The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1885-09-26

side in the act of throwing the harness
over the horses back, when we heard a
rumbling noise something like that made
by heavy slide of snow from the roof,
and the next instant their came crash
against the side of the barn, and we
were almost buried in shower of splin-
ters and broken boards. Following the
crash black streak shot through the |
stall behind us and out at the open door |
| about foot above our heads. Iran out |
of the door and saw that the streak was
string of iron and it kept coming until |
it was at least one thousand feet in
length. 1t sailed across my friends
garden, just grazed the corner of his
house, and made kindling wood of an
clubhouse that stood in its path. The
iron string kept right on its course
like q streak of lightning, and was
headed straight for the kitchen of the
James House. Whatever made that fly
ing iron swerve in its course / don't
know, but it curved around sufficiently
to bring it in contact with high stone
fence not four feet from the kitchen
door. When it struck the wall the iron
string flew into half dozen pieces, and
they went flying about in all directions,
some of them shooting on for hundred
feet before they fell to the ground. A
number of girls were at work in the ho-
tel kitchen, and if the line of iron had
kept straight on there would no doubt
house. A portion of the broken line of
IRON was hurled high in the air aud
struck the chimney on the hotel, scat
tering bricks in all directions. From the
hotel roof the iron leaped higher yet,
and landed on the roof of three-story
building fifty feet away 1t tore along
the roof, ripping off shingles by the
score, and fetching up at last against a
chimney, which it, Knocked into smith
Greens. Then its force was spent, and
it stopped and remained on the roof.
THE flight of this great iron bolt
was over before my friend had extracted
himself from the debris it left behind 1t
in the barn. He wasn't hurt much, but
his horse was, and had to be shot. The
IRON string, we soon found out, was a
section of the Oil City gravity railroad
The purchaser of the road had begun
taking up the rails that morning. The
steepness of the hillside, and the fact
that it was covered with ice, had made
, it impossible for the workmen to take up
the rails by working on the slope, and
so they adopted the plan of removing
one line of rails in body down the hill,
taking them apart as the line moved to
the bottom. Five or six of the bottom
rails had been taken up, a rope fastened
TO the lower rail of the line, which was
then one hundred feet from the bottom
of the hill, and horses hitched to the
rope to pull the string of rails down.
The ties were covered with ice, and the
. whole slope was like glass. The horses
j. had started the string from its position,
when it Immediately began to slide
down on the ice by its own gravity. Its
velocity increased with every inch, and
by the time it reached the bottom, it was
going like creased lightning. When il
struck the level at the bottom Of the hill
the connections of the rails were broker
in many places, and rails flew about in
8 the air, some of them flying over three
hundred feet away. A section one hun
bred feet long held its grip, however
j. and kept right on. My friends barr
was right in its way, and it wen
through that as if it had been a paper
SHE'LL and that was what spoiled oul
sleigh ride that day, and came neal
making necessary for me to be sent bacl
: home by express.
4 THAT incident upset me. hadn'
nerve enough to ask man to give IN,
g an order for groceries in that place, ant
k SO went on to Pittsburgh to recover
e There met Charley Graves. Charlie,
V is hlghwayman for Philadelphia sho
house, and has great head for machin
:. cry, and he induced me to 90 rount
= with him to see some ingenious contri
III vances that he said they had at the Bye
II lap-weld mill. The mill occupies two o
y three buildings. We were in one O
It them, and man was explaining tn
! working of the machine to us. re
member a boy that stood near, starin
} at us with his mouth wide open, an
IL holding an immense pair of tongs in hi
hand. Not far away there were tw
y other workmen, both more intent on u
h than they were on their work. Sudden
lie ly all the machinery stopped. Their
it came a sound as of approaching thur
to der. Then something whizzed by m
Of ear SO close that the wind it mad
e knocked my hat off. The man who wa
he talking to us dropped to the floor an
ly laid there, and the two men dropped i
L. quick succession, leaving only us and tn
lie gaping boy standing there. The boy
i mouth opened wider than ever, and hi
is eyes actually hung out on his cheek q
he he gazed after the tongs which had bee
a hurled from his hands clear across tn
e. room. The room was full of fiving bit
s. of iron, bricks and dust. With the e.
so fects of the runaway railroad still upo
of me, dashed out bareheaded into th
be street. There found things also yer
s, much disturbed. There was hole hi
in | enouph to RIM q ferrvhOat tbro,o.l,