The sun., 1919-09-04
In the Heart of a Good woman.

Mrs. WILLIAM TANNER of Hubbard
Woods, ILL.,, while walking on the
highway at grade crossing Of the
Northwestern Railroad near Chicago,
was caught between two planks as
heavy train bore down on the spot
where she was held prisoner. Her
husband and q gate tender attempted
t. extricate her, but could not. The
engineer threw on the emergency
brakes, but was not able to stop the
train. The flagman persisted in his
efforts. to save Mrs. TANNER until the
last possible moment. As he drew
back from the track he was struck by
the steam chest and severely hurt.
Her husband continued in his attempt
to free her until the engine was upon
them and death for her was seen by
both of them to be inevitable.
AS the train neared the doomed
woman her thoughts turned from her.
self to her children, her husband and
her husbands mother. Resigning her
self to death, she pleaded with him to
desert her, to save himself, to pre-
serve his own life for the sake of
others. The fiagman heard these
pleas. He saw her husband give his
answer to them. 1t was to clasp his
wife in his arms and sacrifice his life
with her under the wheels Of the To-
connective.
This plain recital Of an extraordi-
nary tragedy stirs the mind as we'll as
the heart. The awful alternatives
presented to the husband forced him a
choice all other men may pray to be
spared. On the one hand his children,
his family; on the other, his wife,
whom no available human agency
could save. He had no time to think
some will say. but they have never
been in imminent danger. When
death stares men IN the eye they
think quickly. Who can say what
weighing of duty, what appraisal of
human values, he made while the
laundering engine covered the few
seconds which measured his wife's
span Of life? We can say that when
he saw her fate was sealed life as
men love 1t ceased for him. To sur
vive meant nothing except existence
to bear burden. To die meant re-
lease from sorrow no man would face
willingly. Was the comfort his COM
partnership would give his wife worth
more to WILLIAM TANNER. worth
more to her. than performance of his
obligation to their children, perform
ance of his obligation to his mother?
The decision was a cruel one to make.
There will be those who will say he
failed In the crisis, that he should
have lived, breadwinner and protector
for the woman who brought him into
the world, for the children he and his
wife brought into the world. But we
count of little worth the condemna-
tory opinions of any who has not
stood before death with one he loved
and had the choice to make between
dissolution and desertion.
The good woman rings true I'm the
metal of Mrs. TANNER. Her resigna-
ton to the inevitable came before
either Of the men who struggled to
save her would admit it. Her
! thoughts turned from herself to 9TH
ers: her husband. her children, her
husbands family. Heart and mind
she gave to them. Her body she for
got. That others should not suffer,
that others should be saved, cared for.
guarded; these were the wife's
thoughts, the mothers thoughts. the
| daughters thoughts. There Is moth
ing so fine, nothing so generous, moth
ing so wholly free from dross as the
heart Of good woman.