Nebraska advertiser. [volume] (Brownville, Nemaha County, N.T. [Neb.]) 1856-1882, 1866-03-29

ehOked by the foul gases that must b
lurking down here in these dark reces.
ses, ae0
Again the horror of thick darkness
come upon me shrieked 0qt wildly,
and the cry went eehOing' through the
sewer, sounding hollow and wild till il
faded away. But once more / got the
better Of it, and persuaded myself thai
had only cri ed aloud to scare the rats.
j What would / not have given for stout
stick as a defe nse against attack as
groped my way on, feeling convinced
that / should be right if crawledl down
/ stream, when little reflection would
have told me that up stream must be
the right way, for ! must have been
borne down by the water. But I could
no:I Irehect, for my brain seemed in a
state of fever, and now and then my
teeth Ghattered as though had the
ague.
| / grOped on for quite quarter Of an
hour, when The horrid thought come up
on me that was going wrong, and again
/ tried to lean up against the wall, which
seemed to cause my feet to slip from
under me. 1 fellno cold for the perspira-
ton dropped from me as frantically y
turned back and tried to Fetrace my
steps, guiding myself by running hand
against the wall, where every now and
then it entered the mouth Of a small
drain, when so sure as it did, shere was
a scuffle and rush, and more than once ]
touched the cold, slippery body Of a rat
Ia touch that made me START kack as
tough shot. .'l nsli 1ol eiil3Al 5aE '-
On I went, and on, and still no scaffold
and no gleam of gaslighs. Thought
after thought gave fresh horror 20 my
situation, as uow / felt certain that in
my frantic haste hod taken some wrong
turn, or ertered a branch of the main
place; and at last. completely beWilder-
ed, / rushed head long on, stumbling
1 failing twice over, so that I was half
choked in the black water But it had
its good effect; for it put stop to my
wild struggles, which must soon have
ended in my falling insensible into what
was certain death. The water cooled
head, and now, feeling completely lost
knowing that must have been nearly
two hours in the esewer--I made up my
min d to follow the strem to its mouth in
the Thames, where, if the tide was down
could get from the mud on to the wharf
or bank,
So once more struggled on, follow
ing the stream slowly for what seemed
to be hours, till at last, raising my hand
! 70 und could not touch the roof, and by
that knew hat was in larger sewer,
and lherefors net very far from the
mouth. But here there was new ter
ror creeping up me, so to speak, for
from my waist the water now touched
my chest, and soon after my arm. pits /;
when I stopped, not daring to trust my
selfgo swim, perhaps mile, when felt
that weak I could not have gone hund-
red yards. ..
l knew in my Disappointment gave a
howl like a wild beast, and turned again
to have hard fight to breast the rush
/ ing water, which nearly took my legs.
But the fear of death lent me help,
and l got on and on again till I felt my
self in turning which l soon knew was
a smaller sewer, and from thence I
reached another, where l had to stop /;
but the walter was shallOwer, not above
my knees, and at last much less than
that. .d
Here klelt down to rest, and the
position brought something else from my
heart and, after a while, still STOPPING
| l went on. till having passed dozens upon
dozens of drains, l determined o creap
| up one, and did.
P'raps you won't think il strange as
/ dream and gTOan in bed Sometimes,
when / tell you what followed.
/ crawled On,and on, in the hepes that
the place / was in would lead under one
of the street gratings, and kept star
ing ahead in the hopes of catching a
CLEAN o: light, ill at last the place
seemed so tight that dared go no fur
ther for fear Of being fixed In So I Be.
gan to back very slowly for a rest.
It was quite dry here, but, scufFiing
on in front, kept hearing the rats
had driven before me and now that
stopped and was quite still, half a dOzer
of them made a rush to get pas. me, and
the little fight which followed even nov
give me the horrors. I'D hardly room
to move but / killed one by squeezing
him, when the others backed of, but no
till my face was running with bleOd.