Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1883-08-30
A COMMONPLACE HERO.

A COMMONPLACE HERO.
Morning at Erie. A faint breeze i
blowing off the land, that makes only
the lightest ripples on the surface Of thu
lake and bay. A mile or two out from
the shore few sails are outlined agains
the horizon, and the course of a pro
peller so tar distant as not to be seer
may still be traced by 4 light line o.
smoke. The courthouse clock strike;
four long, lazy strokes, according to it,
deliberate habit. and little later the
keeper of the presqu' Isle lighthouse al
the entrance of the harbor puts out his
light. He may well do so, for t G flush
in the east has deepened into a flame
The slender shaft or the water-tower i.
crimson at its summit, and the city
spires one after another are tipped with
fire. Upward comes the sun and down.
ward sinks the glow The water tower
is crimson pillar now, the ungainly
elevators at the waters edge look al
most.beautiful in the fair light, the trees
on Presqu' Isle are bathed in it. and the
distant sails redden rs it touches them.
Sill II ward comes the sun till the hOri-
zon line can no longer conceal it, and
il seems rs if it must in moment more
come rolling in fiery splendor along tie
blazing path it has burned across the
water. A small boat from the life
saving station crosses e glowing track,
and red drops flash from the CLEAN NJ
oars. And now the whole broad lake
gliStenS as tne sun climbs higher. but
the red glow has gone, the glory has
faded, and another commonplace day
has begun.
A commonplace day to YOU or to me;
but never yet did there dawn n day that
was not ere its close consecrated by
some act of loyalty to the best emotions
of the human heart. You or | may
have watched the splendor of the dawn
ing day. from Garrison Hill, and gone
home thrilled with its grandeur, only
TO forget a few hours later the fine
feelings that have sprung up within us,
the vague aspirations Il at the sight has
evoked. For us, then, the splendor has
been exchanged for the commonplace.
Frank Gaskell has had no time this
morning for see ing the sunrise from
Garrison Hill, had he wished to do so,
which is quite unlikely. A sewer con-
tractor with a large force of laborers in
his employ is not usually a man to
whom sunrseS appeal in any eSthetic
way, or one who INDUCES in vague talk
about the commonplace. And, looking
at Frank Gaskell, you will say he is the
last man of whom anything vague
can be predicated. A tall, well-built
fellow of thirty, only passably good
looking, but with a firm mouth, and
eyes whose angry flash the workmen
under him do not care to encounter.
When he speaks it is in short. nervous
sentences that leave no doubt of his
meaning. Alert, keen and energetic,
he allows no idlerS about him, and you
would cal him merel Y Il pushing, COM
mon-place man, and seek to know no
more of him. AT present he is con-
Quoting the excavations in Poplar street
preparatory to constructing sewer for
that locality, and very busy this occu-
patton keeps him. Through the middle
of the street for several squares the cut
ing extends. its course marked by two
long lines of sand and gravel. A yawn-
ing chasm twenty or more feet deep II
is, its walls carefully boarded at inter
walls. Down there in the half darkness
some of GaSkell's men are laboriously
digging, while others are hosting
buckets of earth to the surface and add
ing thus to the height of the yellow
piles on each side of the cutting. 1t his
nine o'clock when Gaskell, after care
full directions to the laborers on the
surface. descends to the bottom of the
excavation to make his daily inspection
of the work there. As he passes slowly
along his quick glance takes in every
feature OF the work. Now he stops to
direct some clumsy workman to his
spade in less awkward way, and now
he pauses to tap the boarding at various
places to see if it can sustain the pres
sure of the looser earth behind it. Sud-
denly he turns about angrily.
Didn't 1 tell you last night to have
this place right here boarded on both
sides?" he says to one of the men near
est to him.
Il belive you did, stammers the
man. but there wan no good boards
here then. and Jim Mulligan said he
would bring some tie first thing this
morning. bat he hasn't come yet
Gaskell hardly hears the excuse. he
is so occupied with his examination of
the walls of the cutting
This ought to be boarded for fifty
feet each side he says. land it's got
to he done this morning. Send Ma
haffev here to me at once. He's up
above there by the Sixth street cross
ing" and the man thus hidden hastens
away.
The place where Gaskell is now
standing is about midway OF the
length OF the sewer cutting. and be-
tween him and the northern end some
thirty laborers are digging busily.
Toward the southern end the eXcava-
ton is shallower, and seve al ladders
near fiji. 81 tn means of asc mt or de-
scent. On of Il e e S alb ut sixty feet
south of Gaskel. While he is waiting
he SURVEYS the dist nee between it and
himself with his eye.
..J d.n,t Ike fne locks of things