Telegram-herald., 1891-12-21
HOW SWiPSEY COT EVEN.
Insulted by the + Firemen ue Takes Deer
Revenge Upon Them.

Insulted by the Firemen Ife Takes Deep
Revenge Upon Them.
"Things are pretty tame around the
engine houses as general thing" said
brawny fireman yesterday. .'but we
sometimes have something to liven us
up. AS q general thing we lay around
with nothing to do but TO keep the
horses in PRIME condition and all our
apparatus cleaned and polished. Its
the most uncertain life IN the world
worse than soldering / think. A fell
low never sits down to eat or DROPS
into q quiet snooze but what there is a
liability o. being called out. IT'S full
of rIsxs too. We jump onto the truck
and go tearing through the streets
liable to be thrown OF at every tn I'll
and IN the fires We run the
risk of being crushed or
smothered or being dumped into d
blazing ruin. A fellow walks mighty
light tell you when he goes over n
root that says and bends under every
step, knowing that there is q seething
hell of fame underneath him."
Eyes, we sometimes get a little fun
out OF life, but it's mostly at pedro or
tunk. There's mighty little sky-larking
going on. | remember one time a
solemn looking kid used to hang
around the house. We called hIm
'swipsey', but Eve forgotten his real
name. He was a queer cuss, lank AMI
lean, and awfulIy freckled. but that
hoy was foxy you bet. He used TO
black boots anu run errands enough to
pay his way and the rest of the
lime he sat around looking solemn or
cf h.4f la. rfrl- L.
lot OF funny snaps around the house
and one day made a surprise box to
fool the boys with. The foreman
and thing bobbed up that
nearly put MS eye out. rs soon as he
could see he went for Swpsey, kicked
him out of doors and told him to keep
ont. Swipsey stopped in the middle of
the road. and swore he'd fix the boss If
IT took hIm all summer"
I'VE didn't see anything of him for
about two weeks, and then he came
back and hung around one night just
as IL was getting dark. We dIda't sus-
pect he was up to any deviitry, for he
was always so ely IN his actions. Al 10
O'Clock We made everything snug and
turned in for The night. little after
midnight there came an alarm. The
hig gong was banging TO beat hi, and
the number WAS 81. We flew into our
tOEs and went down the pole ike a
streak OF lightning. "A each man
struck the ground he'd grab hold of
himself ard fall down on the floor.
rolling and groaniHg and swearing as
If he'd gone clean crazy.
The foreman vas the first one down
and he vss worse than all the rest.
The horses we're fast IN their stll ard
everybody felt that something was
wruug. We examined the pole "a soon
2 We could get around and found that
somebody bsd uut hslf dozen incn
screws about hsif way into the wood
and the ends Of them were covered
with blooi and little chunks Of flesh
and stripe Of psatsloon cloth. Every
body wss ripped and torn in fright
ful manner. We looked at the gong
and found how We had been trek ed
Ihat llt4le devil had flied the pole full
Of screws and then he had fastened q
hammer ard trp Of hss own conlrv-
snce hv the side OF the gong. 4 WIRE
was fastened % the hammer, uut when
wa goa "a iae other end OF lt S~lpseY Y
sas goue. lie bad struck a false
aiSrn to Eel us out ard then tipped
ffs WAS sd CT THE bird % ~rsse o.
at. + - train ~ Ksisrsaxoo next
iav sud ke've neYer iAld eyes on hlm
since
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