestion that summer day of coming
calamity, nothing in the glee of the pas.
5engers, nothing in the clouds crystal
line, nothing 10 the waters opaline.
nothing in the architectural triumph.
looking not as mu ch as if it had been
built up, but as il it had gracefully and
9uperDaturally alighted. When the con.
ductor, last Sabbath at Edinburgh, lifted
his hand in signal to the engineer and
The train started, what a smooth open.
ing 70 tragical chapter! What more fas.
,inating than that rail train in motionl !
Across the plain how IL glides! Through !
he Villages how it dartsl Under the
Ihadow OF the rocks how it rushes, clank
Ind roar and clatter! On and on. hour
lfter hour. But what peril ahesdl Will
lot some BWitchman run ont with the !
red flag Of daUgerP Will not some echo
If the rocks cry Stop" or some voice Q
II the wild night-wind halt the doomed 9
orocessionf How dumb and unsympa.
'hetic the earth seems at such times of !
awful crisisl Stop chat train! The pres. !
Iure Of an engineers foo. on the brakes. !
md from one to three hundred lives I
will be saved from precipitation. But
ne train movts on as by inexorable fate 1
md reaches the abutment and sets its 2
ron feet on the bridge which, from :
lencef1rth, becomes mora memorable
han that of Norwalk or Ashtsbula,
some one from the shore thinks he sees :
shower Of FIRE aud the falling lights of .
me train, but until the last day will it be
InoWn whether the spans had already I
disappeared in the whirlwind, making a .
'hasm down which the passenger cara q
'h4sed each other. or, more likely, the z
ITeat procession of human life waved to
md fro under the arms Of the eurokly. :
ION; TO and fro with mighty swing: 10
Ind fro with lurCh that makes the .
blood curdle; to and fro till the wheels 7
Zip the track, and smoking engine and ,
lighted coaches, locomotive driver and d
toker, guardsman and passengers, ara 8
lurled with lightning velocity through Q
he night through the spaces, through a
he waters, down. q hundred feet down a
lrashl crash Crashl
All deadI Some by fright, some by
browning, some by hruises--but ali 4
leaol / cath captured the train, put his i
loot on the brakes, stopped the Royal '
mail bags, arrested the speed and shock. >
I'd ChristeDdom! They were fathers and =
mothers, they we're sons and daughters. /
hey were brothers and sisters, and The !
lueen's telegram that thrilled with sym. !
L