A Moment Of Supreme Peril

ThiTü are süil perseas üving in 3c:i wb.ocan recall the magnifieent ; tosa riiaoeain colleefe-d V.y Mr. Nsthan Dnnn, a mtini&ceut merebant of delpbia and tlpng-Koug, which was first lócate (i ïn Phitadefphin, and then brougbt to London in tho t-arly years ; of the q neen 's reign. It was atended as a donation to the pnblic, bat was nufortnnately burned. The building first erected - now the sita of tho pbia Contincntul hotfl- í't this dispiay j of the treasurea of tho tlieu sealed dom Bad an upper room wbu-h was about 3;ï feet high mid ver}' long and Barro w. Iñ the center part of this irnmenso Rttditonnm were collected one eveuing ubcrat 3,000 persoüB At neai 9 o'clock the manager of tho building , came tö thé leader of the meeting, white ! witb aflEright, and told him that tho : floor had sunk nearly a foot. and that : in a few minutes more the tennenta oï the joists migbt be out of their sockets. The floor wou ld then tall tbrough on to the Chinese nmscuiu, and the wails, (iO feet in heio:ht, wou ld collapse and be precipitated. with the roof, pon theassemlily. This tnight have cansed the death of those present - the foreiuost people in Philadelphia. The leader explained to the peraon whom the auóience expected nextto hear that by addressing the asserubly froin the end of the hall hecould withdraw the eompany from the snnken ; part of the floor to that where the front j wallsstrengthened the joiststo bear the weight of the people. The rtply to this : was that his fainüy was in t!ie andience, and that he must get them ont firat. "Youshall not," said the leader; "a i hint of danger - a rush - and we shall j all be nnder the ialJen vsalls and roof. j Five minutes' delay inay kill na gethér." As a boy in the andience, 1 well ! meinber rny surpiiso at seeing the leader snddenly sppear at the .f ar front of the room and teil the people that they would nest be addressed from where i he stood - the organ loft. As the 1 dience turned and moved to the front, j theflooring rcsesix iiiches. The people were entertained, partly by an j promptu sentimental song in a voice ' without a quaver, in the very face of death, and as soon as practicable they were qnietly dismissed. Not a single individual in that great assembly was aware that, by the presence of mind of one man, an awftil catastrophe had been averted. Three thonsand persons were saved from being buried nnder two side walls GO feet high. pressed down by a heavy roof. The imagination sickens at the thoughtof wbaWon ld, have been theconsequenoe of a panic and uuddea alarjc by the tailure of the courage of this inan. I All use of the room was of courso snsnended till it was effectually ened. So well was the secret kcpt that j I only learned it long afterward. I am j confident that, excepting the speaker 1 ferred to and the manager of Ihe building, no one outside the iiuiaediate family of the man whose courage prevented this catastrophe has known the whole story till now. The terror of those minutes before the crowd was moved and the floor rose toward its level was snch that he never, even in his own family, allïided to the scène, though he lived for 40 years afterward. I know not if the self possession of M. Dnpny, wben the bomb exploded in the French assembly, was greater than this hitherto