The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1877-11-01

that had heard the cocks crow as | did
awakened to find darkness about him
darkness so thick you might have cut it
heard other sounds, too, to tell that it
was morning-and scrambling to tumble
for that man-hole-found it too black,
closed-black and even as the rest of the
iron coffin around him-closed with not
a rivet-hole to let Gods light and air in
-why-why, he'd swooned right down
on the spot as / did, and / amt ashamed
to own it to no white man.
The big drops actually stood on the
poor fellows brow, as he now paused for
moment in the recital of this terrible
story. He passed his hand over his
rough features, and resumed with less
agitation of manner:
How long / might have remained
there senseless | don't know. The doe
tors have since told me it must have
been sort of fit, more like an apoplexy
than swoon, for the attack finally pass
ed off in sleep, Yes. slept, | know that,
for dreamed-dreamed a heap of things
afore | woke. There was but one dream,
however, that | have ever been able to
recall distinctly, and that must have
come on shortly before | recovered con-
sciousness. My resting place through
the night had been, as I've told YOU, at
the far end of the boiler. Well. now
dreamed that the man-hole was still
open; and what seems curious, rather
than laughable, if you take it in connec-
ton with other things, / fancied that my
legs had 50 stretched with the long walk
l had had the evening before, that they
now reached the entire length of the
/ boiler and extended through the opening.
At first, in my dreamy reflections, it
was comfortable thought that no one
could now shut the man-hole without
awakening me. But soon it seemed as if
my feet, which were on the outside were
becoming drenched in the storm, which
had originally driven me to seek this
shelter. | felt the chilling rain upon my
extremities. They grew colder and
colder, and their numbness gradually ex-
tended upward to other parts of my
body. 1t seemed, however, that it was
only the under side of my person that
was thus strangely visited | laid upon
my back, and it must have been species
of nightmare that afflicted me, for knew
at last that | was dreaming, yet it felt
impossible to rouse myself. A violent
! fit of coughing restored at last nv
volition. The water which had been
slowly rising around me rushed into my
mouth; | awoke-to hear the rapid
strokes of the pump, which was driving
it into the boiler"
My whole cOndition-no, not all of
it--not yet-my present condition
| flashed across me with new horror. But
did not again swoon. The choking
sensation, which made me faint when [
/ first discovered how | was entombed,
| p0wering emotion. | shrieket even As |
started from slumber The previous
discovery of the closed aperture, with
| the instant oblivion that followed, seemed
only Il part of my dream, and | threw
nay arms about and looked eagerly for
the opening by which | had entered the
horrid place-yes, looked fer it, and
| felt for it, though it was with the sad
conviction that it was closed, now a sec
ond time brought home to me, which
prompted my frenzied cry. Every
sense seemed to have ten-fold acuteness,
/ yet not one to act in unison with
another. | shrieked again and again
imploringly, despairingly, savagely.
filled the hollow chamber with nv cries
till its iron walls seemed to Jingle
around me. The dull stroke of the ac-
cursed pump seemed only to mock at,
while they deadened my screams.
At last l gave myself up. 1t is the
struggle against our fate that frenzies
the mine. We cease to fear when we
cease to hope. | gave myself up, and
then | grew calm!
l was resigned to die-resigned even
to my mode of death. 1t was not,
thought, so very new after all, to awaken
unwonted horror in man. Thousands
have been sunk to the bottom Of the
ocean shut in holds of vessels, beating
themselves against the battened matches
dragged down from the upper world
shrieking, not for life but for death, only
beneath the eye and amid the breath of
Heaven! Thousands have endured such
appalling kind of suffocation. | would
die only as many better man had died
before. | could meet such death.
said so, | thought so, | felt so-felt so,
L mean, for a minute or more; ten min
utes it may have been, or but an instant
of time; | know not, nor does it matter
if | could compute it. There was time.
then, when | was resigned to my fate
But, good God! was | resigned to it in
the shape in which it next came to ap-
pal me? Stranger? l felt the water
growing hotter about my limbs, though
it was yet only mid-leg deep! l felt it,
and at the same moment heard the roar
of the furnace that was to turn it into
steam before it could get deep enough to
drown me.
g You shudder. 1t was hideous. But
did | shrek, and shrivel, and crumble
down upon the iron floor, and lose my
senses in that horrid agony of fear? No.
though my brain swan, and the life
blood curdled at my heart, seemed about
to stagnate there forever, still | knew |
was too hoarse, too helpless, from my
previous efforts, to cry out more. But |
struck, feebly at first, then strongly,
frantically, with my clenched fist against
the sides of the boiler There were peo-
pie moving near who must hear nv
blows Could not | hear the grating of
the chains, the shutfiing of feet, the very
rustling of rope-hear them all within
few inches of me? | did; but the
gurgling water, that was growing hotter
and hotter about my extremities, made
more noise with the steaming cauldron
than did my frenzied blows against its
sides.
Latterly had hardly changed my po-
sition; but now the growing heat of the
water made me plash TO and fro; lifting
myself wholly out of it was impossible,
but | could not remain quiet. | STUN
bled upon something-it was a malletl
a chance tool the smith had left there
behind him. With what wild Joy did |
seize it with what eager confidence did
| now deal my first blows with it against
the walls of my prison. But scarce had
| intermitted them for Il moment, when
| heard the clang of the iron door as the
fireman flung it wide to feed the flames
that were to torture me. Ny rapping
was unheard, though | could hear him
toss the sticks into the furnace beneath
mo aD1 drive too tho door rrbo,,