Connecticut western news., 1873-01-10
ON TOP OF A CHIMNEY.

han. WnaI your present JOD, L1nd- say ?" he asked, and told him.
 "Humphl that can stand over for a day or two, can't it ? Stubbs has fallen ill again, and you must take his place." didn't care to be shifted before I'd finished what I was about, but jour- neyman bricklayer, with Q wife and children looking to him for bread, can- not afford to be too particular, and so I held my tongue.
 You must go to Coot's Brewery to- morrow morning and finish that chim- ney, the foreman told me. He gave me few more directions besides, and then went his way while went mine, not very well pleased at the prospect before me.
 lowed the trade, for though I'd gained myself a good character as a Steady workman, had never been able to over come horror at being perehed at any great height. In the country, where the buildings were low, I managed well enough, but in this great city there were roofs on which I could not stand without this dread expressing me, nor look down without feeling as though something below was tempting me to
 
 miserable sensation which no effort of mine could shake off.
 This huge chimney the foreman had ordered me to finish was reckoned one of the highest and best built shafts in London. We were all proud of the job, which had been carried on so far without a single mishap, but I had earnestly been hoping that might not be sent to it, and it wasn't till the workmen had got almost to the top that began to breathe 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 job. but the moment dozed of to sleep it came back upon me in hideous dream. l thought was falling down, and just as the crash of my body striking the earth seemed inevitable, woke up with start to find myself bathed in cold precipitation, and trembling n every limb.
 No more settled sleepvisited my pillow that night, and 1t was relief when the booming of the clocks dispe1led my frlghtful visions, and warned me that 1I was tune tO lace Q reality.
 The morning was bitterly cold and bolsterous, scarcely & soul WAS to be seen in the deserted streets at that early hour, and the dull thud, thud of my footsteps sounded mournfully in the stillnes reigning around. At last the great chimney loomed in sight, and, gazing up at its immense height, I shiv- cred at the thought of being on top of 1t, and forced to look down on the sick ening depth below
 If it had not been for the name of the thing should have gone back but the thought of Bessie and the children spurred me on :; so, buttoning my jacket tightly around me, began to ascend the staging. In my journey upward I passed many cosily-curtained windows, and remember thinking, rather envious- ly, how nice it must be to be rich and sheltered on such 8 morning from the biting cold in warm-furnished bed room.
 Some fellows wouldn't mind the least bit if they were pcrched on the top of St. Paul's on the coldest of mornings, provided you supplied them we'll with beer; but I wasn't over-strong imbed, any more than I could pretend to be strong-minded; so what to them was nothing, to me was almost death itself.
 The higher I went the more intense the cold appeared to be, and my fingers became quite numbed by the hoar frost that was clinging to the sides and spokee of the ladders. After while I stood on the few boards forming the stage on the summit of the shaft, and, giving one glance downward, my blood turned colder than 1t was already as I realized the immense depth to the yard beneath
 Giving myself shake to get rid o the dizzy sensation that came over me and unlocking from the pulley the tul of mortar which my mate, waiting be low, had sent-up I at once began m, solitary work.
 had been hard at it for more than al hour, and was getting bit more recon clled to my position, cheering myself n l whlstled and worked, with the though that each brick laid was bringing m nearer to a finish, when all at once fiercer and colder blast than befor came shrieking around tke chimney l was nearly overthrown, and, in tn endeavor to recover myself, I tilted tn board of mortar from off the edge c the shaft on to my frail standing place
 In a second, to my intense horror, felt the boards and all that were on the1 gliding away with me from the chimney and, Tn few moments I should hay been lying, a mangled corpse, below, had not succeeded in finging my arr over and into the hollow of them shaf where, as the scaffold and its load ( bricks crushed downward, I was lei hanging, with certain death awaiting m qe moment I loosened my hold.
 My first impulse was to throw ID other hand over and draw my body III so that could lie partially across th top of the shaft. In this was success ful, and continued to balance mysel half in the chimney and half out.
 There for some time I could onl cling with frenzied desperation, prayin earnestly to be saved from the horrib death threatening me; but at last I sun moned courage to peer cautiously ov, the outside of the shaft.
 Not bitof scaffolding remained wit in many yards of me---and that but tl poles, with a few boards dangling
 them---and there was nothing to bre, my fall should quit my hold.
 Shudderingly drew my head ov the shaft, for there the darkness hid n danger, while to gaze on the scene wit out brought the old feeling of bei1 dragged back to me in full force.
 Then began to think of the wife a1 little ones whom had left snug in be and bitter tears came into my eyes as
 wondered how they would live if I we taken from them. The thought broug me back to more selfish ones, and
 kept asking myself, Must die ? Hc long can hold on with this fierce vii besetting me? Is there no hope? W no one, seeing how I am placed. stri
 to rescue me ?''
 Again I turned my eyes downwa1
 In the courtyard of the brewery and
 the street below people were fast colle