Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1898-12-22
The COlonel's Tale.

said young Johnson, where deliber-
ate suicide could be otherwise than
wrong; violation OF the great Ell
itorial principle, Thou shalt not
NIL"
The colonel hadn't been taking part
in the discussion. The colonel was
older than most of us. But this re-
mark of young Johnson's seemed to
start him to thinking, for he broke
in here with:
II don't quite agree with YOU he
said, and long argument ensued. The
colonel waxed eloquent in defending
his case, but most of the company
were against him Then he took a
new tack.
You have heard of Jack Savage
boys he said: He was a little be-
fore your time, l know, but did you
ever hear the story of his life?"
There were none of us who had, as
| remember, so the colonel had to tell
it. He began:
Jack and l were boys together.
was his best man when he married. He
was in love, if ever a man was, and
well, she liked him pretty well, too.
They were just as happy-as married
folks could be"
You see the colonel was married him
self, and thought it his duty to speak
cynically of married life before other
people.
Jack wanted to spend his honey
in, 10 Il
it for an out-of-the- way resort up in
the country. and there they went
There was only one railroad anywhere
near the place
I'VE heard from them while there.
They were in paradise. Which is a
way young married people have" said
| the colonel, in an aside.
But Jacks vacation came to an end;
they had to return. They missed the
regular train back to the city and had
to take slow Old accommodation in
stead. Some fool left a switch open or
! something and the train ran off the
| track and over an embankment.
There were very few passengers in
the one dilapidated old passenger
coach, but there might just as well
| have been 100 SO far as Jack was con-
cerned, for the first sight hat met his
eyes as he picked himself up out of the
dirt was his wife pinioned under the
wreckage of half a dozen ears. You
can imagine his frantic grief as he saw
! her lying there with a heavy truck
crushing her down, and on top of this
great pile of twisted wood and iron.
Her head and arms were free, but the
rest of her body held fast.
THE trainmen were to the rescue in
a moment. They worked like heroes
age, but with a warning sound, 1t set
tied, and a groan of stified pain from
the unhappy woman told them they
had better stop. Meanwhile the
wrecking crew at the nearest city,
some 90 miles away, had been tele-
graphed for, but the men said 1t could
| hardly arrive in less than an hour.
"All this time Savage was at his
wife's side comforting her as best he
knew how. She threw her arms around
his neck and kissed him. Poor woman /!
she evidently knew she had little long
er to live Then there was another
ominous sound and the wreckage set
tied still further, and with a moan she
tainted.
Jacks grief knew no bounds. He
tore around like a mailman. He cursed
the trainmen one moment, the next i'm
plored them most pteously to help
him. They, poor fellows, felt his sor-
row, too, and found spare rail along
side the track, pile of cross@ties was
placed under one end of 1t, and with ii
| as a lever, after several attempts a
portion of the wreckage was raised.
Mrs. Savage opened her eyes just for
a moment But that moment and the
TO inspire any man to do his utmost.
They bore down still more heavily on
the lever, wken--horrori-one of the
cross ties Slipped down out OF place and
the wreckage dropped down again with
crash,
Screams of agony burst from the I'M
happy woman's lips. 1t was an awful
thing just to listen 10 them. The men
stood dumb They could do nothing.
But Jack was at her side in an instant.
Oh, jack she cried, cant you put
an end TO this? It's killing me. The
pain Is killing me, Put me out Of my
misery. Jack. Ny Jack, | beg OF you,
kill me, XIII me! l am dying by
inches!'
ct was a torture to stand helpless
by. II would have been kindness TO
have relieved her OF the agony by kill
ing her. Bot he could not think OF
such thing. She might not be fatally
injured. There was the hope OF the
wrecking rain. She might yet be res
cned.
4 can't. can't he groaned.