Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1885-08-20
A STRANGE CLIENT.
He Describes His Adventure with a Rock
ct and Dumbfounds His Lawyer.

The Hon. Arthur ID. Williams wa,
sauntering down Broadway recently
when he was accosted by cripple il
clearly garb. II am told that you are
a lawyer, the cripple said. '.Mr
George Hopcraft, of Franklin street.
recommended you 10 me.
Mr.. Williams was unusually pleas.
ant, fancying he was securing a valu.
able client Yes, he replied. "Pn
at your service" He took the cripple
into his office. invited him to take 3
chair. crossed his own legs. assumed q
Chauncey Shaffer expression of eoun.
tenance, and in deep and forensic
tone of voice invited the man to Estate
his case"
The cripple hesitated. He cleared
out his throat, and began: "Mr. Hop
craft told me you had invented a mon
key-wrench, and that you were inter-
ested in inventions. | would like to
tell you bit of the unwritten history
of scientific devotion. There was once
a young machinist's apprentice who
worked hard by day to earn a living.
and at night pursued his studies. Aft
er five years of steady application he
was considered one of the best men in
the shop, and was in position to Law by
money to conduct those experiments
on which his heart was set His pas
sion was the invention of proiectiies
for use in time of war, but his mind
was especially bent on improving the
modern rocket. While ponderino
over the value of rockets as signals he
was suddenly seized with desire 10
know whether rockets could not be
made large enough to rise mile in the
ar, and-it was a wild thought-carry
the weight of man. lie was fasci-
mated by the idea. 1t was of little
practical value, but the more he thought
about it the more he became convinced
that it could be done. You will say
that If it were possible for man to
rise up with a rocket he would be
dashed to pieces when he came down
with the stick. This thought also oc-
Cured to the young inventor, but he
was ready to overcome that objection.
lie began by making an experiment by
which he demonstrated that common
ten-ounce rocket which would rise to a
height of 500 feet, when loaded with a
rod of iron weighing eight ounces.
would rise to 100 feet. Then he con-
structed cylinder of the best sheet
steel 20 feet long, pointed at the top.
and l foot in diameter. To fill this he
made compound which would exert
a pressure of 100 pounds to the square
inch on the air without, through the
whole 115 square inches of what | will
call the muzzle OF the rocket. In 9TH
er words, the rocket would have a lift
ing force OF q tons. The figures seem
startling, but they are accurate.
Il should say here that the construc-
ton of this cylinder caused much COM
ment in the shop where he worked, but
as there are always numbers of invent
ors in every shop he was not interrupt
Ell. When his cylinder was completed.
he placed 1t up against an unused wing
OF the shop. Instead OF the ordinary
rocket-stick, he prepared a slender
piece OF gas-pipe, at the end of which
was conical sheet iron basket, point
up, with a wire grating across the
bottom, through which man could
enter. Here was the place in which
the inventor intended to crouch while
the rocket shot up through the clouds
$50 far he had taken no one into his
but when he was ready TO
fill the cylinder with explosives. and
attach the stick with its basket, and
the apparatus which was to ease the
fall, he needed help. Two Trustworthy
comrades gave it. They helped him
secure parachute around the huge
cylinder which was intended to open
to spread of forty feet US he fcll.
They rammed home the explosive that
was to send the whole flying upward,
and when all was ready, hoisted the
whole up so that it leaned over the top
of the high factory just as common
rocket leans on il common guide. A
long fuse ran down and came up under
the basket SO that he inventor could
tire it himself The last touches of the
work were completed at night, and the
Two tired assistants went homo antici-
pating a wonderful exhibition in the
ut was just midnight as the inventor
saw his companions pass out through
the yard gate and heard their footsteps
lie away down the street. 1t was a
beautiful starlight night. aud right in
line with the huge rocke; Mars shown
with unwonted beauty. The supreme
of the inventors life had
come. He was to see the fruition of
his labors alone, with none to cheer
his success and none to taunt him if he
failed. He raised the wire screen
tho hogf,,,, 8 e.
ing place and climbed in, drew match
down the steel rib of his basket, and
fired the end of the fuse. 1t smoldered
for moment, and then the bright
scintillation broke out, and, sputtering,
from his view. His heart
leaped into his throat with suspense,
and then in a sea of flame and smoke
the earth sank out of sight. Gasping
for breath in the suffocating gas and
delirious with pain, he crouched on his
grating and prayed for death. An age
seemed to have passed, when sudden
Iy the roar ceased, the smoke was gone,
and the pure air OF heaven was cooling
his brow. He recovered instantly, and
for moment, as the rocket of its own
inertia scared aloft, he was able to
look around. The city was a dark
blotch scanned and checkered with the
lighted streets far below. The rivers
and the bay sparkled starlight. Then
he began to descend, gently for time
rs the parachute caught the air, but
later his basket began to sway.
He had forgotten to leave hole for
the escape of the compressed air in the
apex of the parachute. 1t was awful
His basket was like huge pendulum,
its motions with every foot
It descended. He was thrown from
side to side, and dazed by the rapid
motion. Then in the hurried descent,
rs he began to distinguish the tall tene-
mcnts of the East side, new peril
arose. He would be dashed sideways
-
The lawyer held up his hands. The
cripple hesitated, flushed slightly, and
Yes. sir, | am the man. The graf
ing gave way when the basket struck.
My arm was cut off as if by a knife,
and my leg was broken. 1t has never
been as good as before. Money went
for doctors bills. | can no longer
work at my trade. | am wholly dis
heartened, and only when looking at
the triumphs of other scientific men
do | feel relief from the constant mis-
cry Of my existence. If you could.
Thanks
Mr.. Williams had given the crippled
stranger quarter, taking his cigar
from his mouth meanwhile, and say
ing: Don't mention it. The Grip
pie inquired the way to the elevator
and disappointed Aeto York Sun.