LXI.
In the city of Columbus, Georgia, there was erected in the year 1904 a monument to the memory of a colored man named Bragg Smith. Mr. Smith lost his life in the autumn of 1903 in an effort to save the life of the city engineer of Columbus, who had been buried under an excavation in the street. A large crowd of colored men was at work digging deep trenches in which were to be placed pipes for running water about the city. In some way the sides of the narrow trench had not been properly supported by planks or otherwise, and by-and-by a great stretch of dirt caved in. Unfortunately the city engineer, a white man, was caught underneath the falling dirt. Bragg Smith did not stop to say: “Oh, it’s a white man; let him die!” but at once jumped down into the ditch and tried to pull the white man from under the heavy dirt. It was while he was engaged in this work that the dirt fell from both sides a second time, and Bragg Smith, in his effort to save the life of the white man, lost his own life. The Bible says: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man will lay down his life for a friend.”
The city council at its first regular meeting after the accident voted to erect a suitable monument to the memory of Mr. Smith. The monument was dedicated in April, 1904. The monument is of Vermont and Georgia marbles, and bears on one side this inscription:
“Erected by the City of Columbus to mark the last resting place of Bragg Smith, who died on September 30, 1903, in the heroic but fruitless effort to save the life of the city engineer.”
On the other side appears this quotation from Alexander Pope: