Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1878-02-14

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: they could not pull them apart. Its
a bad practice among some divers
10 go through the pockets Of corps.
90 that they find, and take all the
valaahles. l have known divers to
make thousands of dollars in that
way. There is sort OF pocket in
the armor in which they carry their
tools, and have seen divers como
out ofa wreck in which they had
been working with their pockets
filled with gold watches, diamond
rings, and pins and all sorts of trash.
| dove once in Mobile Bay where
put over 300 chains under an IRON
clad. The greatest annoyance that
we had there was sharks. They
didn't hardly dare tackle us because
with our armor We looked more like
soarecrows than anything else. They
would come sailing along and gradu.
ally swim up toward us with their
great big mouths wide open, but
when within few feet Of us they
would stop and lay there fappin
their fine and looking, it seemed to
me, Ike the very devil himself. FL
nally we devised way to scare
them off that never failed to fright
en- them so that they would stay
away an hour or longer before they
dared to come back. The armor
that we wear is air tight you know.
Our jacket sleeves were fastened
around our wrists with an elastic,
so that the air could not escape. By
| running my finger under the sleeve
of my jacket could let the air out
and as it rushed into the water il
would make sort of Kissing noise
and volume of bubbles shoot up.
So whenever those Internal sharks
would come prowling around me l
would hold out my arm toward them
and putting my finger under the
elastic of my jacket sleeve, l would
let lot of air out and send a stream
of blubbers into the sharks face,
with Kissing noise like steam from
a gauge cock. The way that those
sharks would GO scooting off was
funny to behold.'
Jack said the interviewer, sit is
said that the submarine diving is
very profitable business what was
the largest salary that you ever
made p
Il was working for Ostis & Broth
ers, getting out bales Of cotton. l
was to have s. day work or play,
aud IS for every bale of cotton that
l got out. | work ed about six hours
ono day, and got out 485 bales Of
cotton. My income that day was
$2,430. | tell you. | have made
enough to buy aud sell many rich
man in this town, but bless you l
could never keep it,
Il had several narrow escapes from
drowning said Jack, as be relight-
cd his ancient and much tanned
pipe but about the closest call was
when l was workin' in the water
works crib in Cleveland. You see
much depends on having good
signal tender. l can tell when some
one else beside the regular signal
man steps up and takes hold of the
Iline So can any good diver for
that matter. There was the diver
that worked for the Lake Shore
Railroad Company when they were
building the abutments of their new
bridge here across the Maumee. He,
by the way was paid $40 day for
100 days. He was working one day
shortly after he had begun the job,
aud | went down to see him. The
signal tender asked me If l would
take hold OF the line. l did so and
| gave it three or four little shakes
that good diver always understands
and he Immediately answered back,
and let me understand that be knew
III was there. But l was going to
tell you about that narrow escape.
l had signal tender who didn't
hardly understand his business The
mouth of the crib had become stop
ped up with dirt, and | was clearing
it out. | had crawled through the
entrance which was sort of door
and was outside of the crib: My
life line and hose chafed against the
top of the door and all at once when
l went to turn around, pulled my
helmet off. There l was, out in the
water, where in a short time l knew
l would drown. pulled twice on
the life line for the signal tender to
pull me out, but he didn't do it. |
felt that was filling up with water
fast, and 1 pulled again. But still
be did not understand. Of course
all my armor had filled with water,
and as there was no al. in it l was
held down by tons weight. Sudden
ly George, who was telling you
about, and who had just come down
to see me, stepped up and took hold
of the life line, shook it and asked
, me what / wanted. l had just
strength enough left to give two
, hard pulls, which meant, pull me
, up quick, George, | afterwards
heard them tell, yelled to the signal
man and told him, Help mo pull in
that lifeline and pull for all you're
worth, for Jack is drowning They
pulled me up out of there mighty
quick, now, tell you, and it took
lots of strength to do it, because my
armor was full Of water. When
they got nae to the surface ! was
clear gone and it was more than an
hour before came to enough to
speak.
The deepest water that / was in
was 16S feet. When one ia down
so low 1t is hard work to get air. l
have had the air pump manned by
six men working with all their might
and still I've been obliged to keep
pulling on the air linz and calling
for more air. In his day the hero
of this brief history was prize
| fighter of much repute. He fought
many battles, and, it is said, came
out the victor in most of them. He
states that his hardest fight was in