The Press., 1888-07-26
WILYUM NYCE'S EARTHQUAKE.

pronounce William "Wilyum ;" but think there must have been an exception in the case of Wilyum Nyce, for neve heard him called anything but Wilyum That is the way his mother pronounced i when she went to the door of the shabby old farmhouse on Shale Ridge and mourn fully intoned; something as strawberry vendors sing in the city streets, "Wllyum wilyumwilyum- WiI-t I-t-yuna Wilyum cometo-dinner- WSLyum ]"
 As often as not, Wilyum did not come to dinner, being far away, with his minc bent on higher things than mere food anc drink. When this happened, Wilyum go no dinner at all. Fortunately this did ne distress him much. He made up for it al supper. And it did not distress the rest o the family at all. They were all too dis nal and depressed. the people at Shale Ridge Farm, to pay much heed to the alb sence of any one member from their gloomy monday meal. There were Wilyum'f father, his mother, his two elder sisters and his aged grandfather; and it was { very poor and scanty living that they go out of Shale Ridge Farm. For the farm lay in what poor Farmer Nyce justly called where else." In the distance you could see on one horizon the furthest outpost derricks of the old oil region, deserted now, and it's wealth tradition. And or the opposite horizon you could just dis cern the foot hills of the rich and fertik mountain country But about Shale Ridge was nothing but the loose, slaty stone which gave the place it's name, broad stretches of sand, and patches of low scrubby woods. Mir. Nyce had the poorest farm in all the region. He could hardly make living out of it and pay his taxes. He raised little buckwheat, little corn and few vegetables. He had two thin and weak cows, some thin and muscular chickens, and herd of backed swine The swine were the only things on the place that fourished. They took care oi themselves. Nobody knew what they ate. Perhaps they liked shale.
 But although the rest of the community agreed that Wilyum was not worth ''shucks," the boys worshiped him. He was born leader, and they looked up tc him.
 It was on a day in May some twenty years ago-for, you see, it is an old story that am telling you-that Wilyum Nyce conceived the plan whose performance led him to sever his connection with Shale Ridge. Wilyum had been inactive fol SOAA0 C4u0, aAU uo 1c1U I1aL u0 uuSb OS something to assert his supremacy as 8 leader. He summoned the twelve boys who delighted to hail him as chief, led them to his latest discovery in the way oi 8 robbers cave, supplied them with birch twigs to chew, and made speech. Will yum was oratOrical when he felt import ant.
 "Fellows," he said, ''we have never eel ebrated Fourtherjuly right. Gettin' up in the mornin' and bnildin' bontires is no good nowadays. We want to do somepin new. Now I've got resolution to pro- pose. I resolution that we celebrate next Fourtherjuly by an earthquake"
 'fAn earthquake p cried the boys deris- ively.
 'ttYes, an earthquake" repeated Will yum, undismayed.
 "Where are you going to get your earth. quake?'' asked Johnny Otis.
 ''Goin' to make it," answered the un- daunted Wilyum.
 "G'way!" shrieked the boys, in chorus.
 But Wilyum would not go away. He proceeded with his discourse, and unfolded a plan so simple that even the least scien- tific of his hearers could see that it was practicable. He proposed to dig hole one hundred feet deep and as broad as a we'll, and at the bottom of this hole to place a barrelful of gun powder. The hole was then to be filled up with wet sand, through which a well-wrapped fuse would estab. fish connection with the pow der and this buried magazine was to be exploded at one minute past twelve on the morning of the Fourth of July. Wilyum reasoned that the explosion would be unable to lift the wet sand, and would expend It's force oil hot he said-and would communicate to the crust of the earth gentle but satisfying thrill, which would be felt, according to his calculations, in Philadelphia, probably in Constantinople, and even possibly in New York.
 The motion of Chairman Nyce was put, and was carried without a dissenting voice and then the congress excitedly re- solved itself into committee of ways and means. It was determined to form gangs of three and four to do the digging in leisure hours, and 1t was unanimously re- solved that every boy should give every cent he could get during the next two months to the purchase of powder, even to the point of giving up the circus, which was due in June. You see they were in earnest.
 The job of digging hole one hundred feet deep did not frighten them at all. If Wilyum had proposed to them to excavate thousand foot shaft they would have taken the contract with the utmost conf dence. But the getting gunpowder was a more difficult matter. It was not, how ever, impossible. Everybody in the re- zion was sportsman, after some fashion. As soon as boy was big enough to shoul- der his fathers old-fashioned muzzle- load ing shotgun, he tramped off into the woods squirrel-shooting. Every house had it's stock of ammunition; and, as some of the bolder spirits suggested, so good a cause might justify boy in drawing on the family magazine to any extent that would not excite comment. Then there was gunpowder, of a poor quality, to be bought cheaply at the crossroads store. And besides all these there was still more promising source of supply. Sports men from Philadelphia and southern Penn- sylvania often stopped at the Junction, three miles down the Ridge, on their way home from Pike County, and these good strangers generally had few ounces of powder left in their fasks, which they were willing to give to any one bold enough to ask for it.
 From the date of the meeting until the