The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-08-23
The Fire Escape and the Vine.

WIN - bAO C~OAouCtoiJl 40 di UhAOu1NSN
one.
The Fire Escape and the Vine.
very foolish TO cling to me. Sup
pose an accident were to happen,
where would you be9 Torn, trampled,
! crushed under hnrrying feet. Look
at those su%nfiowers. They stand on
their own stems, they do. Catch
them sticking their saucy yellow
heads between my bars; not muchl l
like independence, / do"
Thus spake the Fire Escape.
How hard-hearted you are" muir
INJURED the Vine, linging a tendril
lovingly about the upper railing,
Il was born so,n replied the Fire
Escape, grimly.
And how cold," continued the
Vine.
MY nature" growled the Fire Es-
cape.
But | love you," whispered the
Vine, because you are SO strong and
SO tall and such a help to me! When
| was a little thing and a stranger
IN this street / looked up
and saw you, great and dark,
reaching almost to the sky. Ali you
looked so terrible, and, if you will par
don me, so ugly, that | was frightened
at first; but then it was pleasant and
restful to lean against your mighty
frame. | gave myself up to it, and
grew and grew and budded and
blossomed, till, as you know, the pas
sersby stop in amazement. SAYING
How beautiful that Fire Escape
looks?'n
"Still ours is not a suitable union,n
persisted the Fire Escape. II have a
great mission to perform; / am here
to save human life. You should have
cast your lot with some nice country
cottage mot a coarse old tenement
like me.n'
Love goeth whittier it is sent"
sighed the Vine meekly, and chung
closer.
That night a woman with a babe at
her breast dropped a lighted lamp.
Flames darted here, there, every
where; hungrily, gloatingly. People
madly flung their poor possessions
from windows. Engines ratified
through the streets. Brave men
climbed the sturdy fire escape, and
carried children and women down It's
iron sides. Splendid streams of water
played upon the blazing buildings.
Morning dawned, pale and blue. The
fire escape stood tall and dark, but the
poor, pretty little vine lay dead at it's
feet, a victim of misplaced affection
Pearl Eytinge, IN Dramatic NeWs.
Heart Failure.
1t would seem that recently an IN
usual number of deaths among emin-
emit men have been attributed by the
physicians to 'heart failure" Some
one commenting on this pronounces
the phrase correct, but not very salts
factory. When death comes the heart
surely fails. 1t is the forerunner of
dissolution in all cases. Says an emil
nent thinker and writer:-s'The heart
having beaten INCREASINGLY for, say,
seventy years, at the rate of sixty-ive
to seventy-five beats each minute of
that time, suddenly finds it's supply
cut off and stops its pulsations, and
the owner of that heart becomes
clay"
II am suffocating,n said DIR. Buck
ingham a few moments before he died.
What shall l do?" was the inquiry
of the attending physician. Moth
ing" was the reply. 1.-THE heart has
failed. | am dying" In ten minutes
the noble gentleman and skillful
physician was a corpse. Seventy odd
years had that heart done duty, but
now must stop and did.
But" it is frequently asked, s'what
auses heart failure?" and this cues
ton has not yet been satisfactorily
answered. 1t may be old age, la
grippe, apoplexy, paralysis, exhausted
vital energy, loss Of sleep, nervous
prostration or softening of the brain.