Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1890-05-28

OF my Invention comes in. Without Il.
to jump of of here would surely result
in q broken neck, but with it there Is
not the least danger-so here goes!" and
suddenly squirting himself on to the
deed, he shut his eyes, gave big flap
with his wings and jumped with all his
might straight out into space, while
Mrs. Fogg gave a scream and fell to the
ground in faint, her last thought be-
ing that she was widow and would
have to wear black for six long months.
Fogg had fattered himself that all he
would have to do would be to flap his
wings and sail through the ethereal
blue, but he soon found that he had bit
off more than he could chew. He
tapped his wings just once-before he
sprung over the bluff. After that he
couldn't make the 'tarna1 things flap to
save him. The wind, as he shot down
through space, quickly turned the flap
pers up edgewise, and, try as he would,
Fogg could not get them down again.
He was as helpless as spitted frog, and
very much resembled one.
Down he went, for, it seemed to the
falling inventor, an eternity, or the
larger half of thirteen minutes, at least
He heartily repented of ever having in
vented, but repentance had come too
late to do him any good. A vine, grow
Ing upon an outjutting portion of the
bluff, caught Fogg's feet, and turning
him complete somersault, landed him
in the bushy top of a big elm tree grow
ing at the foot of the bluff, and inventor,
flying-machine and all went crashing
through the branches Of the tree like
baby hurricane, the bewildered Fogg
alighting finally on his intellectual
cocoanut in the mud, going in up to his
shirt collar and whopping over onto his
back, where no lay still, dazed, sense
less for the time being, while leaves,
twigs and small branches of the tree,
severed by the great inventor and his
wonderful hying-machine in their some
what hurried descent, showered down
upon him and almost buried him from
view.
Here he was found presently by his
wife, who had recovered from her faint
ing fit and FASTENED down to the foot of
tho bluff by roundabout route, and she
managed to bring the unlucky inventor
to and get him to the house and to bed,
where he remained for week.
He was badly demoralized and di-
lapidated specimen of humanity. Every
muscle and tendon in his body was
strained, his nose was knocked out of
plumb, several fingers and a thumb
were broken, and, to crown all, his
backbone had "telescoped" when he
alighted upon his head, thus causing a
loss of about six inches in height-no
small matter to a man only five feet tall
to start with.
The fiying-machine had caught be-
tween two limbs of the tree as it came
down, and, the straps breaking, had be-
come disengaged from the inventor, and
| it remained there a source of wonder
| ment and terror to the birds of the for
est until Fogg was able to navigate
| again, when he came down, secured the
| great invention, took it to the house
and chopped it UP into kindling wood.
Fogg may at some future time be
again taken with the fever for invent
| ing, but If he is he will probably not
try to invent another flying-machine.
Should he do so, however, one would be
perfectly safe in betting big odds that
he will get some one else to give it the
first trials. A. d. Cox, in brakes
Magazine.