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

best Of the native pitmen had been al
lured away by the gold and silver OF the
Far West, while the sturdy Irish immi- |
grant preferred open-air labor to earning |
q livelihood below ground. 80 high
were the wages we were forced to give
that Cornish miners and golfers from
Scotland often found it worth their while
TO cross and re-cross the Atlantic, spend
ing their own slack season profitabiy
among our shafts and galleries.
Salaries in the United States are per.
haps not quite on proportionate level
with weekly wages, but then the oppor-
tunities of rising in the world are prob
ably more frequent than at home; and
did not complain, anticipating the time
when, as permanent manager, L should
be in receipt of better income and,
prospectively, of some share in the prof
It's of the firm. For the time being 1
had board and lodging at the rate of
$1.50 day, in an upland farm house,
and ran no risk of damage, either in
person or property, by the inundation
that menaced the dwellings of those who
lived closer to the river. / was there
fore a mere spectator, though ready and
willing at pinch to be useful to those
who were less fortunate.
"There's woman on Ship Island,
there, waving something and calling to
us. May l never, but it's young Nine
Parnell herself! Yes, and there's the
child with her." said one of the men on
the bank.
Cant be" said another incredulous-
ly. "The farmer would never have
fingered this long, till he's right in the
grip of the ice.
Parnell's not tew hum, tell you,
answered the other in his New Jersey ac-
cent. He's away this week past to
Philadelphia City. Yes, that's the wife
calling for help, poor young thing
Guess those cowardly skunks of hired
men hev gone off in the fatboat and left
the woman and child to shift for them
selves.
To explain this may briefly say that,
two miles above Ithaca almost opposite
to the bluff on which we were standing,
there is an islet in the river shaded by
trees, and which derives its name from
some fancied resemblance in its shape to
that of ship. On it stood farmhouse,
with brightly painted gables of carved
woodwork, a tiled roof, and a porch
which in summer was festooned with
! twining roses-a picturesque object in
the landscape. Often in the still sultri-
ness of an August day l had looked ad-
miringly at this house, with its peach
and apple orchards, its meadows shaded
by tall cottonwood poplars, and its
sunny garden sloping to the waters
edge, where the great streaked MELONS
and yellow pumpkins lay basking i'll the
midst of blooming flowers, and had con-
s;dered 1t as the very abode of peace. L
knew the proprietor of this enviable dwell
ling-Seth Parnell by name-but very
slightly, and had never met with the
other members of his family, or set foot
on his tiny domain.
That the island farm was in great dan
ger from the advancing ice was but too
manifest ; and / was astonished when,
on demanding who was ready to assist
me in carrying aid to the deserted wo-
man and child, no response was made
beyond deprecatory growl of dissent
from my proposal.
THROWN life away as you'd throw
cornstalk, that's what / call it." pithily
rejoined, after pause, the old yeoman
from the hills. "Tain't the drift that's
speaking the river now that I'd value
the swapping of a gunlock," he contin-
ued, pointing to the loose ice floating
by; cts the gorge itself, that would
smash III the side of hundred ton sloop
as boy cracks peanut ; and see, mis-
ter, the jams breaking already"
And indeed the ice-wall, which had
for some moments been stationary, hav-
ing probably anchored itself on some
shoal or sand-bank, was again in motion,
urged by the resistless pressure of the
flood above it, while the shrieks and de-
spairing gestures of the lonely occupant
of the islet showed in what an agony of
alarm she beheld the near approach of
the destroying wave. Still, although |
made an urgent appeal to those around
to aid me in manning a broadhorn-one
of a number of boats of various build
and size that lay moored in the creek
hard by-no volunteer answered to the
call and when / declared my intention
of going alone to the rescue of those on
the island. efforts were made to dissuade
me from running the risk of what to the
bystanders, appeared to be all but inevi-
table death.
Good grit I'll say that for the
Britisher 70 Such were the old farmers
valedictory words as 1 sprang into ca
noe, grasped the paddle, and pushed off.
"Pity, too, to see it done. We
oughter hev held him back by force,
neighbor."
However, 1 was by this time well out
of the creek, which formed a sort of
miniature harbor, and plying my paddle
with the vigor necessary to contend with
the force of the current, now swollen by
the effects of the long-continued thaw.
Luckily, during my residence near the
Delaware, / had acquired that dexterity
Ill the handling of canoe which nothing
but practice could confer, and L succeed
ed III eluding the shock OF those sheets of
floating ice-the impact of which might
have proved fatal to my slender skiff-
and had almost gained the southern ex-
tremity of the island, when loud shout
of warning from those on shore made me
turn my head, to behold, with dismay,
that quantity of gigantic passes of the
cleaning crystal had broken away from
the slow-moving gorge, and were rush
ing furiously down the stream, revolving