Year: 1871




Two simple little incidents come TO 10
in our exchanges, which seem To- % n
least as we'll worth the telling as the lat
est history Of adultery and murder
One is the story Of poor acrobat out
West who was dashed from his giddy
hight to the ground; and who, when the
crowd gathered about him, raised himself
mangled and bleeding. to gasp out en-.
treaties for them to save the two girls
left unsupported ON the trapeze. He re-
fused to be lifted until they were rescu-
ed, and in the agony Of his fall and shat
tered limbs was the only man in the
large audience who forgot his own neces-
sities and had the cool presence of mind
to direct how they could be brought
down. When they we're safe, pain got
the better of him, and was carried as
dead off the stage. The women were
strangers to him.


The other story is of little girl who
wandered on to the track os the Delaware
railroad as a freight train Of nineteen
cars was approaching. As it turned the
sharp top of the grade, opposite st.
Georges, the engineer saw the child for
the first time, blew "down brakes" and
reversed the engine. But it was too late
to slacken its speed in time, and the poor
baby got up, and laughing, ran to meet
it. 81 told the conductor" says the en-.
gineer, eff he could jump off the en-.
gine, and, running ahead, pick the child
up before the engine reached her. he
might save her life, though it would risk
his own, which he did. The engine was
within one foot of the child when he Sc
cured it, and they were both saved. I
would not run the same risk Of saving
child again by way of experiment for all
Newcastle county, for nine out of ten
might not escape. He took the child to
the lane. and she walked to the house,
and a little girl was coming after it when
we left" The honest engineer, having
flushed his DAYS run. sits down the next
morning and writes this homely letter to
the father of the child, ain order that it
may bemore carefully watched in future"
and thanking God "that himself and the
baby's mother slept TRANQUILITY last night
and were spared the lifelong pangs ofre-
morse" 1t does not occur to him to even
mention the conductors name, who, he
seems to think, did no uncommon thing
in risking his own life, unseen and un-
noticed, on the solitary road, for a child,
whom he would probably never see
again. The moral of the story to him and to
the good clergyman who publishes it was,
apparently. that mothers should keep
their children off the tracks.


1t seems to US to have different
meaning, which every man can read for
himself. We give the simple little story
place, therefore, among the histories Of
the war, and murders, and records of the





police court, for no practical lesson, but
just as one would hang bit of green
landscape on his wall on winter day.
After all, in spite of the transient rain,
there is under all a summer and Cod
1t is worth while to remind ourselves of
that now and then. We believe, too
with the plain-speaking engine-driver,
that the conductor didnothing more than
eight out of ten manly young fellows
would have done in his position. Police
reports and the daily press bring the
murders and m msannesses Of the world 30
constantly to the surface on week days,
and the clergy open our eyes to human
depravity SO clearly on Sundays, that we
are apt to overlook the actual honor and
integrity in the mass of ordinary people
about us. We grow so bilious in our re-
forming zeal that it is worth while to be
shaken into a more Christian charity,
and convinced that it is not matter of
wonder to find Bayard in the poor con-
ductor of a freight train, or man in q
circus rider.-N Y Tribune.