The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-09-19

| they might as we'll have hoped to stop a whirl-
wind. She showed them aside as easy as If
| they'd been small children, and she rushed
ahead till she come up to where about half
| dozen hook andladder men was working, some
| ten feet away from the outside door OF the
| House o. Horrors. Thanksgiving as cool as
| she knew how-them she spoke to.
| "My husband" says she. down on his back
| with infiammatory rheumatism, in bed, on the
sixth foor For Gods sake, someone, save
| him."
Them fremen, they looked at her, and they
seen that she wasn't fooling. But then they
pointed to the front of the house, and 'Impos-
| sible," says they, mo go inside there
| now. It's as full of flame a furnace. 1T your
| husband didn't get out with the rest of the PEG
| pie, he's goner. There's no use trying The
! sixth floor fell in half an hour ago."
| That's what they said; and they spoke reason.
| Every window of that burning house, as Hetty
seen clear enough, was spouting fire.. like fau-
Get spouts Croton-water. From the inside come
| all the time the thunder of falling timber, and
even where they stood, out in the street. the
heat was roasting. They spoke reason; but
where's the good of speaking reason to woman,
| especially when she's stirredup and as excited
| as Hetty was then?
| EDO you mean to say, she cried, "doyou mean
to say there amt one of you that's got the heart
| nor the manliness to save my poor, blind, help
| less husband2 Do you mean to say that you're
all of you afraidF' cried she. us that what you
mean to sayG Cowards" she cried, a-shaking her
fist at them. and her eyes a-f1ashng as If some OF
| the fire had got into herself.
They begun explaining over again; but she
didn't heed them. Slowly and careess-like, and
| yet slyly, so that they wouldn't suspect nothing,
she edged up toward the doorway-through
| which the fire shown, great mass of fame-she
| edged up toward the door, and then, then, OF
| sudden, she gave leap; and before them hre-
| men had time to realize what she done, she
| bounded forward, and she disappeared in the
burning house.
| | say she done this before them fremen had
time to realize it; and before they'd had time to
get over the start it give 'en, they was treated
| to another little surprise. Out or second
| story window of of the houses across the
| street, they seen jump, and land in heap upon
| the ground, man, with nothing on to speak OF.
| except white night-gown and some RED fan
| mel bandages wrapped around his legs. They
| seen him come down kerfiop upon the pavement;
| then they seen him pick himself up quick as
| If nothing had happened: and then-then they
| seen him give a run, and follow Hetty inside the
had chance to draw long breath, and make
1 up their mind what to do, they seen that same
| man come struggling back into the street lug
| cling Hetty in his arms. That man, he laid
| Hetty down on the ground and he turned
around toward the crowd and he yelled,
so that his voice sounded above the roaring OF
the fire and the putting of the engines, he yelled,
! "a doctor! Is there doctor among you, you
people there? And if there isn't let some one OF
| you run and fetch one as fast as he knows howl!
| He yelled that, and having done so, he sort OF
| reeled and staggered, and next moment he fell
fat in the street, right alongside CT Hetty; and
there they laid the pair of EN- for all the world
| as ii they were dead.
| Now, sir, reckon you amt had no very hard
work guessing who that man was, but under
| stand precisely the points that you can't see
through, and I'll proceed to clear them up. First,
how did Jake. who was bed-ridden, get outside
| the House O Horrors? Second how did Jake,
who was blind, Hetty rush into the fire9 And,
| third, how did Jake, VINO wasn't able to move
| muscle on account of the rheumatism, how did
| he manage to jump out OF q second-story Win
| dow, trot about on his legs ike prize runner,
and finally carry in his arms woman that
| weighed 100 poundsl
Well, sir, it was this way.
forgot to tell you, sir, that after Jake was
first took blind, the young fellow who examined
| his eyes at the Eye and Ear DispeIsary, this
| young fellow said that the trouble was due to
| what he called disarrangement of the atoms of
| the optic nerve-which Jake took to mean some
| thing like what pi means, when you're talking
about type The young fellow said that with entire
rest for some months-which, mind you, Jake
| wasn't rich enough to take-them atoms might
possibly work back into their right places in
which case Jake would again as good as
ever; but he said, too, that this possibility was
| mighty slim one-only what you might call
| ghost of q chance. 1.-THE real thing" says
| he, ''the thing which really would have
some show of bringing you around would
| be sudden and violent shock, of one kind or
|
! big what-nol, coming on you without no warn
| ing, like thunderclap, that might give your
| system such general shakingup, that them
| atoms would rearrange themselves in the way
| they ought to be in. and your optic nerve would
| begin acting again, as good as new" That's
| what the young fellow at the dispensary said,
when Jake and Hetty went around there the
| first time.
| Well, sir, on the night which I've been speak
| ing about, after Hetty had gone off to make her
deboo at the theayter. Jake, he laid abed a-think
| ing. about various sorts of thngs-wondering
| how she'd make out you understand, and SO
/ forth-he laid abed, as / say, like that, when
little by little. along toward 10 o'clock, Jake, he
begun to smell queer kind of smell, which at
| first he wasn't just what it was, and then
| gradually he begun to think it smelt uncommon
| ly like burning, and then before long he knew
| for certain that it was the smell of smoke.
"Oh" thinks he. lone of the neighbors has
| been putting wood the fire, and some Of the
smoke has got out into the room"
| That's what he thought first of, but he didn't
| think that long. To start with it wasn't likely
that anybody would go to feeding fire at 10
| o'clock at night and then, inside of five minutes
that there smell had grown so strong that an
| idiot might have known it didn't come from no
| ordinary stove.
"God!" thinks Jake, 'it may bet may be
| that the house is on fro!"
tell you, cir, that notion was hideous. 1t
| made his heart stop heating. and him grow sick
and begin to sweat from head to foot. At this
j hour of the night, for the House o. Horrors,
with its two hundred and odd families asleep in
bed, to catch fire!-Ill never forget the way Jake
| felt when that idea took shape in his mind. But
! next instant he had worse horror still. Next
| instant he remembered what in the fright of
the time being he'd forgotten somehow-he re-
| membered how he himself was tied down to his
bed by the rheumatism, and couldn't stir across
the floor to save his neck; and he seen, clear and
sharp as lightning flash, the prospect of being
burned alive adjoining up before him. It was
like an electric shock. The terror was 80 intense
that every nerve in his body give a SILVER, and
his muscles, they drew together and straight
ened themselves out with spasm. just like
| they do when man has fit.
Well sir. Jake, he laid still, kind of paralyzed,
| for about one second; and then ne began pound
ing for dear life with his fist upon the partition
next his bed-the partition which divided his
room from his nearest neighbors who was an
I-:-l A. A.