The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1881-12-08
THE LAST OF NINE.
A ThrillinE sketch.

"Did you know that Tom Bailey had
passed in his checksf"
Yes; heard 1t by telephone an hour
ago."
The speaker was John McWilliams.
his home in Bradford.
'Do you know the particulars.
John. P''
'.Parlicularsa Well, don't know as
there are any. Same old story, you
know. Didn't pack the nitro. .glycerine
in the wagon carefully. and when the
wagon went over log the load ex-
ploded, and-and-tIat was ALL"
There was no need of further expla-
nation. for I could reason it all out
clearly enough. and could almost fancy
saw the ghastly remains of the ill
starred Tom Bailey, who went out one
morning to superintend the shooting OF
a we'll. and never came back. Bailey
was an employe of the Roberts TOrpe-
do Company. and John McWilliams,
the man with whom Was in converse
ton. was his Division Superintendent
on the samo ''run." or district.
'.Family. JohnP"
'.No-that is, he hadn't wife, but
he had q widowed mothor and young
sister,"
What will they doP'
30. the company won't see them
starve, and. besides. guess poor old
Tom didn't die q beggar. Poor old
boyr' and the bearded man at my sido
sobbed like a heart-brOken child.
II never told you about Tom and the
rest of the boys. did I?' continued the
sorrowing man.
7 ''The rcstP'
Yes. there were nine, of us. you
know-but you don't know, for have
never told a living soul. This sudden
death of Toms quite unmans me, for /
am now the only one left-the last of
nine."
waited long while for John to gain
control of his feelings. for l knew he
had story to tell Of more than us,i-
al interest It was beautiful night,
full of soft moonlight. and drowsy with
the hum of humanity in the city be-
meath our feet. A delicate. almost inl-
perceptible mist hung about the city,
and from our hillside piazza we could
see far down the valley. where the Tun-
ungwant stream family glimmcred in
the moonlight, and where the hugo
iron tanks of oil loomed up gloomy
and black against the mellow bright
ness of the night Over at Prospect
Park. on Mount Raub, the light was
flashing and f1aring, while family to
our ears came the strains of Strauss
waltz. Away off on another hill the
sound of q laboring engine end the
thud of walking-beam told that the
ponderous drill ut well was being
lowered into the earth as fast rs men
working night and day could sink the
hole. Down below, the city flashed up
at us its countless lights and shadows.
and family hoated up the hum of busi-
ness and pleasure. 1t was strangely
beautiful night for story of oil. John
spoke at last. slowly, and with evident
hesitation. IS s4a
YES" he said, ''there were nine of
US, and I'm the last ono alive. It's
,queer thing. and it makes me feel very
strangely; perhaps more SO now that
poor Tom isis"
He couldn't bring himself to say the
word; he couldn't say that his friend
was dead. With great effort he con-
tinued:
You doubtless know that I was in
the army during the late war. l saw
some pretty tough fighting. too. and
after Shiloh was made captain, and
at the Same time Tom Bailey, who was
in the same company, was promoted to
lieutenancy Tor bravery. He de-
served it, too, for there never was .
better or . braver boy; n tribe reckless,
you might say, but brave and generous
to q fault. AT the close Of the war we
went home ngether. and with us went
what was left Of the company. There
WASH much, to be sure, for we had
done some terrible fighting, and many
of the boys had gone down through
tho valley of the shadow Like the
rest of the returned soldiers, we went
into the oil country, which was just
then turning the heads of the people.
and after knocking around awhile and
losing what money we had, we conclud-
ed to 20 into the business of shooting
wells. Tom and went into the bust
ness ourselves. and soon hired four of
the men who had been in our company,
and friend Of mino who had been
wealthy, but was broke to work for
US. Two fishermen came along, that
we had known before. and we engaged
them. That made nine of us. and we
used to live in ono room, and do all our
own cooking. for women were scarce
in the oil country At that time. Every
thing went along finely. and we made
money hand over list Old Colonel
Roberts hadn't got the monopoly of
the nitrO-glycerine business then. and
any man could engage in it who cared
10 run the risk.
s.Our crowd WAS extremely fortunate
at first. and we were beginning to feel
that nitro -glycerine wasn't such ter
rible thing rs some persons male out.
Well. we worked along about six
months without an accident. when one
day one of our men was killed while
taking glycerine from q wagon. This
gave us considerable of a shock, but
we laid the blame on tho mans care
lessness, and worked on as usual.
Within year three more of our mon
were blown 10 fragments at the same
time. through pure recklessness. None
you couldn'C attribute their death to
intoxication. The rest of US were
mighty careful after that. and only
stayed in the business because we could
make money faster than at any thing
else. We didn't have any moro acci-
dents while We were doing business
for ourselves, and we began to take
| courage.
..When the Roberts Company gained
monopolistic control of the torpedo
business. tho remaining five of our
crowd went to work. Every thing
went on swimmingly for some time,
but at last three of the crowd had some
trouble-real or rfancied-with the COM
pany, and the result was that the men
quit entirely and went to moonligbting
shooting wells at night in defiance Of
the law giving the Roberts Company
the monopoly. Moonlighting is Just