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COLUMBUS
Lffldblmlay bUtad Gates the gray of Hercules; Azor ^
the of shores
£ore hi 111 not the ghosts
e him only shoreless seas.
Before - mate said. “Now must we pray.
t,p *ooi1 'jo- gone.
the very stars are
Adm'rl, speak; what shall Isay?”
rave ‘Sail on! sail on! and on!”*
•‘ffbysay.
ailed and sailed, as winds migtgrtlow
fh yS the blanched mate sail:
f yjjat last would know
now not even God
L^uld land all my men fall dead.
Le [for very winds forget dread their way, is
God from these seas gone;
L S peak, brave Adm'rl; speak and say”—
He said, “Sail on! sail on! and on!”
[j.gD pale an l worn, he kept his deck,
I And peered through darkness. Ah, that
I |f night, 1 And then speck—
a ii dark nights a
I A light! Alight! Alight! Alight!
grew, a starlit flag unfurled!
. I Time’s burst of dawn,
It grew to be
L gained a world; he gave that world
I Its grandest lesson: ‘ ‘On! and on!”
Ljoaquin Miller, in Frank Leslie’s Monthly.
FOR YELLOW GOLD.
BY FRANK B. MILLARD.
HEN the stage
gn Pm/- ran buck-board, when “went out there light” the small they but
were
more than four
; : t passengers the big
I mud-wag on was
m, “put on.” This
v&s a buckboard
* day, for there was
kt a single passenger. What was more
the point, as the Gold Butte Mining
jmpany regarded it, was that under
[e driver’s °seat was a box with ten
amsand dollars in the newest of new
Is and twenties in it. blue
o Tiie driver had looked very when
■ drove his four mustangs from the
Itoffice—where he took on a very flat
bag, which spoke loudly of the
or dLrinclination of the
fmble Spring people for letter-writing
ver to the railroad station, where he
i to take on the box. Things were
ag all wrong at home. That was why
brown face looked so haggard; that
I why he held so loosoly too the
es that was why he chewed so
la on the bit of “plug” in his mouth,
k Such hard scratchin’ I never seed
re’” was what he had said as he
l listlessly thrown the mail-bag into
wagon; ° “can’t git no decent job now-
Nothin’ ter be hed by
an >t ra]Se nothin’ ter move on now.
]a g am jjiii (jjd g ue jj C y ter <dt
s ha m e. Why can’t Bill git some- I
ter _„ roa t 5i ( r lunk-headed
ithe house? Sho, * Zach Springer,
ea blamed fool. Bill haiu’t done
He ain’t ter blame fer gittiu’ his
nlueky. Been tryia’ fur a month
positive relief to be able at last to
his lash down upon the sides of
Bervous brutes and turn them loose
forty mile run to Gold Butte.
had he needed a lecture _____________ from a
of the express company, and
Ibould that smooth jowled agent
,ooked at him with such dark
| 8
Rocks las’ time I had a big
gold, thet I need to be preached
time I go out now with a full
I d like ter see one on ’em hand-
I- ribbons when thar’s a Winches-
r in at ’em with an eye as big as a
M- Can’t tell me they wouldn’t
1 The sweet seemed, calf skin
young ladies l Thar ain’t a man
’em.”
1 Springer’s indignation was now
oomplete possession of him than
a en bis feeling of blueness a little
What he had delivered himself
! j OOW was not what he would have
i J ferenceto be voiced the hia true eentimeute
Iu between express the
the words ran
t, that “ they” had suspected him
*1 n £ 3 It ban had d in the Black Rocks
come to him before in
lied a “left handed” way, and
i j-d other outbursts of righteous
tion, but non% in which the tin-
JS so great as that of the pres-
1 been the reason the stage
y had c at down his pay to ‘ ‘sixty”
, 1 he chances
were that it was.
i° blamed mean lor a lot of
r- t 3e people, to it so
come
edly over a poor man who only
wanted his own. Wouldn't it serve
them just right, if—
The white dust of the desert rolled up
from the mustangs’ hoofs in little pulls,
and sprays of it, powdery fine, followed
the turn of the wheels half-way up, there
to be caught by the breeze and drifted
behind in a long cloud that followed the
buckboard like a haunting spirit. Some¬
times, as the light breeze shifted, it caine
back upon the buckboard and its driver
like heavy thoughts on the conscience of
a guilty man.
It would serve them just right! Be¬
sides that, only think—ten tbousaud!
