grave import

Obituary

The St Louis Democrat gives the following particulars of the death of Jimmy Johsnon, son of our late fellow citizen, Rev. J.G. Johnson. The body of the unfortunate boy was brought to this city yesterday and interred in the Aspen Grove Cemetery: The Coroner held an inquist yesterday on the body of James Johnson, the boy who was killed on Saturday on the Lindell Railroad. The deceased was the son of Rev. J.G. Johnson, and was fourteen years of age. He and another boy, named Wm. F. Snyder, each carrying a basket, got on car No. 21, at the corner of Seventh and Washington Avenue. They sat down in the car. On passing Eleventh street Johnson went out on the front platform and asked the driver what church that was. The driver did not know, and a colored man told him it was a Presbyterian church. Johnson then went inside and seeing the seat which the conductor was in the habit of using, he took it up and carried it to the front platform and tried to adjust it to the dashboard, he did not fasten it properly, and when, with a bound, he jumped on it, the seat gave way and he fell over the dashboard upon the whiffle tree, and thence under the car. The forward wheel cut his hand and the rear wheel cut his breast and his skull was fractured. He was killed instantly. The driver stopped the car, and the dead boy was found partly under the wheel, which had not passed over his body. The jury found that no blame was attached to the driver of conductor.

Many who have within the past two months visited the branch house of our Publication Society on Sixth street, in this city, will remember the courteous and sprightly young clerk there, James N. Johnson, the eldest son of Rev. G.J.Johnson, District Secretary. On Saturday evening last, after closing the store, the yourth entered a street car to return hom. Going forward to the platform to talk to the driver, he was by a sudden jolt precipitsted over the dashboard and under the car, when the wheel passed over his head, killing him instantly. his father had hurried home from the General Associatin at Columbia that he might see his fmaily and look after business for a few hours, and had then passed on to fill an engagement in Illinois. In his absence the sad casualty occurred, The boy was carried home a mangled corpse to his mother, and the telegraph conveyed the terrible intelligence to the father, who immediately returned to his stricken household. But our brother and sister sorrow not without hope. Though the son was only fourteen years of age, he had early sought his Savior, and for more than two years had lived a consistent member of the church. Within the last few hours preceding his sudden and unexpected death, he had given specially satisfactory and comforting evidence to his friends that he truly loved his Redeemer. As this sheet goes to press, brother Johnson is on his was to Burlington, Iowa, where he long resided before coming to St. Louis, bearing thither all that is left of his precious son. Our brother and his family will have the warmest sympathy of thousands who have become acquainted with him through his labors in behalf of the Publication Society, as well as of those who had known him in the closer relations of his own home May the Lord comfort them in their sore affliction.