The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1876-01-28
THE ICE-GORGE.

Its coming, mister 1t follows me
close and if you're wise you will make
tracks before. Why, its Mr.. Bradburn
Mark Bradburn, isn't it? l didn't
know you at first.
i, for my part, knew the speaker-a
young American assistant surveyor in the
State employ--well enough and as he
checked his fast-trotting horses and
leaned over the side-rail of the light
high wheeled wagon which he drove /
could see by his flushed cheek and ex-
cited manner that something serious
must have occurred.
"The ice-gorge, so much talked of, is
really descending, then r" began. 81
thought precautions had"
cay, but we're dead beat" inter
rupted McKinlop-for that was his name.
1.-The engineer-in- chief has tried every
thing, but the enemy is too strong for
us and unless we can get time to blast
it AZ it reaches the Narrows nothing but
a miracle can save the towns of Glayville
and Port Adams. It'll be at ithaca a
quarter of an hour after l am, and let
me tell you it's no sport to try conclu-
sions with the drifting pack that so big a
And without further parley he lashed
his horses, and hurried down the road
that skirted the bank while almost i'm
mediately afterward 1 caught sight of a
number of vehicles of various sorts and
sizes rafting along at furious speed.
These were filled with men, women,
children, and household gear and as
the drivers went past the spot where 1,
with several of my neighbors and some
OF the workmen from the mine of which
l was manager, was standing, they
shouted aloud some hoarse words of
warning, looking back, and pointing up
the river with their whips. Every eye
was turned toward the jutting point
where we were likely to catch the first
glimpse of the advancing foe.
Bruton, and Dutch Town, and
Sparta, on the New Jersey side, were
swamped yesterday, so tits said," re-
marked an old farmer i'll blue homespun
and boots of untanned leather. 81
guess we Pennsylvania folks won't get
off shot-free nouther. There it comes,
Notwithstanding the point ~
Looking toward the spot indicated /
deserted something like moving wall of
ghsteniIg greenish ice, sparkling in the
sunlight, and advancing slowly and with
a stately majesty down the broad river,
which seemed to fill from bank to bank
This could be nothing less than the So
called ice-gorge, or accumulation of
floating blocks and slabs from the upper
waters of the Delaware, partially melted
by tho bot sun Ct an American spring,
and damming back the chatting waters of
the swollen river to an extent which
threatened mischief.
All this was new to me, an Englishman
born, since it is only in very hard win
tiers that such phenomena are witnessed
in those regions; and during the four
years which l had passed in the country
this last winter had been exceptionally
severe.
L, Mark Bradburn, had, at the age of
five and twenty, been reckoned for
tunate III being promoted to be acting
manager of the Black Star Iron Mine,
close to town called Ithaca, OH the
Pennsylvania shore of the Delaware.
But then had for two years had an OPP
portunity, as clerk If the works of PROV
ing to the satisfaction of my principals
that was capable of experimenting the
business efficiently enough. A Stafford
shire lad, L had from childhood been ia
miliar with iron ores and their treatment;
while, having early in life been placed
nnder the tuition of q mining engineer,
had brought out with me to America
that technical knowledge which so great
1y tends to smooth the path Of an emf
grant.
IL was for the sake of my widowed
mother in England loved me very
dearly, aud who, knew, never failed
night and morning to put up PRAYER
for the safety and well being of her boy
beyond the seas-that l was so eager TO
earn the means of establishing home
which / could ask her to share. With
this end in view during the first years of
my residence in the United States / had
practiced self denial, as well az industry:
had roughed it contentedly, and had
spent my leisure hours in perfect ng N.Y.
self in the theoretical lore of my profes-
sion, aud in cultivating al acquaintance
with the German language, in which /
could now converse fuently-a useful
accomplishment in district where SO
many of our workers were fair-haired
newcomers who knew no tongue but
that of their native Saxony or Pomerania.
My post, as acting manager of Penn
sylvania mine, was one which entailed
some privations, much vigilance, and
good deal of patient toll. The Black
Star was but property of moderate ex-
tent-not one of those mammoth mines
that yield their thousands of tons in the
monthly output-but the iron was of ex-
.cellent quality; fine red hematite, that
almost equalled the best Swedish in lus-
ire and purity; and nothing but the cost
OF coal aud of labor prevented us from
carrying on a much larger trade than we
actually did. Our workmen were a mot
ley crew of varied nationality, for the