Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1881-03-23

last. seeing it's Christmas the grimy-
faced custodian said to himself.
Did We never see an injin before p
he demanded, finally.
No, sir > and the vision was enough
for the country lad only he put into
his reply something of the awe due to
him who was allowed to tend upon it.
1T don't go as fast as | thought he
added, after a long drinking in of the
force displayed. There was no re-
Spouse. The lad drew nearer, as if
sucked into the vortex of the whirling
power,
Stand back, you fool = shouted the
engineer. Do you want to be killed.
The other looked up, but, when he
moved at ALL it was to yield to the
infatuation which seemed to charm
him toward destruction, and yet nearer
still
L could stop it, he said.
The engineer dropped a paper he
had been reading, laid down his pipe,
and eyed his visitor more closely.
I'lI bet you l could stop it!
The engineer rose from his greasy
stool, to be ready for an emergency.
1T is some crazy chap he was saying
to himself
I've got lots of money in my belt,
and I'll but you ten dollars | can hold
it, the lunatic remarked.
| Think so? And the other stood by
him ready to seize him, little afraid
of him too.
Who would have supposed he
would try it p the engineer often OBJ
served afterward. The ignorant lad
had placed himself in the rear of the
great wheel revolving steadily from
him. His companion was not quick
enough. An instant more and John
Detmold had planted his big brogans
firmly, had drawn in a deep breath,
had clasped his arms about the turn
ing tire, had been lifted, and dashed
head-forcmost through window, and
into q drift of snow thirty feet away.
Except that his face was cut up
with the glass, he wasn't hurt one Bit
was the way the engineer told the
story when | stopped her, and ran
out to pick up the pieces, do you know
what Jack Dctmold was doing? THAT
man was sitting up in the snow, and
fumbling to get at his belt. He had
got good ten dollars worth, he seid
afterward Anyhow, he paid his bet
| like a gentleman, if | hadn't taken him
up That was the way it began. You
see, Jim was off on a drunk-Jim had
been my freman-on a Christmas
drunk, Jim, was. Well, Detmold, he
talked me into it took him on orly
for day or two, but it went on from
that, He never left town after that
day One thing led to another. All
he csred for was machinery. lie
never gave up until-oh, it was years
and years afterward-he took my
place. l got tired, and went down
the river on boat instead Never
knew a man so fond of an injin as he
was. John loved it mere than he did
his wife when be married her, or
rather when she managed to marry
him. They were the queerest couple
you ever saw
But it was a mistake to suppose that
it was merely the machinery John Det-
mold loved so we'll Really he cared
no more for it than he had done for
the faucets through which the water
rushed into his greedy hands when he
came first to town. Nor was it the
steam any more than it had been the
water which so seized upon and per-
petually fed, if it did not satisfy, his
craving. Some boys are fond of good
eating and of nothing else. Others
are eager, as they grow older. after
whisky, fine horses, the dice box, land,
money. Many man finds his plea
sure in society, in dress, in reputation,
in woman, in art, in books This
man cared nothing for any of these,
By some twist in his nature, the one
thing he cared for vas-not machi-
merry. No, that is not it; his ruling
appetite was as natural to him as
yours is to you, as mire is to me it
was no more a morbid appetite than is
thirst or hunger, except that it was a
craving desire to know, to handle, to
control Force. For the mere machi-
nerv he cared as much, and as little,
as one does about the trap which
catches or tie cage which holds a bird;
or, / should rather say, the glass tank
which at once confines and exhibits
boa-constrictor, for it was the subtle,
snake-like mystery of Force which
gives to it its chief charm Not that
John Detmold had any definite name
for this secret omnipotence which lies
coiled inside the heart of the universe,
like to change the figure, the main
spring of watch, which drives every
wheel therein, great and small. Con-
cerning it he had no theory, no def
mite thought, even To him it was a
god, only it was god which he
wished to worship by handling. If
metaphor may be hcaped upon meta
phor, this country lad had as his rul-
ing instinct a certain feeling after mo-
tive power; only less blind this in
stinct of his than that of a root after
moisture. To-day the same instinct
in multitudes of moro ingenious ma
lures has shot up above the soil into
forest of scientific seeking after the
same thing. But John Detmold was
not to be without his successes also,
by the wholly unlooked-for reinforce
ment of effort within him, virtue Of
species of Force of which he had
never dreamed.
AS his predecessor at the engine re-
marked, John Detmold did not go back
to his country life. The orphan of for
cotton parents, there was no reason
that he should do so. Henceforth his
days were devoted to the Power House
The great fy-wheel exerted upon him
a centripetal as well as centrifugal
force. and drew him back to itself with