The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1869-11-12

oeatings of my heart-one, two, three
our, five, six! Then all was obliv

ID +
r. opened my eyes, that is 1 felt tn
ID | opened them, as not ray of ligl
= fell upon the pupils. Darkness, in
d penetrable darkness was around m
1t Was l in the grave? l made an e
=. fort to stretch out my hands. l su
h ceeded. They moved through waite
which l now felt was eddying aroun
e my neck.
n Where was L? Surely it was nc
, a dream, for l felt that / was tho
n oughly awake. i raised my rigt
arm to my head and my hand cam
a in contact with an iron rod upo
l. which my head was lying. Agai
t, the question passed through m,
, mind, "Where am ?"
:, Soon, but not too soon, the ques
!. ton was answered.
o Hark! ] hear the sound of a dis
tant voice. 1t came nearer and neare
o yes, my ears did not deceive me
1t was the voice of George, ou
e Dight watchman.
: He was singing a song. TIE word
: of the refrain came distinctly to m
ears:
I "And for bonnie Annie Laura
Tdlay me down and dee!"
, 1t took all my strength to rails
: myself to a sitting position.
stretched out my arms. My hant
l came in contact with cold iron.
: was mad No, no, not mad, but
> felt that lunacy in the shape of ter
rible specter was approaching me-
, for the question was answered:
1 was imprisoned within the steam
boiler.
/ began to shout:
"Help! George, for Gods sake
} help! !"
But my voice supposed like that o.
a muffled bell. Then | commenced
to pound with my fist upon the iron.
"Surely. George must hear that
thought.
But no, he was whistling the tune
of Yankee Doodle.
Once he stopped, and thrill ofjoy
ran through me. Then he began
again.
i felt my way to the head of the
boiler, fer now 1 heard that he was
opening the furnace doors. ] knew
what he was going to do. Soon l
heard the scratching sound-he was
lighting a match. Then 1 heard the
rustling of shavings which he was
throwing into the furnace. This was
shortly followed by acracklIng sound.
"IIe's lit the fire, and i will be boil
ed alive!' thought ], again pounding
and scratching against the side OF the
boiler, in the vain hope OF making
myself heard. | felt not the pain,
hut l felt that the warm blood was
dropping from my iacerated knuckles
and torn nails. / listened. The sharp
cracking sound of the fire became
lower and lower. Again i had hopes
the fire hal gone out, and l knew
that the walchInan had gone to bed,
for the lighting of the fire was his
fast duty at five O'CLOCK in the morh-
ing. / also knew that the fireman
would not rise until Lalf-past five
Twenty, perhaps twenty-five minutes,
and then he would come and relight
the fire.
Thirty minutes and then ] must
die ~
l folded my hands, / prayed to
God as 1 had never prayed before.
l recalled to mind prayer my moth
er taught me when l was child, and
a holy calm came over me, for surely,
thought /, He who sees the sparrow
fall will not desert me in my present
need.
Slowly my hands parted and fell
to my side, and slowly / crawled
back toward the end of the boiler,
where | knew was the mau-hole
through which l had been showed by
the wicked engineer while l was
under the influence of the drug he
had administered.
passed my hands over the cast
iron plate which shut the only egress
to the boiler. / pushed against it
with all my strength still L knew
that one hundred pounds of steam
pressure would not remove that plate.
/ felt exhausted at my efforts and /
threw myself at full length upon the
fues. The water covered me above
my neck, which kept above its level.
A desperate thought came to my
mind.
Why should not drown myself
by lowering my head ? 1t would end
nv misery at once. Some one SEEM
ed to whisper in my ear, "Do it,
Then another voice said, at is sui
eide, and God will punish yout'
laughed; yes, l laughed. cit is
only a dream,'' said 1, and l soon
will wake and once more see the
blessed light of day."
But it was not dream; it was a
terrible reality. The love OF life
came back to me. Again pressed
my hands over the cold surface of
the boiler. They came in contact
with something that moved.
God, in his infinite mercy, had
given to me the means Of escape
from that living tomb. My hnnd was
grasping the short iron bar which
the boys had dropped into the boiler!
1t was lying across some Of the stray
rods which traversed the boiler in all
directions.
fused it as a hammer against the
castiron plate which covered the
man-hole. One sharp blow, crack,
and a stream of binding light fell
upon my eyes. 1t was the rising
sun, for the back part OF the boiler
looked toward the east. Two more
blows, and the broken plate fell with
splash into the water and left the
aperture open and clear for my es-
cape.
1t is vet a wonder to me that the
intense joy experienced did not kill
me. With difficulty crawled thro'
the opening. l staggered towards
the engineers room and opened the
door. The apartment was tenant
less: James had gone to his break
fast. looked at the clock it still
lacked fifteen minutes to six.
A strange thought flashed through
my mind. "What if / should take
The spare man-hole plate from the
storeroom close by and fix it IN the
aperture. 1 have yet ten minutes
time. Would not James think that
was still within the boiler ?"
ran to the storeroom, and took