The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1878-03-22

sent word that the military were expected to
come and fight them. The village lived en-
tirey by railroad work. Then she went up
to consult Mrs. Mcguire, at the neat cottage
with the garden and the ice. cold well. That
lady turned her head away, and heard her
through. Then, still not looking at her, she
burst into great laugh, and cried out, "Oh,
you foolish crayture, don't ye know they re
takin' up brokin rail, 50 your husband
won't get his gzzard smashed out on him,
and they have to pile up the timbers on the
thrack like that to get a prize on the rail,
and lift it like, dye see? ~
Nelly did not see, for she had too often
seen the spikes drawn by the claw-bar, aud
and SO she told Mrs. Mcguire very plainly.
The lady looked dark, and then intelli.
gent, and said, "Oh, thin indade, if ye know
that, it's right ye are entirely. Oh, the
murtherin' divils, tryin' to wreck a train
and stale all the PASSENGERS money, an your
own husband one of their leadin' men, too
But don't you cry"
Nellie was silent instantly, for her educa-
tioh IN schootiohai pays was VI oohhC uoNs
and she knew now what this days work had
been. She was only a dancing girl, at a
Varieties, and less than that now, but that
was like to die an awful death that night,
and she remembered that her mother had
prayed for her before she died. She fell
down by the side of her bed, and prayed
until 1890 o'clock. No freight trains now
ran, and no local ones, and that train, due
near midnight, would be the first. The other
passenger had gone by just before she started
for her berries. At 1890 she arose from her
knees, and the storm was awful. There was
singing and drinking in the room below and
the blinds and curtains were open in the
window below hers, so that to tie her sheets
and let herself down she would be seen
| Still they did not know that she had often
swung by wire from waist and shoulders
in transformation scene, or stood on her
toes until they were numb, or leaped off a
pasteboard precipice in the Bowery, or rode
velocipede down wire in Broadway. An
umbrella was of no use, and waterproof no
better, save that it was good gray, not easi-
ly seen. She fastened her skirts as nearly
to avoid the Zone leg fashion. Then she
looked around the room for means ofa signal
Her kerosene lamp was of no use, and must
stay and burn, for it was her habit, and her
window might be looked to. Then she tied
a string from the Tapping window curtain
to the back of her working chair, so it would
rock it, and keep up sound Of occupation
when she was gone. Crime is wide awake
in melo drama, and she thought it might b,
in real life. Then she climbed out on he
right hand window blind, sticking her toe
in the Stats, that unfortunately, were new
and clung there until she could close he
sash, all save a hole at the top, to let wine
in tn rock her chair.
Next, she steadied herself and made
swing down by the hands, until her toe
rested on the top of the similar blind below
taking care all the time to let no scrap o
her drapery get in the range of the bar
glass below, where half dozen pairs o
| eyes were watching for her to pass down
3 she dared. 1t was probably death to her,
r caught, for the wreckers meant to have n
e tales. Now she had TO balance, and nc
l fall, nor rattle the shutter more than tn
) wind did, and stoop, holding to nothing, ,ur
e til she could get hold of the lower one wit
d her hands, bent double as she was in the AZ
$ ton. She did that also, and then it WI
| | 4 IL ala arI n
n to the wet ground She ran out of the ga
IT den gate, and sat down to put on her shoe
d As she did so, Mcguire came out of Il
n house, and stood looking up at her windo
Z, her lamp burning, or a guard might ha
< preceded her to the railroad obstructio
he His lady now came to the lower windo
l. and screamed. "No use for yes to stai
like fule duck in the wet l wint myst
VI up the stairs, an she's rockin' herself
CT her chair like she was goin' crazy"
le San let her." said the man sit may sa
ut putin slit in her throat in the morniI
as No tellin' how near she got, nor who $
'h saw"
Ae He went In, aud Nelly hurried awi
u First she went to the house at the water-s
II ton, for she wanted lamp for signal.
"a was locked, of course, and the heavy sh,
at tiers closed, and the only window was eig
III feet up, made to work from where the
ne formed about the supply.pipe for engn
VII She knew where the tool-house was, and
UT men who had last come in, Indifferent
er company" property, had thrown down b
ne and hammers in the rain at It's door. )
all took light bar with claws to it,and thou
n, first to move the obstruction that was
rd the road but soon saw, in her mind, t
or the wreckers had done it too well for her
ms tie strength to undo. There must be 1
nal, and it now seemed hours since she
III put on her shoes in the wet
nt 1t still stormed in way that was per
al tly awful, aud she was wet to the skin
nd did not know she was wet at all.
She climbed up the ladder, walked arol
Oh on the narrow flange If the frame to
rk' track side, and stood on the supply-p
'sh and began to pry at the window shut
90. Twice the wind nearly blew her of, tn
VET she was a-slip in the wet but she found
Inc shutter and broke the sash loose with
Lhe bar and sprang inside. She had with
OIL the patent fuses that always kept to l
my my pipe with in wind and ran. We &C
not smoke cigars on our wages, She lit
M -. of these and saw, to her great joy, an
train lantern with some oil in it. 1t
white, not the real danger signal she wa
but it was the best she could do, and e
m. m howl of the storm or roll of the thu
Us seemed to her that of the train rushing Il
soy struction, and of all the lives she saw
W. one torn, bleeding, scalded wretch So
Ae, fed up the grade as for life, and sooner
Anu Dhe knew beat herself against the obsi
"" tions that she had seen.
,ota The track was not torn up, only