Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 79, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 April 1914 — Sacrifices Beloved Guitar and Saves His Life [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Sacrifices Beloved Guitar and Saves His Life

ST- LOUIS, MO. —“Music hath charms tp soothe the savage breast,” perhaps, but it didn’t help much to slacken the speed of a freight train which bore down upon Herman Oexner of Belleville as he walked across a long trestle on

the Louisville & Nashville railroad early the ether day. - Oexner had been attending a dance and was on his way home between midnight and dawn/ His only companion was a much-beloved guitar. To lessen the loneliness of the walk he played, and as he played he sang, losing consciousness of all about him, and no doubt having dreams the while of some fair Juliet, upon a balcony listening to his strains. So engrossed was he in his music

that he was well onto the trestle before he heard a noise in the rear, and, gating back, saw the train. His muse was either not shifty enough or too fickle to offer advice in so urgent a case. She had temporarily departed, and for the moment the instinct of self-preservation was uppermost The beloved instrument was sacrificed, Oexner permitting it to drop over the edge of the trestle as he scrambled to safety on the end of a tie just as the train breezed past. The danger over, he set about to discover the remains of his tried friend. He found it, 50 feet beneath, shattered against a rail of the Southern rail* road tracks. It had picked a hard spot on which to settle, and had poured out its last music in one dismal crash.