What would the people down in Mexico
or Guatemala, where he would fly, know
or care if somebody up in far-off Nevada
had dumped a box off his buckboard and
gone back and got it after a few days—
maybe a week? It would have to be a
dark night, wouldn’t it? You couldn’t
go and get a box like that in the day¬
time and take it anywhere, for the whole
country would be out looking for the
man who had it. Maybe a month. That
would be better. It would all blow over
by that time. Let’s see, would it? Ten
thousand was a good deal. Those stage-
stoppers were always striking the box on
the wrong day. They never got so much
as that at one haul. In two months,then
—perhaps two months. But it would
have to be well-hidden.
And the thought stuck to him, despite
all attempts to keep it off, though by the
time he had driven the mustangs into
Red Canyon, his indignation at having
been suspected by the company had died
down. The box at his feet had taken on
a new meaning for him. It meant smart
gowns for his wife. It meant a good
schooling for the children. Those five
little ones had had a hard “ru3tle” of it
to get what few scraps of learning they
bad thus far managed to clutch; and, as
for clothes, they were dressed like juve-
nile scarecrows. Yes, all the hard scratch-
ing would be over it he dared to do what
many another hard-pushed mau had
done. Resolving the whole matter down
to a P Iain , clear-cut proposition, it was,
after all, simply a question of “nerve.”
Here was the place to do it. Right
here, where the high, scraggly rocks,
with the patches of sage-brush atop,
came so near to the buckboard. It
could be thrown over there—any where¬
into the sage-brush. It would be as
well-concealed as though buried in six
feet of earth. The buckboard had
reached the top of a long down-grade.
2ach put on the brake and twisted the
re i Q s about the brake-handle. As if
about to take a plunge into ice-cold
water, he reached down for the box.
But wait a bit. He took off his big
sombrero and hung it on a projecting
rock. Then flashing out his six-shooter,
be sent a bullet through the brim of the
would have to concoct, even though he
showed them the hole in the hat-brim?
bad tbe name, he might as well have the
game. He looked at the spot where the
Then he laid two nervous hands on
tbe box. He gave a little tug. How
heavy it was! Could it be tossed over
carried. He lifted it upon che seat,
®bl say? Bill was an hcne3t man. He
W0Uld blush with shame every time his
brother’s name was mentioned after that
—^ or c0UrSe * be would know. Sue
» Any kind of
would never sus pect. Bill a
s f° r y would bamboozle her. was
smart. He could put two and two to-
gabber as quickly as any man in the
And yet Bill himself was a lit-
act,D S ver E R ucer of late - and bad beea
over t0 JoUDSOQ '" a S°° d de al , ’ drmkl “!
and playing cards with the , boys. u That
would not do ‘ BlU must be lo obed af '
ter He was °?l a 1°^ J f ell ow - a
-
be bad been ^ . t0
mere b °y« eve “ lf r f. m -
raise 3 mustache lately. , , Yes, Bill was a
ood deal W l’
remembered well the day he was born,
when they took him in to show him his
new baby brother. He used to carry
Bill all around, and he was the first one
to stand him on his legs and try to make
He remembered how it used
»° hurt bts own head when Bill bugh-chair. .. got »
by falling out ol hw
and B ‘'> ™ those ■If knocks “ , muoll wh . to ch J 1 ”"”* fate and the
weaknesses of his natun were giving
him now hurt him just as badly—worse,
perhaps, than they did Brother Bill.
What would Bill say i
He laid his hands upon the box again.
It would be safe enough behind the rocks
there under the sage-brush—as sate as
if—
“Git up thar! Git, Buckskin! Git,
old Gabel Ye lazy critters. G’lang!”
the
off down the long grade they ran, mak
ing the dust tiy in the oauon as it never
flew before. For Zach had grasped the
reins in a grip of iron, and both his big
cowhide boots were planted firmly on the
box.
4 * This ’ere is what I call goin’ like sin!”
he said, ten minutes later, as they were
still flying down the grade. “But I lost
some time with a blamed-fool notion that
I orter a ben licked for ever thinkin’ on
a minit. Wai, the mustangs got a good
rest. Makin’ up fer it now, though.
They’ll soon be in a lather. I’ll git to
the half-way house in a quarter of an
hour, and then I’ll take a good horn. 1
feel kinder narvous yit. Tnet ’ere box
is a heavv load on a man’s mind. I s'pose
the sup’rintendent up to Gold Butte is
worryia’ about it, too. Never minu, ol’
feller, you’ll see that stuff stowed away
in ycr safe afore sundown.
