Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-10-26
Nursing the Lights.

All down Delaware avenue, on Friday
night, n half league of glowing cleo
trio light bowls at the top of half a
league of thirty-five feet poles, sput-
tered. turned from white to crimson
and then suffered again and turned
from crimson to white. At the same
moment an inquisitive stranger at the
corner of. Vine street heard man on
top of the pole in that neighborhood
swear and snap his fingers The
stranger proceeded to tree the man
ION the pole. Pretty soon he came down.
He was small and wiry and carried a
carpet-bag full of gilded crayons. oh -
''Do the lights sink because you swear
and snap your fingers, or do you swear
and snap your fingers because the lights
sink9" said the stranger.
Il snap my fingers because they are
stung." replied the small man. ave
poor devils of inspectors often have our
fingers badly burned" .....-
'.Why is that?n D.. !, u. t.tr.-.
because if we take hold of the line
wrong in fixing the lamp we get our
fingers stung. Letting 90 quickly, we
frequently open the circuit. Then the
t0AnPS On sum, Oub UClOlC OnCl Cdu ~
out we have it closed again. 1t don't
happen often. though, nowadays, but
it's the commonest cause of that sput-
tering in a line of lamps" -5,,-i + =. +.
''Don't you sometimes get a worse
dose than finger-burning?" .i
mot often. / got queer shock
once, though. 1 had a line cut and the
circuit was open. had one end of the
cut line i'm my hand. The ladder on
which L was standing shook little, and
threw out one hand and caught hold
OF an iron awning post. Just as soon
as touched il the current was estab-
lished again. and l got a shock that
made me see stars" re'
at is wonder that YOU were not
killed, like the man in New York. - sR'
The man IN New York cot killed
because he was in hurry to get through
with his work. He had eight ore ten
wires to manage. In cutting a loon he
didn't finish with the first of them. and
so got all the power of a sixty-iioht ma
chine into the last of the wires. After
he cut this last he took both ends in his
hands to join them. The current, OF
course. passed through his body - !.
How often do you climb those poles
in night?" said the stranger. as the
inspector halted at the base of another
pole. s.i' O. 11n 0l'- :
As many times as l can in ten
hours. and my mates are expected 10
do it once an hour" and, putting one
foot on the first peg. he began his as
cent. With his back against the mole.
the stranger yawned like the dark puif
| Of the Delaware behind him.
1t seemed that his chatty COMPANION
bad fallen in love with some starry
divinity, so long did he stay in the
skies Clump-a-clump, clump-a-clump
came the Inspectors boots down the
pole at last Found a soft carbon
up there" he said, as he struck the
earth Il had to take II ont and put In
another, it didn't burn straight. y :
ooh, that's what you carry those
gilt-edged slate-pencils for?n was
asked -7--r r.
!, yes. they're extra carbons. Don't
have much use for them nowadays
though. They make 'em better than
they used to do"
do You do this every night7''
"No," was the reply. EVERY other
week I'm trimmer and work by
I What do you do theng,'
Il have 70 put tour new carbons In
each Of twenty-ssyep lamps, first taking