Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1905-08-28
A NORTH CAROLINA ROMANCE.
Story of the Girl Who Saved a Train
From Wreck.

Raleigh IN. CO. News and Observer.
1t seems that there is a complication
in the reward which the railroad COM
pany desired to give to Miss Mamie
Gibson, who saved train from wreck
in western North Carolina. Soon after
Miss Mamie, who is Ia years old, came
into prominence through the use of the
red flags, the press OF the entire country
teemed with stories of the wisdom OF
the choice which she elected in the
way of a reward. After the pas
sengers on the train had made UP a
modest purse officials of the road Wis
tied Miss Gibson and quite in the fash
ion of the good fairies of the books
asked her to name that which she de-
sired Like Solomon. Miss Gibson
named knowledge. She desired IN
education. The road approved made
the provision and the country applaud
ed Justify. That a simple country girl,
bred to the hills, hemmed in to a
CONSTRUCTED sphere of activities, should
have this far-reaching judgment and
insight was a wonder of human nature.
We all gasped. Most of us drew
morals, announced parallels, harped
on distinctions. The noble heart with
in the little mountain girl thrilled us.
We salaamed at her feet. We knew
her for 2U,- century Joan of Arc.
We hailed her as the product of years
of industry and of toil-tle woman
who knew the better choice.
Soon after, however, the maiden dis
appointed the world. Into Iler youth
full breast had sped the arrow Of the
blessed demon of love who cared less
for education than for any of the
others of his enemies. Sitting on her
native hills, Miss Gibson, at IA, gazed
in the moment of prophecy far be-
You'd the settling mists of the valleys
perhaps to Vassar or to Smith. Who
SHALL state the visions that she saw in
that future, the ambitions she
then sac looked into the face of the
freclkled lover of the hills and colleges
seemed very futile things. Learning,
mayhap, they promised, but not the
life that lay at her elbow, that beckon.
ed her with it's charms, That whispered
to her it's al1urements. Miss Gibson
in the wisdom of her IA summers,
yielded to the old charm, to the old
plea-and, despite the losing Of q col
lege professorship, the absence OF an
r,II1 q NJ q
the railroad, we were glad! After all
nature was supreme. Doubtless she
loved the boy of the mountains too
we'll to give him up. At the college,
she would have lost him, out-grown
him and never found better. It was, is
is, always a risky game when female
ignorance stalks into the open OF
knowledge. When we heard that Miss
Gibson had married we confess to
having experienced a sedate thrill.
plagiariZe a poem on young passion
which would have passed muster, we
would have expressed our emotions in
verse. Truly, the Office was excited.
That it did not burst forth was due to
an inability to sing it's emotions. We
thrilled in silence, too deep for words.
But now we are loosed and we re-
mark, futilely but with emphasis:
Education is the stuff Miss Gibson
with the fire of learning in her soul,
f1iskered it is true. Even did she go
to the altar. She was married. Away
behind she put apparently the dream
that caused her to risk her life to
save the train. But the dream re-
turned. On the one hand was a hus-
band of the hills; on the other was
the vision of the campus, green and
fragrant with knowledge. Plainly she
could not take the husband along. II
she left him at nome, there would be
but one solution in the end. Miss
Gibson discounted the solution and
started a suit for divorce.
Whereat we are greatly mixed. Had
Miss Gibson not tagged the train, she
would have been Mrs. Smith beyond a