“What’s this? A hold-up, sure a?
shootin’l”
Out from behind a tall rock, a man,
with a piece of dark calico over his face
and a very large Winchester in his hand,
had suddenly sprung, and the muzzle of
the rifle looked right into Zaeh’s big,
round eyes. The brake scraped the
wheels and make the sparks flv. The
mustangs came to a sudden stand'. There
was no getting bv that Winchester.
“I reckon you’ve got ther drop on me,
stranger,” the driver coolly made the re-
mark. “Stick up my hands? In course
I will, ef you insist on it; but I tell yer
these ’ere mustangs is mighty skittish,
an’ it’s on ther daown-grade. So yer
needn’t shoot ef they start up, fur it’ll be
yer own fault. 1 s’pose ver arter this
’ere box. Throw it out? It’s too
blamed heavy fer that, Ye’ll hev ter
give us a lift.”
The man with the gun had said noth¬
ing; but the subtleties of the holding-up
process were not so fine but that Zach
understood every wave of the stranger’s
hand and every shrug of his shoulders,
when the waves and shrugs meant any-
thing. Zach had been held-up before.
He of the calico mask did not step for*
ward at once. In this suggestion that
he should assist in taking off che box he
seemed to suspect some trick. But one
of Zaeh’s hands was held aloft and the
other. with the four reins in it, was
on the level of his shoulder. The man
edged up to the buckboard, exchanging
the weapon which he presented at Zaeh’s
head for a six-shot revolver.
“Thanks, stranger,” said Zach, with
forced merriment. “1 never like to hev
one o’ them air long-barreled things
p’inted at me. They shoot too straight,
Now, here ye are.”
With his foot he shoved the box along
uctil it was near the edge of the wagon. ye’ll
“Thar it is, help yourself; but
find it a blamed heavy load ter pack, ef
yer goin’ far—over forty pound.”
The robber pulled and hauled at the
box but it would not budge, for it was
to secure the gold, he lowered
the revolver a little and grasped the box
“Got the dead drop, stranger! It’s
no go!” he shouted. Put that weepin
daown, you fool!”—for the man was
isae that,
A flash, a report, and back fell the
robber without a moan. His fingers
clawed the dust for a moment, as if ha
were grasping for a hold on life. But
the hold was not to be had, and he gave
it up, and lay there quietly in the dust.
The driver shoved his pistol into its
holster, and wiped the sweat from his
brow. It had been a close shave for th«
box and a closer shave for him.
“Takes a purty keen un ter git erway
with Ol’ Zach, arter all,” he chuckled,
springing lightly from the buckboard,
while a broad smile lit up his brown face.
“This ’ere means a big raise from the
comp’ny an’ a hundred er two from the
Gold Butte folks. I guess they’ll think
the ol’ man’s ’bout right arter this.
Hooray fur hooray! my stock’s riz! It’s
’way up ter a hundred an’ fifty.
Whoop-e-c! Haw-haw-haw!”
He stooped down over the dead man
and lifted the bit of cloth from his face.
“Almighty God! It’s Bill!”_Baa
Francisco Argonant.
Onr National Statue of Liberty.
The bronze Statue of Liberty which
has crowned the dome of the Capitol
Building at Washington for the past
twenty-nine years is nineteen feet six
inches high and weighs 14,985 pounds.
The figure was cast in five sections, tha
heaviest beimr 4740 pounds weight.
The statue was all completed except the
headpiece prior to December 2, 1863,the
finishing being reserved for that day.
Crawford, who designed the figure, sub-
mitted his model adorned with a “liberty
cap,” but Jefferson Davis, then Secretary
of War, objected to such ahead-cover-
ing, sajing that the old
emblem waT a relic of a degraded people.
The Secretary’s objections were head- sus-
tained and the well-known Indian
dress was substituted for the cap. Craw-
ford got $3000 for the plaster model of
Libertv; Clark Mills got 39S00 for cast¬
ing her in bronze; money expended for
j labor and metal ran the total cost up to
$23,796.82.—St. Louis Republic.
I —- “ Valdivia, “ the first
Dorn Pedro de
I Governor of Chile, fee*, Sauliago.
| its capital, February , o
LIFE OF A WELL-SHOOTER.
IT IS ALWAYS FULL OF EXCITE¬
MENT AN2 DANGEB.
Cropping Powerful Explosives Into
the Boweis of the Earth ami
Then Running lor Lite.
F EW more hazardous occupations
can be named than that of well-
shooter in the oil and gas re-
(9 gions. A well-shooter is always
in the employ of some company that
manufactures high explosives, and his
business is to load long tubes w r ith nitro¬
glycerine or other similar subtance, low¬
er them to the bottom of the gac or oil
well and there expiode them, The
shock loosens the Trenton limestone, the
porous strata in which the oil or gas is
found in these fields, and causes an in¬
creased flow. Sometimes a well that is
worthless and almost dry becomes pro¬
ductive and profitable after being shot,
and the stimulus usually lasts for weeks.
