The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1890-11-27
FIGHTING ON A HIGH TOWER.
Two workmen Battling Desoc rateIy One
Hundred Feet-From he Ground.

Hundred Feet-From he Ground.
Two mon SIGHTING IN midakr This was
the terrible sceas enacted few days
since on . massive Een tower being
erected by the water works company
When completed this tower will be 40
feet high. The tower had reached the
height of 80 feet, and two gangs OF
riyeters We're at work with their heaters
and their holders-on. The latter work
on the inside of the tower, while the
men who hammer the rivets to head
work on the frail scaffold on the outside.
To the beholder who stands on the solid
earth this outside scaffold seems to be
as thin, as frail, and as delicate as
spiders web. There it winds around
the tall, black iron tower, frail below
and dwindling away in the upward dis
tance into nothingness. Ninety feet
from the ground and on this frail scaffold
the other morning two riveters were
working, and from some unaccountaole
cause became involved in an alteration.
Bessemer steel is hard, but it is not
harder than the hearts of inSuriated
men. Iron rivets, awaiting the touch of
the hammer, are hot, but they are not
hotter than the inhamed pa sions of the
sons OF Adam. The riveters in question
came with the water-workS company
from Syracuse, n. Y. One was Mique,
the other Dennice. Each man swung a
seven-pound hammer Mique made a
mislick and struck Dennice on the hand.
Maddened with the sudden pain, Dem
nice became at once demon and swung
his hammer full and fair at the head OF
Mique. Had the iron head Of the ham,
mer crushed in those locks a mangled
and lifeless and half-headless corpse
would bnva tpnp1a1 IANt-r, a +ba cp1il
earth ninety feet below. Mique, how
ever threw up his hammer in a defen-
sive way and parried the blow. Again
the hammer of Dennice swung and again
it was parried, but as its head carromed
on the steel head OF Mique's defensive
hammer it shot off on a tangent like u
glancing arrow that strikes a tree, and
knocked away one of the supports of the
scaffold. There was a sickening, crack
ing sound as the frail upright was
knocked away from the braces and
down went the ends Of two planks COM
prising one section of the Scaffold.
Mique, who had been retreating from
before the fierce advances of Dennice,
was on a firm footing, but Dennice was
compelled TO make a giant spring to
save himself. In the terror of the mo-
ment he leaped almost to the very
knocked hiM down backward falling on
top of him. The force of the concusson
was such that both men rolled to the
edge of the Scaffold, and over went Den
nice.
Instinctively and in the desperation of
the moment LIE caught one heel in the
upright Immediately behind him and
threw his left arm around the neck of
Mique. There he hung on the edge of the
scaffold suspended by only one heel and
wrist, while below him-nearly hun
dred feet below--was row of iron pipes
and plates OF steel. To fall was to be
70 faIff ff9 On hpttfRssf ttRs pipes was to break arms
ana ana apfuffRRssdP fdfi fRs dPaaGk T9 fall On the curved
be cut into huge and ghastly slices.
The mans hand tEembled and his
hammer dropped from his nerveless
grasp. 1t went swiftly downward, hit
projection in the scaffold, bounded off,
and, striking a affteen-inch pipe, brokeit
in two as cieverly and as keen1y as if it
had been split with a knife. The hand
swung over and grasped Mique around
the loins with an awful tenacity, and
there the men struggled on the awful
verge Of the scaffold. Dennice had
almost managed to swing his weight on
the Scaffold when Mique's hickory shirt
ripped, and back the man went into
space, this time losing the purchase Of
his heel and swinging clear over so that
he held himself only by one arm and
hung suspended upright in the air.
Mique managed to thrust the toes, of his
left foot between the two narrow planks
that constituted the scaffold, and thus
acquired leverage. Throwing over the
other shoulder, by a strong and almost
,I.1x,r, ont "a hn
suspended body of Dennice back to the
platform and dashed his face against the
tower. Thele they lay, motionless and
still, and when their companions reached
them they found that both had tainted
dead away. The awful duel had lasted
less than forty seconds, but there is
none on record that can compete with
it.
Ten minutes later Dennice and Mique
were hammerfng away as merrily as
before.-Peoria (Ill.) Herald