The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1907-01-08
DEATH OF A HERO.
Engineer MaxwelTs Sacrifice of His
Life to Save His PasseDgers-His
Wonderful Calmness While Suffering
.Agonies and Facing Horrible Death.

Asonies and Facing Horrible Death.
Engineer S. f. Maxwell, of Raleigh,
was slowly tortured 10 ieath in a
wreck with a freight train near Peach
land, on the SeaboaId Air Line rail
way, late Sunday night
Caught in an upright position be-
tween the locomotive and the tender
be suffered agony for four hours while
many, including several physicians,
stood by pityingly but powerless to
help.
What made the tragedy more excru-
.ciating was the fact that The doomed
engineer had met his fate by choice;
had stood by his throttle when ne
might easily have jumped and saved
himself; and that, with the heat OF the
fire-box slowly roasting his pinioned
leg and the blood streaming from IA
deep wound in which a metal apron
was fixed, he still had the lions heart
to keep his nerve and in the teeth OF
death send loving messages to wife
and child at home.
1t was the gold of heroism undefled
and when at last death came to ease
the tortured body there went on the
wings of the morning the soul Of a
a
1t is hard TO think of such a death
without a tear. 1t is impossible TO o
empIate it without feeling that it ought
to have a shout OF pride If anything
could compensate for the loss Of such
a man it would be the magnificent gift
that his death confers.
Engineer Maxwell sat in his cab
peering through the night, running so
miles an hour. AS the passenger train
that h had in charge rounded the curve
at Peachland, he saw ahead of him a
freight train, partly on the siding that
it should have made, partly ON the
main line. 1t took him less than a
raction Of a second to know the newt
able result. The danger held for him
eve"y menace that it could hold for
any man He accepted it, Instantly. The
breaks screamed their warning. The
reversed throttle told the story of the
man in the cab fighting the fight for
the lives of others. The great train
under its high momentum, heSitated,
protested, slid down the rails. In its
every joint it proclaimed its agony,
spoke the heroic anxiety OF the mar in
the cab, sitting still on his seat, facing
the death that stood less than ten sec
onds away, waiting for him.
The train slowed, screeched, srinded,
well-nigh stopped When the crash
came it was running at only ten miles
an hour. The fireman jumped, as Yves
his right; the engineer sat still, as
spoke his honor.
Not a passenger was hurt. The train
was lightly injured. ThOwn from his
seat the engineer was caught as he fell
between the tender and the engine
The iron pan that is between the n
CINE and tender was pressed against
his leg, cutting it half in two, while the
leg and foot were pressed against the
firebox.
Then the crowd gathered about, and
the brave man stood there pinned, see
ing his death, bleeding and burning,
calm. He talked of his wife and baby,
talked of them again and again. Doc
tors came, but could do nothing. He
begged them to amputate his leg so
that he might be taken from between
the iron wise that held him. They said
they could do nothing. And SO he talk
ed some more of his wife and baby,
talked cheerfully to those who oulo
have rescued him, and died.
This man was a native of Walhalla,
South Carolina, where his parents, Mr..
and Mrs. E X. Mxwell, live. He was
only 50 years of age His figure and
face bore the sign of the character his
death proved him to have. He was a
man whom people looked at twice, for
his genial face, for the tallness of him
and the robustness.
He was married to a daughter of the
late Mr.. D P. Meacham, of Raleigh,
who strangely enough was killed a
year or more ago on the yards of the
Seaboard at Johnston street.-News
and Observer.