The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1881-06-22
Steam.POWer by HORSEPOWER.

't>'s -
A few days ago as we passed q door in
Gold street, away down in the dense
wholesale quarter, M~aryantha said a:
BILLY is q turning that crank"
"Who's Billy ?" said I. Chilly is Pat
rick's pardner," says Maryantha. "Let's
go up and see him!" We went under
a turning wheel and belt in a dirty
alleyway, and up by several more
wheels and belts and bits of shafting,
winding up irregular stairs till my knees
began to ache, and L said: "Is it o
shot.tower?" "Take it SLOW" says
Maryantha, never altering her gait; 81
come up here every month" AS We
proceeded upward a noise as of a grist
mill grinding increased in power, and
also the sound Of the cracking of q
whip. The roofs of the surrounding
blocks fell far beneath us, the piano.
rama of both rivers extended to the
neighborinS green Of Battery park, and
the white light of heaven at afternoon
filled every window and aperture.
"Here's Billy" exclaimed Maryantha,
pushing open a door. We entered a
little shanty built like a cupola on the
dizzy summit of q decrepit and anti
uuated tenement roof, and there all
alone fully 200 feet from the ground,
was a gray, lean, starveling horse, haul
ing q lever OF bar behind him in a cir
Gle. He stopped bolt still when he saw
Maryantha, and this brought from some
other spot of shelter, a little down the
stairway, an aged Irishman with a whip
lash we'll worm. which he cracked
smartly and shouted: "Billy, git up,
ye lazy crature! Why, Molly, how is
the times wild We, darlint?" Maryantha
took m apple from her pocket and gave
it to the horse, which I judged to oe
about Of her own age, bordering on
forty. From the same pocket she pro-
duced a pair of old cotton black gloves,
newly darned, and said: "Patrick,
they're done for you"
"Now, in the name of sense" said l,
"what is this horse doing at this height
above the ground? "He's furnishin'
stame power, sure enough" cried
Patrick, hitting Billy ovcr the raw with
his whip-lash. "Steam power, do you
say?" "Yis, indade. He turns the
machinery in fifty shops below, for the
cutler, the lathe-maker, the carpenter,
the butter-churner, the box-maker and
the cooper !" "And you sell this power
made by the horse, as you would sell
steam power from shafts and belting"
"That's it," exclaimed Patrick, "and
by the same iligant invintion I have
lived and brought up a family for twinty
years. In the city Of Bilfast it was my
trade. Between Frankfort street and
Wall street, east of Broadway, there be
above twinty horses furnishing power
like Billy there! G'lang, Billy, and
let industry continue"
Glow do you get the steed up her G
Pat" "On the lift, Johnny. Wchist
him up once, and here he stays for life.
When he is foolish enough to die, be
jabcrs we lower him down upon the
same lift and preseA him to tho mayor
and corporation" 49,,
"Then he never feels the solid
ground under his feet at any time for
years." "Niver; but he heS e gg22od.
house under him, and O stable Deyant
there, upon the same iligant roof. A
blacksmith shoes him when necessary
or c%onvanient. He takes all the ma
tional holidays ating oats, and livery
Sunday the swate church bells remind
him that it's a day of rest, and he's av
the highest blooa in New York. Billy
is the twelfth horse, my friend, that has
divided me solitude, and me altitude,
too, at No. - Gold street.
I turned to ~N1aryantha and said {:
Glow did you ever come to climb to
the top of this house, my belle soeur 2"
"Paid for it," exclaimed Maryantha,
automatically. ga gentleman with an
electric light wanted to get what he
called the census, or senses, of this dis
trict, to know how many little shops
and people used power. He supposed
it was steam power; but I followed the
belts and shafts up and discovered
Billy, and Patrick, and lots of other
horses."-Johnny Bouquet, in Nep FORK
Tribune.