The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1880-01-23
UNDER HIGH PRESSURE.
A Story Of Mining Accident and
What Engineering knowledge May
Accomplish.
Chas. Barnard in scribner's Monthly

chas. Barnard in scribner's Monthly.
Samuel Breewood came out of the Mas.
sachusetts Institute of Technology with the
highest honors. Some OF bis friends, it is
true, had regretted that he was not Har.
ward man; but he was at all events a man
who knew the use of tools. He lad nc
Greek and little Of the classics, but he was
theoretically master OF the steam engine,
the machne-lathe, the rock drill, aud those
noble and ancient tools-the file and ham
mer; moreover, he had learned the use OF
those finer tools-the brain, the eye and the
hand: and though practically be knew little
Of real work, he said to himself that be
would soon bring his theory to the level OF
practice.
Fer few weeks after leaving school he
looked about near Boston for some thing to
do, and found that the world somehow
seemed already too full Of engineers. To
make moan over this after the manner of
some who find their market over-stocked,
was not in his nature. He recognized that
l W UOkih hO uuo1 pNktbs anu ditci soihC
search he at last obtained place as clerk
Of the High Bush coal-mine at Embertcn
City, Penn.
To one brought up in the rarified INTEL
lectual atmosphere of Boston, Emberton
City seemed sitting. The raw, struggling
town, the squalid poverty of the mining pop
ulatiou, the ill-made and inefficient ma
chinery employed in the mines. and, above
all, the ways and manners of the people, de-
pressed him. He wanted to reform and
improve everything in sight, from the mi
uers' huts to the manners of their sons and
daughters.
Being wise, he did nothing of the kind and
conten.ed himself with his clerical duties Of
keeping the accounts of the output Of the
mine and the wages of the men. He was an
engineer, doing a clerks duty, but he would
bIde his time till something more congenial
offered.
He had taken lodgings with a widow
woman named Baumgarten, who had one
daughter aged nineteen. This place was
the only one that had offered, and he had
taken it on impulse.
To this ennuys young man, not without
certain disheartening experiences of "soci-
ety." Maria Baumgarten seemed more COM
pletely woman than any he had ever seen.
He said to himself in an extravagant way,
that be had not met a young woman be-
fore, but merely cultivated young persons
of feminine aspect. She appealed to him
with vivid int t,nsity and an open-air
freshness that were entirely new to bim,
and it was not without an occasional feeling
OF surprise that ne came to acknowledge u
more decided feeling of genuine preference
for her than he hal thought again possible
to him. How those young ladies he had
kaown in Boston would have smiled had
they seen him carrying ner hymn-book as
they walked on Sunday morning to the lit
tie wooden church, apparently well pleased
to accompany girl absolutely without
"views y or " kuIture ~ She could cook
and sew, and these occupations did not
seem TO impair her very decided beauty.
She seemed to express life and high spirits
and intense womanliness, as IL it were
good thing to have limbs, to be able to run,
to walk, To laugh and be alive.
To Maria Baumgarten, the Eastern man,
with his thin, delicate features and qniet
manners, seemed new revelation. The
rudGier sous of her native mountains lost
their charm, and gradually she came to
have nothing more to do with them. Ru-
NOR said that one of her loyers,a fine young
fellow named Hamburger, employed in
the High Bush pit, took it greatly to
heart.
Weeks passed and matters progressed,
and one March morning they came to sud-
den climax.
Itwas Saturday morning about IL O'Clock
when Breewood looked up from the High
Bush company's ledgers and gazed around
the bare, whitewashed room that constitu-
ted the company's Office. The sanded floor,
the ugly stove, the coal-dust covering every
thing, the grimy windows, seemed to ia II
upon him as blight, numbing weight Of
unloyelness. Through the window he could
look out upon the mountain-side, torn an d
half deDuded of trees; the enormous coal
breaker, black and hideous in the sunshine;
the vast heaps of coaldust, the tangled
skein of rude railway tracks, and, above
all. the pits mouth, dark spot on The
white, snow-clad mountain.
Suddenly, he heard the steam-whistle at
the engine. house blowing furiously. The
engineer must have mistaken the hour 1t
was not yet noon. While thinking of this,
he saw a man running down the tracks to-
ward the town, and, at the same time. mo-
ticed puffs of steam from the engine, as II
the hands were atwork dragging up load
on the trolley, car that ran up and down
the pit. Something unusual had evidently
happened.
Breewood closed the books hurriedly and
went to the door. The man came toward
him, shouting and waving his arms IN q
frantic manner. As he ran past the door,
be cried out
.SWeetbriar has bust inter Hi gh Bush.
The mines foodin'r'
Hastily locking his Office, Breewood ran
like deer over the snow-covered tracks
toward the pit. In moment he saw an |
engine drawing out Of the breaker with a |
train of loaded cars, and he gave the signal |
to stop. By the time he met the engine 1t |
had stopped, and the engineer leaned ont |
the window to see what was wanted.
"Take off your cars and run down to the |
station and telegraph to Pottsville for the |
superintendent. Say Sweetbrisr has burst
In, and order Up two steam pumps and 8
thousand feet Of ftwo-incb pipe and as much
four-iach with couplings. Then bring your
engine to the pit as soon as possible"
That the clerk ehould give orders insthis
manner puzzled the engineer, but he ac-
cepted the commission and quickly cast off
bis train and went flying down the crazy
track At full speed.
BY the time Breewood reached the break
er, its dizzy stairways we're swarming with
men and boys pushing and struggling to
get up to the top fioor. whore they might
take the high level bridge to ths pits
mouth. He had TO take the longer path up
the mountain, and by the time he reached
the pit there was frantic crowd Of men
swarminU iufo fha engine room aud about