Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-12-26
PART II.


until the loss was made I'D.
PART H.
SIXTY CENTS WORTH.
wonder how many passengers Oh the
Oakland ferry ever speculate seriously
on what they would do-in fact. on what
would happen they fall over
board on the trip.
Ii such gloomy calculations filled their
minds, and, impelled by them, the pas
senger strolled forward or aft on the
main deck to inspect the life boats, he
would not need to possess very in
innate knowledge OF nautical affairs to
be ominously impressed by what lie
woi!d see.
OF couTse, we all know that general
requires each steamboat, in addition
20 other hfe-saving facilities, to provide
q lumber Of life boats in proportion to
the steamers capacity. These are, il
the language Of the specifications re-
lating thereto, "to be sIung on the NJ ,, D..
deck, kept in constant working order,
ready for instant use, and the deck
hands familiarized with the working of
the same by weekly drills"
The inquiring passengers referred &c
ferry lines referred to the regulations
are practically ignored. The boats, he
would perceive, are slung on davits.
stout by rust; the lowering tackle solid
fled into iron like rigidity by the use of
paint; the life boats themselves covered
by an deliberately fastened canvas hood,
and the oars fastened in q sort of rack,
and the whole apparatus tied, strapped
and lncumbered in manner perplexing
to the most ready fingered sailor, much
less to the chuckle-headed, SLOW. moving
deckhand of the period.
A very impartial little calculation
would then show the astonished passen-
ger in question that should he fall over
board, or jump over and then repent
him Of the act, as most suicides do. it
would be at least fifteen minutes, IN all
probability, before he could be reached.
Adding this cheerful result to the fact.
statistically proved, that not more than
four persons out of thousand, in
Guiding swimmers, can keep afloat for
ten minutes IN smooth water with their
clothes OF, the passengers would doubt
less conclude by keeping as far away
from the side railing as possible. and
even read the next published account Of
ga Determined Suicide ION the ferry
line with as much skepticism as interest.
And yet our steamboat inspectors do
not look as If few hundred indirect
murders weighed very heavily on their.
possible minds, somehow.
It was Dacamber AGAIN and laciinr
few days, a year had slipped by since
the lion had reversed the fable by gnaw-
ing the net for the mouse to escape.
That morning the merchant, who, Tor
some inscrutable reason, resided in that
corporate cemetery known as Oakland,
had fred the imagination of his little
daughter by reading at the breakfast
table the inspiring news that two baby
tigers had just been born at Woodward's
gardens As necessary sequence he
had finally yielded to the mandate of
the domestic despot that she should be
| conveyed forthwith to that realm of
juvenile delight. So papa. mamma and
the golden-haired midget in the family
lead took an early boat for the city-the
grown folks gravely pretending, for
some ridiculous reason peculiar to grown
folks everywhere, that they did not
themselves care to look at the animals.
but that it wouldn't do to trust the
nurse, altogether, in such a place.
As the ferry-boat neared the wharf on
the city side, the mother was in the
cabin engaged in the discussion OF
nursery mysteries with some neighbor-
ing matron, while the merchant, who
had descended to the lower deck with
the child. was head over ears in a pol;t-
ical disQuisition regarding the new Ca|,-
! met. Little Lille, at length getting
tired of hanging to the unresponsive big
forefinger of her fathers hand, trottel
| off unnoticed to the side of the boat to
peer tiinidly from beneath the gangway
rail at the great, tell poles that were
sweeping close past rs the boat entered
the slip. They reminded her of SO man Y
soldiers on parade.
As the steamers bow crunched against
the piles with more than usually vis,-
lent preliminary jar, sudden inarticu-
lats shout of terror rose from the pass.
engers. The little bundle of chubby
prettiness had tottered and disappeared
over the side.
MY God !" shrieked the paralyzed
father, as the crowting of the boat
against the slip shut the drowning
child from sight and rendered help i'm
possible; 'sshe will be crushed under
the wheel" saE
Back! back p shouted the passer-
gers to the pilot, and. while the frantic
screams of the hysterical mother chilled
their hearts, aud dozen kindly hands
restrained the insane father from aim
lessly ieaping from the opposite side, the
engine bells jingled furiously. and the
huge mass halted and then began slowly
to move outward again.
Hoping against hope, the coolest of
the passengers crowded to the rail with
boat hooks, Until, after what seemed u
eternity of time to the white, watching
faces above, narrow streak of water
was revealed, Which grew wider and
wider.
"Well, Tn -" said one of the
deck-hands, who was peering under the
side, "if wharf-rat hasn't got it"
But the shudder caused by this