Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1891-06-12
FIGHTING ON A HIGH TOWER.
From the Peoria Herald.

was the terrible scene enacted few days
since on a massive iron tower being erect
ed by the water works company. When
completed this tower will be l20 feet
high. The tower had reached the height
of 90 feet, and two gangs of riveters were
at work with their heaters and their
holders-on. The latter work on the in
hammer the rivets to a head work on the
frail scaffold on the outside. To the be-
holder who stands on the solid earth
this outside scaffold seems to be as thin,
as frai, and as delicate as a spiders web.
There it winds about the tall, black iron
tower, frail below and dwindling away
in the upward distance into nothingness.
Ninety feet from the ground and on this
frail scaf1od the other morning two riv-
eters were working and from some unac-
countable cause became involved in an
alteration.
Bessemer steel is hard, but it is not
harder than the hearts of Infatuated men.
Iron rivets, awaiting the touch of the
hammer. are hot. but not hotter than the
inflamed passions of the sons of Adam.
The riveters in question came with the
water-works company from Syracuse,
n. Y. One was Mique, the other Den
nice. Each man swung a seven-pound
hammer. Mique made a misick and
struck Dennice on the hand, Madden
ed with the sudden pain, Dennice be-
came at once demon and swung his
hammer full and fair at the head of
mer crushed in those locks mangled
and lfeless and half-headless corpse
would have toppled down to the solid
earth, ninety feet below. Mique, how
ever, threw up his hammer in defen-
siye way and parted the blow. Again the
hammer of Dennce swung and again il
was parted. but as its head carromed on
the steel head of Mique's defensive ham.
mer it struck off on a tangent like a
CHANGING arrow that strikes a tree, and
knocked away one of the supports of the
scaf1old. 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 comprising
one section of the scaffold. Mique, who
had been retreating from before the fierce
advances of Dennice, was on firm foot
ing, but Dennice was compelled to make 6
giant spring to save himself In the terror
of the moment he leaped almost to the
very shoulders of the affrighted Mique ant
knocked him down backward, falling OF
top of him. The force of the conclusion
was such that both men rolled to thu
edge of the scafiold, and over went Den
nice.
Instinctively and in the desperation o
the moment he caught one heel in tn,
upright Immediately behind him an,
threw his left arm around the neck o
Mique. There he hung on the edge o
the scailold. suspended by one heel ant
wrist, while below him-nearly hun
dred feet below-was a row of iron pipe
and plates of steel. TO fall was to be
dashed to pieces.
To fall on the pipes was to break arm
and legs and back. TO fall on the curry
ed and upturned edges of the plates wa
to be cut into huge and CHASTITY slices.
The mans hand trembled and his ham
mer dropped from his nerveless grasp. |
went swiftly downward hitting pro
lection in the scaflold, bounding off, and
striking l5-inch pipe, broke it in tw'
as cleverly and as keenly as if 1t had beel
split with knife. The hand swung
over and grasped Mique around the loin
with an awful tenacity, and there tn
) men struggled on the awful verge of tn
scatlold. Dennice had almost manage
to swing his weight on the scaffold, whe
Mique's hickory shirt ripped, losing th
balance of his heel and swinging clea
over so that he held himself only by on
arm and hung suspended upright in tn
: air. Mque managed to thrust the toe
of his left foot between the two plank
of the scatfold, and thus acquired a lev
erage. Throwing over the other shoul
} der, by stroug and almost miraculou
movement he swung the suspended bod
of Dennice back TO the platform and dash
ed his face against the tower. Their
} they lay, motionless and still, an
when their companions reached then
f they found that both had tainted dea
. away. The awful duel had lasted les
than forty seconds, but there is none o
record can compete with it.
Ten minutes later Dennice and Miqu
were hammering away as merrily as be
fore.
AMMONIA AND SUICIDES.
OF the number of those seeking suicid