The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1873-04-24
ON TOP OF ACHIMNEY.
A THRILLING STORY.

ming to trudee back to the bits of
rooms we were forced to put up with
since l came to London, i'll order to
get better wages, was called into the
office by the foreman. " What's your
present job, Lindsay?" he asked, and
L told him.
{. Hump! that can stand over for a
day or two, can't it? Stubbs has fall
len ill again, and you must take his
place."
l didn't care to be shifted before I'd
finished what L was about, but jour
neyman bricklayer, with a wife and
children looking to him for bread,
cannot afford TO be too particular, and
so l held nay tongue.
% You must go to Coot's brewery
tomorrow morning, and finish that
chimney" the foreman told me. He
gave me few more directions be-
sides, and then went his way, while L
went mine, not very well pleased at
the prospect before me.
[ suppose l never ought 10 have fol-
lowed the trade, for though gaiued
myself a good character as steady
workman, | had never been able to
overcome horror at being perched
at any great height. In the country,
where the buildings were low, man
aged well enough, but in this great
city here were roofs on which / could
not stand without the dread oppress-
ing me, nor look down without feeling
as though something below was
tempting me to fling myself over and
end at once the miserable sensation
which no effort of mine could shake
off.
This huge chimney the foreman had
ordered Inc to finish was reckoned
one of the biggest and best built
shafts in London. We were all proud
of the job, which had been carried on
so far without single mishap; but
[ had earnestly been hoping that
might not be sent to it, and it wasn't
till the workmen had almost got to
the top of it that | began to breathe
a bit more freely, and trust that it
would be finished without any help
of mine.
Once at home with the youngsters
merry prattle in my ears, forgot my
uneasy feeling about the morrow's 3
job, but the moment l dozed off to
sleep it came back upon me in hide
Gus dream. l thought L was falling
down, down! and Just as the crash of
my body against the earth seemed in
evitable, l woke up with start to find
myself bathed in a cold perspiration,
and trembling in every limb.
No more settled sleep visited my
pillow that night, and it was relief
when the booming of the clocks dis
PEELED my frightful visions andwarned
me that it was time 10 face a reality
The morning was bitterly cold and
boistrous, scarcely a soul was to be
seen i'll the deserted streets at that
early hour. and the dull thud of my
footsteps sounded mournfully in the
stiffness reigning around. Atlast the
great chimney lOoIhed up in sight,
and gazing up at its immense height,
| shivered at the thought of being on
Top of it, and forced to look down on
the sickening depths below.
If it had not been for the name OF
the thing, L should have gone back
but the thought of Bessie and the
children spurred me on; SO buttoning
my jacket tight around me, L began
to ascend the staging. In my journey
upward L passed many costly cur.
tanned windows. and remember think,
ing rather enviously, how nice it mus
| be to be rich and sheltered on such 8
morning from the biting cold in 6
warmly furnished room.
Some fellows wouldn't mind it in
the least if they were perched on TOP
of st. Pauls on the coldest of morn.
ings provided you supplied them wei
with beer; but l wasn't over strong
1imbed, any more than l could pre-
tend to be strong minded SO what tc
them was nothing, to me was almos
death itself.
The higher l went the more intense
the cold appeared to be, and my fin
gems became quite numb by the hoal
frost that was clinging to the side
and spokes of the ladders. Alter
while l stood on the few boards form
ing the stage on the summit of III,
shaft, and, giving one glance down
ward, my blood turned colder than j
was already, as realized the immens,
depth of the yard beneath.
Giving myself shake TO get rid O
the dizzy sensation that came over me
and unlocking from the pulley th,
tub of mortar which my mate, wait
ing below, had sent up, l at once be
gan my solitary work.
had been hard at it for more thai
an hour, and was getting bit NOR
reconciled to my position, cheerin,
myself as l whistled and work ed
with the thought that each brick
laid was nearer to a finish, when al
at once, a fiercer and colder blast tha
before came shrieking and tearin
around the chimney. / was nearl,
overtbrown, and, in the endeavor t
| I Al.
mortar, from off the edge of the shat
onto my frail standing place.
In second, TO my intense horror,
felt tho hnapda on6 all fbat r,o,o -