10. Hovenden and the Little Boy

Thomas Hovenden, the artist, who painted “Breaking the Home Ties,” “Jerusalem, the Golden,” and “John Brown” which were exhibited at the World’s Fair in Chicago, was one day standing in a railway depot just as an engine was dashing into the station. He saw just in front of the iron-horse some mother’s darling little boy, and instantly, without a moment’s hesitation, he dropped his satchel and sprang in front of the engine. He snatched the little boy in his arms, only to be crushed and ground beneath the wheels of the conscienceless monster.

Great as are the exhibitions of his artistic genius in the paintings he has left us to admire, Thomas Hovenden never made a more wonderful picture in his life. Such a picture of unselfishness, heroism, and Christlike abandon to save a child, is a picture to be admired in heaven—a picture worthy to hang in the palace of God.