The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-11-23
TUESDAY MORNING, NOV. 20.

were furious, and swore that the sentinels
were not doing their duty, and were allowing
the yams to be stolen before their eyes, but in
spite of all their talking, the yams went like
hot cakes. 1t certainly was a mystery how
those yams got out of that room, and where
they .syy went to- to: .,,, - .,.o
days. the officer of the guard came to me and
SAID, 1 want you to stand guard IN that sweet
potato ROOM He had put in there all
night, and locked me in I was ordered to
shoot anybody caught stealing. The room
was long, narrow one, and had lighted
candle placed at each end. just as fast as
would get at one end of the room, the rats
would cut the candle down at the other, and
when | would hurry back to light that one, the
rats would cut out the one / had Just left
Those raIs kept me pretty busy can tell you.
| thought they were the most devilish things |
had ever come across. 1t was pretty lonesome
in there, and it seemed to me like pandemoni-
um in that room, those rats made such FUSS
but for the life of me [ couldn't see anys yams
disappearing, though | kept my eyes fixed on
the pile. | knew if any of those potatoes were
missing, the next morning | would catch fits.
IL was soon after the Streight tunnel had been
dug. and Major Turner had gotten to be devil
ish strict.
well, sir, about twelve O'clock that night 1
heard rumbling, creaking noise, and looked
around and cooked my gun, but couldn't see
anybody. / began TO feel rather nervous. The
l.
looked toward the pile of yams and saw rope
coming down from the ceiling. 1t had brick
tied to it and came down the potatoes with
slam. By George! that surprised me, but
when | saw this same brick drawn slowly up
again toward the ceiling with about peck of
potatoes sticking to it, tell you l just held
my breath. | crept up nearly under the rope
and waited for it to come down again. / didn' t
have to wait long.
"rhe brick came down with a whz, and
fhnr. had nha 20 hat Af-
brick it was. 1t was the most ingenious thing
ever saw. They had drilled about twenty
five holes in the brick. and through these
holes they put sharpened nails so
that whenever they let it fall on the
pile every half stuck in a potato and the brick
took up about peck. hole had been cut
two feet square through their floor above and
they would let the apparatus down through
that. Justa they were about to draw up,
heard a fellow above say, Look out, boys mind
how you pull: the ropes hung, and then they
began tugging steadily l put my whole
weight on the rope, and the same voice cried,
I'm afraic she's badly hung, boys; don't jerk
but pull steadily. Ii seemed to me there were
about twenty tagging at that rope and they
were fairly lifting me from the floor, when
thought of my pocketknife. l ierked it out
and with one stroke sawed the rope in two. 1t
parted with jerk so suddenly that the fellows
pulling at the other end were slung together in
heap one on the other; could hear them as
they fell in lump on the floor, and the way
they cnssed was caution. can tell you
Then L could hear them getting up and one
fellow called out, I told you so! You see
what you've done! You've broken the rope and
lost the brick now they will find us outg
Il saw head poked through the hole and
long necked fellow looked down to see where
the brick could be- raised my gun-for was
ordered to shoot anybody L caught stealing
but to save my life couldn't shoot, the joke
was so good, and then L hadn't got through
laughing at the way thew tumhled on the floor.
so just called out, IF you all up there touch
one of those potatoes again, III Shoot Yon
could have heard pin drop. The fellows
head went back with jerk like swapping
turtles and the portfolio was closed at once.
"Fhe next day the officers went up there to
examine the place, and they had great ditficu-
ty in finding the hole 1t was SO nicely suit and
the panks fitted do well together, that if we
had not known it was there we would never
have found it.