God _will_ forgive each penitent whate'er his sin may be, Whose heart is overflowing with _love_ for bond and free. Oh, listen! brother, listen--'tis Jehovah's plan-- And a _time is fixed_ to right the wrongs of Man.... --_Prison Poetry._ [Illustration: ARTHUR C. HOFFMAN, NEPHEW OF E. R. W., SITTING ON FRONT OF ENGINE.] CHAPTER XVI. Preaching the Gospel on Railway Trains. The young man on the front of the engine in the foregoing illustration was my sister's son. I give here an extract from the account of his death June 7, 1890, as published at the time in the daily of Huntington, Ind., where it occurred: KILLED BY CARS. A. C. Hoffman, a switchman in the Chicago & Atlantic yards, was run over and killed this morning. He was employed at night and about 5 o'clock this morning went to the coal dock to run down two cars that had been unloaded there. The track is very much inclined leading from the dock and it requires that brakes be set very tight. When the cars started down the track Hoffman ran from the rear end to the front of the head car to set the brake, but in doing so stubbed his toe and fell from the car to the middle of the track beneath. The car was running rapidly and no sooner did he strike the track than a brake beam of the car struck his right leg near the hip, fracturing the bones and bruising it otherwise. That threw him over and the flange of a wheel struck the lower part of his back, tearing the flesh all off clear to his backbone, exposing it to sight. Hoffman was picked up and taken to the Arlington house, where he boarded, and Dr. L. Severance, the railroad surgeon summoned. He did all in his power to make the injured man easy and alleviate his pain, but it was out of the reach of medical skill to save his life and at about 10 o'clock he died in awful agony. Hoffman's mother and brother live in Lincoln, Neb., where the latter is a physician. He also has a sister in Elkhart county, this state, all of whom have been telegraphed the sad news. He was a good switchman and more than ordinarily intelligent. It is a most distressing accident. The young man was here among strangers and died surrounded by the friends of so short an acquaintance but who did everything within human power to save him or make his end one of peace. His injuries were fatal though and nothing short of death would relieve him.