Smyrna times. [volume] (Smyrna, Del.) 1854-1987, 1880-10-27
Bowker's Triumph.
THE BLIssFUL END OF A GOLFERS couRTsun

TOOK sly peeps AT him through ner tears, |
William, his additions over, went out for a |
dreary stroll, past the Hilly piece, and over |
Stevenson's hills, and down Jacobs ladder, |
and Dead Mans lane, and on to the brook |
side again. There, on Juno bridge, he |
stood and watched the eddies circle around |
the great stones, and found that negative |
and bewildered comfort which trouble |
always finds in running water. Meanwhile |
Selma had gone back 10 bed, and had
there renewed her tears, and was finding
some comfort in running water also. And,
at the moment when William stood upon
June bridge, Abraham Cough, in suit of
aannels, was making his way to the day
shift in the Strip-and,at-it. Lest you should
find yourself too much disturbed by the
phrase, let me explain that the Stripand-
att was a coal mine, so named by its in.
mates from the can't phrase of some
"doggy" or ganger: 81 Now, lads, strip and
at it."
Poor William regretted his holiday, and
longed for the hour when work should
begin again. He beguiled the heavy hours
of the day by the composition of woe
BECOME verses, whereof fortune has preser
we'd fragment which l here embalm:
1.-THE sun that shines so bright above
Knows naught about my wrongful love;
The birds that sing i'll Wigmore lane
| It'll very dismal thing
That in my ears the birds do sing.
While my Selma has gone off
| To walk with Mr.. Abraham Cough"
Williams muse was in the right. 1t is a
very dismal thing to the wounded heart,
grown egotistic through its pain, that
nature should seem out of sympathy with
it-that the sun should shine and the birds
should sing Just as brightly and as merrily
| as though Selma were still true and gentle.
| William took hisshumble meal at little
public house in the aforesaid lane, and
then strolled home again, still very misera-
| ble, but trihe soothed by the verse making
process. He was due at the mine at 6
o'clock, and an hour before that time he
was upstairs exchanging his Sunday cos
tune for the work day coaly hannels, when
he became conscious Of a hustle in the
street. Looking through the window, he
beheld men running hAtless and coatess,
and unbonneted, uDshawled women, hurry
ing along as fast as their feet could take
them. Everybody ran in one direction,
and in the crowd he caught a moments
glimpse of Selma and her father. The
girls face was white with some strong ex-
element, and there was look OF the wild
est imaginable fear in her eyes. Both
hands were pressed to her heart as she ran.
| d
like this is pretty likely to be true. William
to the hurrying crowd:
"Wheer is it?"
AT the Strip.and at.it," some familiar
voice called out as the struggling crowd
swept by.
"What is it?' he cried again.
"Shaft on fire." cried another voice, in
answer: and in a second the street was
clear. William Bowker dashed down stairs
and hurled himself along the street.
"Anybody DOWN." he gasped, as he
turned the corner and passed the hindmost
figure in a hurrying mass. The woman
knew him.
"For Gods sake, lend me thy hand
Willy YUM" she gasped in answer. "My
Joe's in"
He caught the shriveled little figure il
his great arms as though the old woman
had been q baby, and dashed on again
Ay, the tale was truel There belched anC
volleyed the rolling smoke. There were
hundreds upon hundreds of people already
crowded upon the pit mound and about thu
shaft, and from every quarter men anC
women came streaming in, white faceC
and breathless. William set his withereC
burden down, and pushed through to thu
edge Of the shaft. There was water in tn,
up. cast, and the engines were at work full
power. Up came the enormous buckle
and splashed its 200 or 300 gallons dow
the burning shaft, and dropped like ston
down the up.cast, and after long, lon
pause came trembling and laboring u
again, and vomiting its freight again ant
dropped like stone for more
"Yo' might just as well stand in a rim
an spit at it," said Bowker, with his fac
all pale and his eyes on fire. sect tn
stinktors up and let man or two 6
down."
"Will yo' maxi one, Bill BowkerP' sal
brawny, coal smeared man beside him.
"Yis, will" was the answer, given Xix
bulldogs growl.
- "I'll make another" said the man.
cam me, An me, ""An' me- cried
dozen more.
orig the boWk, somebody" said tn
,,RR lovelorn verse maker, taking at once an
)R as by right the place he was born TO
)R e-Abel-Darkey-co wi me.
33RR The crowd divided, and the five mad
)R for the Offices, and found there in a row
Or number of barrel shaped machines of meta
1R each having a small hose and a pumpin
Or apparatus attached to it. These were
11RR new boon from the generous hand
DIR scence-a French continuance, as the nan
affixed to each set forth" u Extincteur
Each of the men seized one of these, an
4 bore it to the edge of the shaft, the crow
- once more making way. A bucket, tee
nically called "a bowk," some two fe
deep and eighteen inches wide, was alike
to the wire rope which swung above Il
u. burning shaft.
The self appointed leader asked for fla
mel clothing. A dozen garments were fluI
to him at once. He wrapped himself l
like mummy, and bound cotton han
N kerchief over his face. Then with u
n machine strapped securely across his shoI
+" ders, he stepped one foot in the bucket al
laid hand upon the rope. A man n
forward with a slender chain, which
rae passed around the volunteers waist al
:, =, fixed to the rope which supported {
~ bowk. Another thrust an end of rope in
his hand, and stood by to reeve out t
rest as he descended. Then came I
, word: "Short, steady" The engine pantt
sO Of the rope frightened, the clumsy figure, wi
lent the machine bound about it, swung ir
NJ the smoke, and in death like stillne
with here and there smothered gasp,
$500 man went down. His comrade at the ed
dribbled the rope through his coal blaC
epe6 fingers as delicately as though it b