"Faithful Unto Death."

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 183, 18 December 1886, Page 13

"Faithful Unto Death."

The following story of an American reporter's last despatch ia taken from the St. Paul Pioneer Press. It says :- "It \-\ not many years ago that Tony r. ,tho -attache of a Central lowa puper i.cv dofunct, rodo out fr )tn n Southern lov/a city one fine morning perched da\ir.g!y on the brako of a flat car that was attached to a 'wild freight ' und loaded with iron rails. He had boon in newspaper work for about .six years, and was thorouhly capable. To make the story short, forty miles out irom its starting point the ' r.ild freight,' ■with a leap of madness and a terrible crash went through a bridge, down eixty fe< t, and Tony sitting on the brake beam. It was over in an instant When the eomiuctoi of the train (the only ornj uninjured) crawled oat of the wreck hia eyes fell tirst on Tony, lying across the side of a dismantled box •ear — on hie cht>t a heavy rait, hi-* legs crushed— and dying. Beyond him lay a dead brakesman ; the engineer wa3 buried xmder his machine, and by a large boulder ■waa the fireman with a broken back. Tony •was conscious, and when tsie conductor Teachcd him he asked for paper and rencil. They were found in hie pockets. Unable ■fco write himself, ho dictated tbi^, angrily ordering tho men who had come up to lot him alone :— 'C— E— , Mtinacin? Editor "Star," — lowa: — Train thiough bridga at — . Was on board and am hurt Will send full particulars at ouce.— T B. A iarmer was secured, who carried it to the -nearest station. Then this boy. true to his duty and not flinching beforo death, Buffering frightful agony, and vrhile willing hands sought iv vain to release him from his position, dictated a ' ppecial ' 1,500 words to his paper, What he authored no one can ever know, It was with etiihculty that he could breathe, and every gasp cost him a w rench of agony; But ho held death back down to the last few lines. "The killed woie ,' and so on, ending with the name of 'Tiny B , reporter.' As he ended that his eye= filled \\ itu tears, and he looked up wistfully to the conductor, who had w vittpn the telegram for him, and who himself could not keep hi? teara back. 'Tell my mother,' said Ton\, * that I did my dnty ; and boys, rush that over the wires for me.' It's a ' f-coop ;' Hz went over the wires all right, and it >% as a 'scoop;' but before it was piinied Tony "was dead."