LOVE TRIUMPHS OVER A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11544, 1 December 1900, Page 2 (Supplement)

LOVE TRIUMPHS OVER A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH.

TORN BY AN EXPLOSION.

Salt Lake City, Utah, September 30.-* Ernestine McHamilton fell in love with a strong, handsome man. A mine explosion converted him into a, caricature of humanity, blind, maimed, an object from which a stranger would avert his face. There is the problem for you. There 13 something almost exactly like it in Hallie Erininie Rive's startling novel " A Furnace of Earth," which the Sunday World described a week or two ago. There are some important distinctions, however. Unlike Miss Rive's heroine, the Nevada girl had never been distressed by psychological questionings. She had never worried herself sick over the question of whether her love was of the flesh or the spirit. She just loved with her whole being, and that was all this simple, warm-hearted frontier girl knew or cared about. Another respect in which her problem differed from that of the more cultured and. highly-strung girl in " A Furnace of Earth" was that the latter, in choosing to marry her maimed lover, was not confronted with the necessity of earning a living for him. That is what Ernestine McHamilton is confronted with. She is the wife of a helpless wreck— who is no more capable of supporting himself than a babe or a centenarian. And so she faces the future with her love, proud and infinitely glad to have him to care for all the days of his life. John Corkish was a splendid specimen of manhood when they made him foreman of the April Fool mine at De Lamar, Nev. —young, brown, sinewy, and as straight as a telegraph pole. It was a proud day for him and for Ernestine. They had been waiting for something like this, and now they determined to be wedded soon; and all the little mining settlement rejoiced with them. Corkish spent his days underground, but his evenings and Sundays belonged to Ernestine, and you would have to travel over many a mile of alkali plain to find a happier couple. One summer's day the camp shook, and the alkali dust flew high, and many a shanty tottered, and a rolling as oi thunder came from under the earth. Old miners and their wives knew what those signs meant. It was an explosion in the April Fool mine. In a few minutes the entire popualtion of the place was clustered at the mouth of the shaft. Ernestine McHamilton was one of the first to reach the place. She leaned over the railing as far as she could and looked into the black depths nov? made blacker by smoke and dust. Winches creaked and chains rattled, and by and by there were lifted into the light of day strange disfigured and discoloured shapes which answered with groans the shrieks of recognition with which one by one they were greeted. The girl at the pit mouth saw them come and pass, and her lips paled, but without speaking she bent her questioning eyes again into the depths. And presently the form she was watching for came to light, and only hei eyes of love would have known it for what it had been. These were the injuries of John Corkish: His eyes were blown out, his left hand was blown off, his right hand was crushed to a jelly, his breastbone was smashed. As for his appearance, his facewell, there are some things better left untold. Those who looked upon him said that he would have been better off if he had been killed outright. Not so Ernestine McHamilton. He breathed; ,ghe still had "him; he was hers; she could still whisper to him " I love you," and he could still hear. He was removed to the Holy Cross Hospital at Salt Lake. There the "almost hopeless task that taxed medical skill began— the healing of a sadly shattered body. Some six weeks later, the hospital staff being unable to do more for him, Corkish returned to De Lamar, but he did not return alone.

"We will be married in De Lamar," said Ernestine McHamilfcon.

Love, pity, and duty were blended with her into one unconquerable passion. If her face betrayed the grief that she felt at his altered looks be could not know it, because he had not the eyes wherewith to see. August 17 was to have been their wedding day. A license was obtained, but no one could be found in De Lamar who would perform the ceremony. It was agreed by all that the bridegroom was physically unable to provide for a wife. Miss McHanrilton resolved to go Salt Lake, where the authorities would be less E articular. The couple therefore travelled y stage to the nearest railway station, where tickets were bought for Salt Lake. At Salt Lake the sightless eye-sockets ot the bridegroom were provided with artificial 1 eyes. Everything that the brave girl could think of to improve his appearance was done.

A minister of the Gospel was appealed to. With some misgivings he consented to make the ill-assorted pair man and wife. The solemn words were then sgoken that united thenvSjntil death. Mrs. Corkish, it is said, will engage in business in Salt Lake City. She will open a millinery store when she has earned sufficient money over and above their daily expenses to make the venture. She has no fears tor the future, and declares that it will be her greatest happiness to care for the man she adores.