The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-07-19
A MUCHLY MIXED HEROINE

| road company desired to give to Miss
Mamie Gibson, who saved train
from wreck in western North Caro-
lima. Soon after Miss Mamie, who is
fourteen years old, came into prom
inence 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 passen-
est purse officials of the road visited
Miss Gibson and-Quite in the fash
ion of the good fairies of the books
asked her to name that which she
desired. Like Solomon Miss Gibson
named knowledge. She desired an
education. The road approved, made
the provision and the country APP
plauded Justify. That a simple coun-
try girl, bred to the hills, hemmed
in to a CONSTRUCTED sphere of activ-
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 within the little mountain
! girl thrilled us. We salaamed at her
century Joan of Arc. We hailed her
as the product Of years of industry
and of toil-the woman who knew
lthe better choice.
Soon after however, the maiden
disappointed the world. Into her
youthful breast had sped the arrow
of the blessed demon of love who car
ed less for education than for any
of the others of his enemies. Sitting
on her native hills, Miss Gibson at
fourteen, gazed in the moment of
prophecy far beyond the settling
mists of the valleys perhaps to Vas
sar or to Smith. Who shall state
the visions that she saw in that flu
ture the ambitions she nurtured in
her simple breast? But then she
looked into the face of the freckled
lover of the hills and colleges seemed
very futile things. Learning, mayhap.
they promised. but not the life that
lay at her elbow, that beckoned her
with its charms. that whispered to her
its allurements Miss Gibson in the
wisdom of her fourteen summers,
yielded to the old charm, to the old
plea-and, despite the losing of a col
lege professorship, the absence of an
educational motive and reward
from the railroad, we were glad! At
ter all Nature was supreme. Doubt
less she loved the boy of the noun
tains too we'll to give him up. At the
college, she would have lost him, out
grown him and never found a better.
1t was. it 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 sedate thrill.
Had it occurred to us that We could
plagiarize a poem on young passion
which would have passed muster we
would have expressed our emotions
i'm verse. Truly, the office was excit
ed. That it did not burst forth was
due to an inability to sing its emotions.
We thrilled i'm silence, too deep for
words.
But nowsswe are loosed and we re-
mark, futilely but with emphasis: Ed
ucation is the stuff. Miss Gibson.
with the fire of learning in her soul,
fiickered ii 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 q hus-
band of the hills; on the other was
the vision of a campus. green and
fragrant with knowledge. Plainly she
could not take the husband along. If
she left him at home, there would be
but one solution i'm 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 doubt and an accomplishing wife.
Likewise she would have never been
heard of. If she had set up a price
for her heroism, the railroad would
have paid and the Smiths might have
had cottage at the expense of cor
poration. Had she taken the educa-
ton before hand, Miss Gibson might
have found that there were other
Smiths. All in all. we think there
has been a bungie here. We are in
clined to lay Ii all on the train, which
was so indiscreet as to threatenA to
be wrecked. Plainly Fate played
Miss Gibson scurvy trick when it
forced her to be heroine. Into her
pretty head-surely she was pretty
there came wild thoughts of power.
Into her woman's heart there came
the vision of a freckled face and hon
est eyes of love. What conflict,
Power won. Miss Gibson still wants
her education. The love that might
have sufficed is stilled within her
heart. We drop the stor. without a
moral. 1t is a tale of the chances of
life. 1t bears its own mixed lessons