FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1414, 23 November 1886, Page 2

FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH.

- The following story of an American Reporter’s last despatch la taken from the i St. Paul Pioneer Press. It says :-It Is not mat y years ago that Tony B , the of a Central lowa paper, now defunct, rode out from a Southern lowa o ty one fine morning, perched daringly i n the brake of a flit oar that was attached to a “ wild freight " and loaded with iron rails. He had been In newspaper work for abont B'X yea s, and was thoroughly capable. To make he story short. Forty miles out f-otn its starting point the “wild fre'aht,” with a !e:<p of madness and a terrible crash, w t through a bridge, down sixty feet, and Tony sitting n the brake-beam. It w-s over in an Instant When the oonducto* of the tram (the only one uninjn>ed) crawled out of the wreck his eyea fell first on Tony, lying across the s'de of a dismantled bos car—on his chest a heavy rail, his legs crushed —and dying. Beyond him lay a dead brakesman ; the engineer was lying under his machine, and by • larger boulder «as the {Leman with a broken back. Tony was conscious, and when the conductor reached him he asked for paper and pencil. They were found in bis pockets. Unable to write himself, he dictated this, angirly ordering the men who had come up to let him alone:—“O—----B—. Managing Editor Star , —, lowa : Train through bridge at —. Was on board and am hart. Will send particulars at once —T. B. ” A farmer was secured, who carried it to the nearest station. Then this boy, true to his duty and not flinching before death and suffering great agony, and while willing hands soqght In vain tp release him from his positiop, dictated a “ special ” of 1503 words to hla paper. What he suffered no one can ever know. It was with difficulty that he could breathe, and every gasp cost him _ A.-aucL of agony. But he held de ith back down to the last few lines. “The killed were and so on, ending with the name of “Tony B——, reporter.” As be ended that his eyes filled with tears, and he looked up wist'nlly to the conductor, whobai written thj telegram for him, a d who himself could not keep his tears back. “ Tell my mother,” said Tony, “that I did my duty and, boys rush that over the wires for me It’s a ‘scoop ”’ It went over the wlresa right, and it was a “scoop but before was printed Tony was dead.