The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1891-05-16

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back at me with that haunting look of hor-
ror, the hands still clutching the breast.
After the body had gone out of sight
tried to proceed with my work, but was
so much unstrung that fish swimming by,
or my air hose tapping against me, gave
me such painful starts that had to signal
to be hauled to the surface. 1t was long
time before l could venture down on
wreck again, and have never been able
to overcome the feeling of dread for unex-
pected corpses that was the result of that
first experience of mine. The dead man
of that wreck must have been a stowaway.
No one knew him, but in the breast pocket
of the coat he clutched so tightly was found
81 900 in bank notes. No claimant ever
appeared for the money, and it was divided
between myself and the crew of the wrecked
vessel.
The only time that ever undertook to
do piece of work on the lake bottom re-
luctantly, and was badly broken up by the
result of it, although l had anticipated and
thought | was prepared for a startling
sight, was the time | went down twenty
fathoms in Lake Erie to find the body Of
woman and her two children who had
gone down with a propeller. The propel-
Ter sank in heavy storm at night, found
ering suddenly, as craft usually do on Lake
Erie, and the woman and her children were
in their stateroom The husband and
father of the lost family offered me big
price to go down and recover the bodies,
but the touching appeals of the heart-brok-
en- man alone induced me to undertake the
work found the vessel in easy shape
for working, and reached the door of the
fatal stateroom without difficulty The
door was locked. The fact that must
break it down before the imprisoned dead
could be released increased the dread that
possessed me, and stood irresolute at the
awful threshold If the money was to
receive for the work had been my only
impelling motive, l would have hurried
from the wreck that moment; but l was
haunted by the memory of that stricken
soul above, awaiting in agonized suspense
the poor consolation of seeing his cold and
lifeless loved ones, and | put aside my
foolish fear and with few blows of my
crowbar battered down the stateroom door.
| had pictured in my mind how the three
corpses would in all probability look, float
ing with staring eyes about the room, and
| think if | had come upon them in that
way | would have accepted the contact
with complacency But the reality Of their
appearance was far different from the one
had imagined. The vessel gave hard
lurch as l broke the door loose, and the
water rushed out of the stateroom. With
the rush came the dead inmates Of the
room. The three were in a group, and
such group One child, golden-haired
little thing of years old, the mother
clasped to her breast with one arm. The
little ones cheek was pressed against its
mothers, and its chubby arms were around
her neck. The second child, older than
the first, held its mothers other hand.
They were all in their night clothes, and
the mother hoated from the room standing
upright, clasping her one child to her breast
and leading the other by the hand. Her
long yellow hair was loose, and trailed far
behind her in the water. Her eyes were
wide open, as l had pictured them, but |
had imagined no such depth of horror in
them as they expressed. Her face was
frightfully distorted, showing the intense
agony of her DEATH The faces of both
children were peaceful, and the eyes of the
one in its mothers arms were closed as il
in Sleep The sight was more than could
stand, and I retreated to another part OF
the wreck. 1t was long time before |
could summon courage enough to fasten a
line to the dead bodies and signal for them
to be raised l sent them to the surface
just as they had died, and as found them
and quit the wreck myself as soon as the
work was done No money could have
induced me to work another minute in that
charnel house, although it had been made
tenantless Of its dead.
In spite of the fact that no lake diver
ever goes below without feeling that the
chance is by no means remote that he has
looked for the last time on the sky and the
earth and all he loves, there is fascination
about the life that few men have ever been
able voluntarily to resist after becoming IA
miliar with it. This seems the more singular
because no diver, shut up in armor and held
in the depths by hundred pounds or more
of weights can ever Danish the feeling that
little stoppage of the air pump, a leak in
his hose, some slight carelessness on the
part of his tender in the boat above, is
sufficient to bring down upon him the
weight of mighty mountain and crush the
life out of him in the twinkling of an eye
There is always danger, too, of the diyel
fouling his lifeline himself by catching il
on some projecting splinter or around q
sharp-edged timber, and in his haste TO re-
lease it precipitate the catastrophe of which
he stands the most in dread. The fouling
of line frequently occurs, and never to
me but what turn cold, in my effort tc
release it at the thought of what slender
thing holds back the clutch of death down
in those moaning depths.
Lake divers get big pay for their work
but as there are good many in the busl
ness and jobs sometimes far between, they
do well if they average more than ordinary
wages year by year. have made 81 ,O0C
in month, but there have been many
months in succession when | have no
made dollar. Full of peril as the life O.
diver is it is safety itself in comparison
with the life of lake sailor. I'd rathe
work in a nitro-glycerine factory than sal
before the mast on the great lakes"