The Press., 1913-04-09

shall not describe the amputation,
 which occasioned the most dreadful
 strain ever endured l felt tempo 1 rary relief when I had secured the end of the severed artery, but feared to see my patient collapse after l had fin- 1 ished. 1 made a frightful bungle of It.. especially the administering of the i stimulant in lieu of an anaesthettc. which I did not possess. For days |
 wondered if my patient would pull ] through, though l confess she gained 1 strength rapidly.
 1 She had come into a fair condition, and still no one appeared at the sta ton to relieve me- l asked the super intendent repeatedly how long I was i to be left alone, but got only promises that were destined to be broken. What especially troubled me was that I was . living alone with young woman who
 was not my wife, and l knew that , when we returned to the world this would be a reflection upon her. More over, it was plain that she realized the disadvantage of our position.
 l Nothing will so endear persons to each other as suffering together. Miss Mainwaring had an additional cause for being drawn to me in that l had possessed the nerve to perform sur gical operation that had saved her life under the guidance of a man many hundreds of miles away. It was not i long before told her that for my part l desired our companionship should not be broken, and she confessed blush ingly that she would gladly consent to be my wife were there any person pres , ent to perform the ceremony. 1 To continue to live together, the only two persons at the station, without wed.ock was neither practicable nor proper. I proposed that we should 1 merry ourselves by a mutual agree ment to be man and wife. This, she averred, would be no marriage at all. She considered wedlock to be a reli- gious rite and would not think of mat rimony in any other form. urged , that my plan was the best we could do ] under the circumstances, but could not 1 move her.
 Then suddenly an idea struck me. If a surgical operation could be per formed by wireless telegraph, why not a marriage? 1 ran to my instrument and began to call for ships, finally re- ceiving a response from one that had but that day set out from the coast l of Africa bound for Boston. inquired if there were clergyman on board and was informed that the bishop of Dahomey, a full blooded negro, was passenger.
 I went at once to Harriet and told her that here was an opportunity. She gasped at the idea of being married by a negro some 2,OOO miles away, but I finally prevailed and, returning to the instrument, called for the bishop and the pain she suffered from a fracture of one of her arms that she had receiv- ed while exposed on the water. Upon reaching the station l laid her upon the bed that had been used by the op- orator, and then for the first time I was enabled to look about me.
 The station was a new one and, though not furnished, was in working order. l made q tour of observation to the westward and discovered that it was located on an island when the tide was high and peninsula when it was low.
 l called up the wireless station on Cape Cod and learned that l was on the Canadian shore at latitude far operator either by lightning or other wise and was directed to assume charge of the station, since it would be impossible to send any one to me for some time, the station being in will derness and very inaccessible.
 After communicating with the man. agement l returned to my charge and received from her an account of her. self. She was an orphan and had been on her way to America to take a posi- tion. Her name was Harriet Mainwar- ing. While was getting these facts asked him to perform the ceremony. He consented. and. Harriet standing by me before the instrument, the Op- orator at sea sent the service read by the bishop. and replied on my key for Harriet and myself.
 Thus had a life been saved and two persons made one by means of 8 force operated through the air. My wife and spent our honeymoon at the station and did not regret that we were not in- truded upon by others.
 think by my illustration have made plain that imagination is nothing but the weaving together of facts. Moreover. the facts have stated could not have taken place before the tn- vention of wireless telegraphy. In oth- CT words, they could not have been cre- ated by the imagination before they had become real. which is not imagina- ton.