The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1875-03-12

must be under that p And then again
and again, in my mind, seemed to see the
tom and crushed face of my darling, and
her long curls dabbed in blood.
In the midst of the piled up blackened
ruins-bricks, mortar, tiles, lead, and rag
ged and torn beams, huge pieces of wood
snapped and torn like matches-we toiled
on hour after hour till the dalk night came,
when the gas pipes that had been laid bare
and plugged were unstopped, and the gas
lit, so that it hared and bazed and cast a
strange wild light over the ruined place.
There had been flames burst forth two or
three times from parts of the ruins, but a
few sprinki;ngs from the ire-engine in at
tendance had put them ont and as we
worked on the rubbish grew cooler and
cooler.
Some said that the child could not have
been there, but the sight of her mother
tearing out was sufficient, when once she
got away from the people who had her in
their house-a house where but part of the
windows had been broken by the explosion
and came running to where I was at
work, snatching at the bricks and wood till
got two or three to take her back, fer
couldn't have left where / was to have
saved my life. But l remember so well
asking myself why it was that women will
let down their back hair when they're in a
state of excitement, and make 'emselves
look SO wild.
By and by some one came to say how
bad my wife was, and that she wanted TO
see me but | felt that l couldn't go, and
kept on in fevered sort of way, work,
work i; and I've thought since that if she
had been dying it would have been all The
same. However, | heard soon after that
she seemed little better, and l found oet
afterward that doctor there had given
the poor thing something that seemed to
calm her, and she went to sleep.
1t would have been a strong dose, though,
that would have sent me off to sleep, as
still on, hour after hour, | worked there,
never firing, but lifting beams that two or
three men would have gone at, and tossing
the rubbish away like SO much straw.
The owners were kind enough, and did
all they could to encourage the men, send
ing out beer and other refreshments hut
the heap of stuff to move was something
frghtful, and more than once | felt quite
III despair, and ready to sit down and cry
weakly. But l was at it again the next
moment, and working with the best of
them.
"Hadn't you better leave now % said
one of my masters 'IH see that every
thing is done.''
| gave him one look, and he laid his hand
kindly on my shoulder, and said no more
to me about going and heard him say,
'Poor fellow y to some one by him as he
turned away.
We came upon the boiler quite half a
dozen yards out of its place, ripped right
across where the rivets went while as for
the engine it was one curious bit of iron
tangle-rods and bars and pieces of iron
and brass twisted and turned and bent
about like so much string, and the great
fy-wheel was broken in half dozen
places.
+ This showed US now where the great
cellar-like place, the stoke hole was, and
we worked down now toward that, bat still
clearing the way, for how could tell where
the child might be? But it was weary,
slow work, every now and then rigging up
shears and fastening ropes and pulley and
sheaf to haul up some great piece of iron
or beam, and, willing as every one was,
we made very little progress in the dark
night.
! Once we had to stop and batter down a
wall with a scaffold-pole /; for the police
declared it to be unsafe, and the sergeant
, would not let us work near it till it was
down, and all the time l was raging like a
madmaE at the check. But it was of nc
use, and the man was right. he was doing
his duty, and not like me searching for the
little crushed form of my darling in the
cruel ruins. The people made me worse,
for they would talk and say what they
thought so that could hear. One would
say she might still be alive another would
shake his head, and SO on /; when / kept
stopping in spite of all tried not listening
to what they said, and it all seemed Sc
much lost time.
J The engine-room was now cleared, and
in spite of my trembling and horror, as
every big piece was disturbed, nothing had
been found, but all at once as we were try.
ing to clear behind the boiler, and get down
to the stoke hole, one of the men gave a
cry. | caught at the man nearest to me-
and then lights, rubbish, the strange wild
scene. all seemed to run round me, and
should have fallen only the man held me
up, and some one brought me some brandy
/ L was myself again directly, and, stumb
ling over the bricks to where a knot of mer
had collected, and policeman had his
buiis-eye lantern open, and they were
STOPPING to look at something that lay just
nnder a beam they had raised to the lef,
of where expected she would be found.
Smashed" | heard some one with his
back to me say and then some one else,
..Pnnr little th ,,,ss Slaa I,