The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1880-09-02

mOther's bedroom. Finding his mother
absent, be crossed the hall and knocked
at Miss Layne's door. The little maiden
hushed her song and opened it.
'".Oh, Teddy, it's you, is itp" she
said.
"sure it is, swateness. Who else could
it beP"
"I thought it was Patsy" she said
tantalizingly.
Then there was a struggle, stifled
scream, and smack, smack of lips
The noise disturbed tipsy Patsy, and he
rose from his bed and opened the door
entering into the hallway. The scufHe
outside continued and there was more
smacking. Presently Alice cried:
"Oh, Teddy Horley, you're perfectly
horrid, and 1 don't like you one bit,
therep
Now, darlint!" began Teddy.
"Don't darlint me, l don't like you.
You are better looking and finer dressed
than Patsy, but he is a thousand times
better than you"
perhaps ye're in airnest." said Teddy,
a little passionately. "There's many a
thrue word spoken in jest"
"Well, l am in earnest. l do like
Patsy, and if he'd ask me to marry him
this day, I'd jump at the chance. So
there, now, you have the truth"
Then the door was slammed, and I
heard Teddy walking slowly back into
his mothers room. Presently there
came q knock at my door, and when /
cried ''come in," Patsy's freckled face
appeared on the threshold. l spoke to
him kindly and invited him to have a
chair. He sat down, aud l saw that
what he had heard had sobered him
A "a as L. IL IL
throat and began:
"Did ye hear what she said?"
Yes, Patsy" replied.
cam do ye belaive she names itP" he
continued, eagerly.
"I have no doubt of it."
"God bless her swate soul! I'm not
the man for her, an l niver tot she
cared for me. If could only bring me-
self to belaive it's thrue, I'd be differ
ent man."
He sat in silence for some time and
then rose to go. When he reached the
door he turned and said:
81 was Il bit dhrunk when / come
home tonight. It's hard work beyont
there in the tunnel, put [ sware to ye
thai afther tonight there'll never drap
of pwhisky pass my lips"
l bade him goodnight and God speed
in this new-tormed resolution, and ne
shook my hand warmly. Mrs. Horley
came home and she and Patsy had sup
per together. Teddy was out. l took
short walk that evening, and coming
home passed Patsy and Alice on one OF
the crOss-streets walking together, arm
in arm. did net hear what they were
saying, but felt convinced Patsy had de-
clared his love and been made happy
with Alice's acknowledgment that the
passion was reciprocated.
The next morning Patsy came to my
room before he went to his work. He
seized my hand, and look of supreme
happiness shot from his gray eyes.
"She sez she'll have me, sor," he said,
"an' we'll be married ez soon ez I get
through work on the tunnel. Pm q
happy man, but for wan thing-it's
Teddy. Poor bye, he takes it to heart,
an is not himself at all, God knows
I'm his brother, an would rather lose
me roight Land than bring harm to
him."
"Oh, that will be all right. He'll get
J. said, to console him.
81 wish I could think So" he said,
moving toward the door, and these
were the last words ever heard the
poor fellow utter.
Every reader has heard of the terrible
tunnel disaster, the details of which
electrified the whole country. Teddy
and Patsy Horley were employed in the
tunnel as laborers, and worked side by
side in the same relief. The morning OF
my last interview with poor Patsy, they
went to their work as usual, and for the
first time in their lives spoke never a
word of kindly cheer or brotherly badin-
age as they walked swiftly through the
streets. The better to make plain what
follows, il will be necessary to say that
the entrance to the tunnel proper, on
the New York side, is through circu-
lar, perpendicular shaft, thirty feet in
diameter, and about sixty feet deep.
This is a working shaft, the bottom OF
which is used for the reception OF waste
matter, as it is excavated, and before il
is taken away. Thirty feet below the
surface of the ground is an "air lock. y
which is the sole means of communities
tion between the tunnel and the outer
air. 1t is necessary to keep the air in.
side the tunnel sufficiently compressed
to maintain pressure of seventy pounds
to the square inch, and the 8" air lock )
serves similar purpose to the lock of q
canal. equalizing the pressure of the ail
to those passing in or out, as a cana
lock balances the level of the water. A;
a matter of course, there are two doors
one at each end of this lock, only one o
which can be opened at once, while tht
lock itself is fifteen feet long by six fee
and six inches wide, allowing for tht
passage, in case of necessity, OF thirty
men at once.
AS they were preparing to go down tn
shaft that morning Patsy turned to hi
brother and whispered:
"It's quare feelin' have in me thi
mornin', Teddy. May the blissed Vor
gin protect US from harm"
Teddy laughed. It's the pwhisky,
he said, and turned away, not SO quicl
that his eye didn't meet the reproachfu
flash that fell from his brothers grea
gray orbs. Afterward that look haunte,
him, and made the misery of life all th
harder to bear
Twenty-eight men composed a relief
and the work of excavation move
along smoothly until noon. Then tn
squad was divided. Fourteen men wen
to lunch; the remainder worked on
In halfun hour the first squad was hear
advancing, and the Others threw dow
their tools and prepared to leave th
tunnel. Patsy was in the first SQUAD
Teddy in the second. The men return
ing had passed inside through the ali
lock and The others had quit their DOS,
preparatory to leaving. 1t is probabl
thai if they had delayed this for eve
minute the accident would not hay
happened, for the leak, which was dil
covered just too late, might easily hay