The St. Johns herald., 1892-03-24
LIFE FOR LIFE.
The Heroic Act Which Cost .
 Noblo Man His Life.
Germany's Minister to the United States Saves the Lives of Some Playing Children at the Cost
 of HIS Own.

On a sunny afternoon last spring . group of children were playing on the edge of a sidewalk that fringes one of the many handsome. wooded squares of Washington. The group numbered nearly dozen. Bright pretty children they were, ranging in age from three to ten. All were dressed in the pret- tiest of gowns, and near by, forming a group by themselves, stood the nurses of the little ones. The charm of the afternoon had attracted many to the promenades and not a few paused as they saw the children at play to watch them. 4 game of tag was in progress. To escape the chaser the little ones ran into the street. As they did so, says a correspondent of the Chicago Post, a large horse, hitched to hanson cab and without driver to guide him, turned the corner and with the speed of a frightened animal rushed toward the playing children. The tots, wrapped in the excitement of their game, did not see the runaway, and, all uncon- scious of their danger, rOmped on. The pedestrians and the nurses saw the flying steed and their blanched faces told that they knew too well the impending horror. But the knowledge seemed to have paralyzcd the senses. No one moved. No one so much as ut tered a cry of warning. There were men, able-bodied men, too, in the crowd. But, like the women, they stood helpless spectators of the scene. On rushed the runaway. The street was on an incline, with the children near the bottom, and the horse gained impetus with every bound. But twen- ty feet separated him from the still-un- conscious children. Women turned their heads and men closed their eyes to shut out the horrible sight.
 A man of stalwart frame burst through the bushes surrounding the square, brushed with one sweep of his arm pathway through the crowd and sprang at the horses head. The man was very giant in stature and his grasp upon the bridle was un- shal1able. But the flight of the horse was too great for two giants to have stopped in the short space between him and the children. But not too great for the unknown to throw the horse from his course. The swerve was not much, but it was sufficient to miss the children. And when q moment later the rescuer brought the horse to q halt cry of joy went up from everyone. As if moved by the same thought, all ran toward the deliverer to thank him for his act. Before they could reach him he fell. His arm was broken, and a doctor, after a nasty examination, said that he had also sustained internal injuries. He recovered in time, ap- parently, and in the carly summer his tall figure could be seen any pleasant afternoon on the avenue. But appear ances were deceitful. He had not re- covered. He suffered, but said noth- ing. But the pain became at last so great that he went home across the ocean to be helped. His friends here waited anxiously for tidings. They came. They first told that an opera tion was to be performed. Then they told that it had been performed and that the rescuer of the little children would suffer no more. He was dead. His name? Count Ludwig von Arco Valley, envoy extraordinary and min ister plenipotentiary of Germany to the United States