Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-10-22

tons. From the hotel roof the iron
leaped higher yet, and landed on the
roof of a three story building dfty
feet away. Ii tore along the Roof,
tipping off shingles by the score, and
fetching up at last against chimney
which it knocked into smlthereens.
Then its force was spent, and 1t stop
ped and remained on the roof.
'"The fight of this great iron bolt
was over before my friend had extri-
Gated himself from the debris it left
behind 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 section Of the Oil
CRY 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 impos~
sible for the workmeu to take up the
tails 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 100 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 had started the string from
it's position, when it Immediately be-
gan to slide down on tbs 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 it struck
the level at the bottom of the hill the
connections were broken in many
places and rails flew about IN the air,
some of them flying over three hum
dred feet away, A section 100 feet
long held it's grip, however, and kept
right on. Ny friends barn was right
In its way and it went through that as
if it had baen paper shell, and that
was what spoiled our sleigh ride that
day, and came near making it necces-
sary for me to be sent home by ex-
press.
''That incident upset me. I hadn't
nerve enough to ask a man to give me
an order for groveries In that place,
and so went on to Pittsburg to recov-
err. There | net Charley Graves.
Charley is highwayman for Phila-
delphia shoe house, and has a great
head for machinery, and he induced
me to go round with him to see some
ingenious contrivances that he said
they had at Dyer lap~weld mill. They
occupie two or three building. We
were In one Of them, and man was
explaining the working Of the machine
to US. I remember a boy stood near
staring at us with his mouth wide open
and holding an immense pair OF t0ngs
in his hand. Not far away there were
two other worEmen, both more intent
| on US than they were on their work.
| Suddenly all the machinery stopped.
Then came sound as of approaching
thunder. Then something whizzed
by my ear so close that the wind it
made knocked my hat off. The man
who was talking with us dropped to
the floor and laid there, and the two
other men dropped in quick success
sion, leaving only us and She gaping
| boy standing there. The boys mouth
opened wider than ever, and his eyes
actually hung out on his cheeks as he
gazed after the tongs which had been
| hurled from his hands clear across
| the room. The room was full Of fly
ing bits of iron, bricks, and dust.
| With the effects OF the runaway rail-
road still upon me, dashed out bare>
headed into the street. There I found
things very much disturbed. There
was hole big enough to run ferry
boat through In the other building,
occupied by the mill Fifty feet away
| lay two dead horses, and the remnants
| of 8 truck and load of coke were
strewn over the side walk. Just be-
yond the dead horses was piece Of
iron that looked as if it weighed ton.
| The entire roof of the engine house
was gone, and an earthquake couldn't
| have ratified things up more. To add
| to tie excitement two men, dripping
wet, came running in fron the Mons
ongahela river, and said that some
thing had fallen from the sky into the
river along side the boat they were
fishing from, and had swamped it,
compelling them to swim for their
| lives.
st didn't wait to hear what the
trouble was all about, but just dug
for my hotel and ordered my bill.
Before / go. awayCharley came in. He
had stayed al the mills to investigate.
He found out that the great belt that
communicated the power from the
engine to the pulleys IN every part of
the mill had broken Ia two. There
was big head Of steam on, and the
whole power was operating on the
twenty-foot fywheel, which, meeting
with no resistance from the running
machinery, rapidly increased its rev
o1utions until it went SO fast that it
was broken to pieces. These pieces,
weighing hundreds of pounds each,
were sent flying here and there
about the neighborhood. One went
straight up through the roof, and new
err stopped until it plunged into the
Monongahela River, an eighth OF
mile away, and swamped the two fish
erman. Another piece went through