In the Ohio and Indiana field, which
comprises, all told, an area of probably
10,000 square miles, there are about a
score ot " men who follow this dangerous
business, besides the manufacturers and
the men vvho are employed to haul the
explosives to the out-of-the-way places
where the magazines are erected and
where a sma11 suppty. rarely more than
dbb quarts of nitro-glycerihe in one
place at most, is stored. A mot is some-
time9 as little as eight quarts, but more
often it is from sixty to eighty, and in
80me cases as rauch as 160 quart* are
used. Imagine, if you can, what a ter¬
rific shock that would cause if exploded
at the surface. Even 1400 or 2000 feet
below, it makes the earth tremble and
throws a tremendous burst of gravel and
debris out of the well, and not infre-
quently high above the derrick,
I* 1 bauling these terrible explosives to
fc be wells, or magazines, odd-looking
covered wagons are used, and the State
laws provide that each shall be marked
on *b e sides in iarge letters, “Nitro-
glycerine! Dangerous!”
Within the warning cover are care-
fully-fitted compartments, lined with
heavy felt, and into these the square zinc
cans fit as snugly as is possible. A
shake cr jar going over the roads that
we never any too smooth might easily
mean death to the driver and destruction
9 urrounding property, and tbe deadly
stuff is packed as solidly as it can be.
Once at the well, the nitro-glycerine
is poured into tin tubes or shells five feet
long and two inches or more in diameter,
pointed at the lower end and with bail
handles at the top. A sudden jar or a
slip of the hand means destruction, and
softly, with steady hand, the oily liquid
is poured into the long tin. As each
shell is filled it is lowered to the bottom
of the well, and another is let down on
top of it, and still another, till the de¬
sired quantity has been put down. Then
the “go-devil,” a five-pound pointed
iron, ten or a dozen inches long, is
dropped, point down, on the mass below
and the shooter runs for his life. Some-
times rock fragments are thrown out so
quickly and so far that he does not get
beyond their reach, but usually he is at
a safe distance by the time the eruption
occurs.
The men engaged m thw hazardous
work «eem utterly oblmou. to the
danger. They hatre become accustomed
to the continual risk and only think
enough about it to be careful. It may
be said that they seldom feel the appre-
hension their business excites in strang¬
ers, and if they do, it usually results in
their nervousness costing them their lives.
So true is this that these men have a
superstition that the fearless man is per-
fectly safe and the fearful one certain of
death.
One terrible accident a year or more
ago, near Findlay, illustrates this belief.
An employe of the High Explosive Com-
lW* George Struble by name, who was
engaged in hauling the stuff to magazines
Rnd shooters in different sections, had
grown apprehensive and made all arrange-
ments for hia burial, in case of death, if
burial was possible, and for the disposi-
tioQ of his little property. Very soon
after he lost his life, probably by tbe ex-
plosion of the glycerine sticking to the
empty cans, for ne had not emptied his
cans at a well, and was on his way back
Findlay from Prairie Depot when the
accident occurred. He was tom to pieces,
and the wagon was literally reduced to
splinters. It is one of the incidents of
the business that when an accident hap-
P-^nobody is left to tell how it came
a
The hairbreadth many,and
nerve and presence of mind are the first
requisites of a shooter. In one case a
footer was lowering the first tin inti
well when the rope suddenly slack-
ened. There could be but one explana-
J on - The well had unexpectedly began to
Jaw a pia. It would be but a few minutes
tl11 fix quarts of nitro-giycerine
would be h urledou t of the weIi - That
death L aud destruction. J . He had
mcmi
a ? time reaca safe ^ h 3 running,
There was only , one expedient and he took
il * St f dl Ҥ directly over the well, he
graped th e deadly shell by the handles
M lt cam * U P’ abnoat ^ he force of a
cannon shot, and, though the force of it
threw him across the derrick and dislo-
cated his shoulder, he solved! !
was
A story is told of a savage^ bull that
attacked the team attached to a wagon
containing empty cans, to which very
frequently enough of the stuff sticks to
cause an explosion if jarred. The driver
leaped from the wagon as the horses
started to run and was saved, and the
bull was probably the most surprised
animal in all Ohio when his attack cam©
to an end.
Such is the life of the oil and gas well
shooter. Under a constant menace, the
men live in tolerable comfort, and seem
to enjoy life. Aside from the danger,
the work is .not arduous, and the wages
are fairly good. Most of them are young
men. and it. is the exception to strike a
shooter who is married. Their age is
probably one reason for their almost uni¬
I° r,n good nature and jollity, and
j familiarity with danger doubtless es-
P^ a * ns their imperturbable calmness*—
^ ew Times,
SELECT SIFTINGS.
Palmistry is once more having a vogue.
Glass is now used as a filling to r teeth.
A Rio Grande engineer recently shot a
wildcat near New Castle, Col., from the
cab of his engine.
A Pennsylvania insane-asylum super¬
intendent reports that eight out of every
ten of his inmates write verses.
Sheet iron kites, to enable a vessel
when in distress during a storm to com¬
municate with the shore, have been sug¬
gested.
A Lvnn (Mass.) man is the owner of
the drum which beat time for the Mas¬
sachusetts Sixth on its famous march
through Baltimore, Md.
The first Russian newspaper was pub¬
lished in 1703. Peter the Great took a
personal part in its editorial composition
and in correcting proofs.
It is the custom in Brooklyn, N. Y.,
for physicians to render services to
priests and to attend them professionally
without making auy charge.
The town of Dedham, Mass., was es¬
tablished in 1630, and a house built
there that year is still occupied by de¬
scendants of the original owners.
An electrical pool table has been made
in which contact buttons are so arranged
in front of the pockets that when a ball
rolls in it strikes them, and the point
made is recorded on an enunciator.
The size and growth of the city of
London is shown by the mileage of the
streets. Should they be placed together
they would measure about 2500 miles, or
nearly the distance across the Atlantic
Ocean.
The public schools in Dundee, Scot¬
land, have decided to make the highland
fling and the strathspey of Tullochgorum
and other forms of dancing part of the
curriculum. Education in dancing, how¬
ever, will require an extra fee, and will
therefore be optional.
There is grim humor in ono clause in
the will of the lato Solomon Abrams, of .
Boston, Mass. After making a number
of charitable bequests tbe testator re¬
marks; “I remember all my cousins,
aunts, uncles and grandfathers, but I
give them notihng.”
There is a new wind instrument, th®
“pedal clarinet.” It is an octave below
the bass clarionet, and produces the
lowest note obtained bv any instrument
except the organ. With a range of three
octaves it has n much pleasanter tone
than the double bassoon,
It is announced that a Welshman haa
perfected a sewing .,|f machine, by which
tho thrcad ,^01,“ is sup od directly from two
ordi ’ p an d sews through tho
MSistan oc „ f „ rotsr , looper .
this arrangement the old .tyle shottl.
„ r bobbin is done away J with,
It was an odd coincidence that Cardi¬
nals Manning and Simeoni were elevated
to their highest rank in the Church the
same day and died on the same day.
What is more, the last official letter
P enned by the English Cardinal was by
chance addressed to his Vatican eon-
frere, the late Prefect of the Propaganda.
An inquisitive man walked into the
Oakland, Me., ax factory not long ago,
and when passing u steam punch, asked
suddenly, “What’s that hole for?” At
[ he same time lie stuck his finger into the
“ ol e- 1 he punch wasn’t exactly planned
for eutting off fingers, but it rose to the
occasion and the finger dropped,
Will New York Be Engulfed?
According to the figures of Professor
W. J. McGee, it is only a question of
time when the slow but never-ceasing
inroads of tbe ocean will engulf many
populous cities of the Atlantic seaboard,
and perhaps whole States. He says:
is a broad lowland stretch-
ing from Sandy Hook to Cape Henry,
' m< anotb er washed by Mississippi
Sound, upon which the sea is gradually
but slowly and surely encroaching. They
are wane-fashioned plains, but recently
wrested from the ocean, and now old
Ocean again reclaims its own. Already
its octopus arms have seized the low-
auds m their horrid embrace, and day
by day, month by month, year by year,
generation by generation, the grasp is
tightening, the monster creeping further
and further inland. Each average year
the watermark advances a rod. The
seaside cottag;, with a broad lawn be-
fore it, has an ‘expectation of life’ of a
.
decade or a generation, but the cottage
at the verge of the cliff may go in a year,
and must go in a lustrum, unless human
devices outwit and overpower the waves,
On most other Eastern and Southern
coasts the waves are also encroaching,
but their progress is slower. But the
ocean’s power (s too great for puny man
to oppose successfully. What, then, is
he to do? In my opinion, he can only
temporarily provide against it, and then
slowly retreat before the invasion.”—St.
Louis Republic.