Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1892-07-28
THE BOTTOMLESS PIT.
A Tale Of an Old Mans Strange
Presentiment.

81 tell you. no good will come of
it," declared Uncle Hiram. ''You mark
my words, that railroad can't no
more go through the bottomless pit
than it could-wel, no more'n it could
the one the Scripture speaks about 1t
wasn't named for nothing, 1 can tell
You. Many and many's the time my
fathers lost cattle in that swamp, until
it was fenced in
The surveyor, who was a young man
with great deal of Importance and
confidence in his own knowledge,
shrugged his shoulders and continued
squirting through his instrument across
the piece of marshy ground which re-
joiced in the appellation of ''Bottomless
Pit We boys were considerably more
impressed by Uncle Hiram's words
than the surveyor. He was Uncle Hi
to every boy in the village and we had
always felt great respect for his opin-
ions; but the surveyors Indifference to
his oprophesy rather shook our conf
.dence in the good old man.
Perhaps the unwonted excitement of
the laying out of railroad through our
quiet village rather turned our heads,
for we began to furtively doubt in our
minds if Uncle Hi was really correct in
his opinion. The Bottomless Pit to us
had always been place of mystery. 1t
was well-znown fact that strange
creatures such as giant water snakes,
-eyeless fish and Shiny, scaly looking
lizards had been captured within it's
marshy confines, and more than a score
of cows and horses turned out to pas
ture had wandered into it and been lost
in the quagmire.
Uncle Hiram had lived within a
stones throw of the swamp all his life
In fact it had once been part of the
trace of land owned by the old gentle
mans father, and we had listened so
many times to Uncle His tales of
unfortunate travellers supposed to have
been lost in the BottomleSs Pit, and of
the strange creatures inhabiting it,
that we came to look upon it as almost
enchanted and peopled with all the
dragons that were supposed to have ex-
listed in the age of chivalry.
As soon as Uncle Hi heard that the
proposed railroad was to cross the
swamp he prophesied its failure. Even
if it could be temporarily filed in and to
all appearances made solid, he declared
that it would still be dangerous. He
was so greatly exercised over the mat
ter that he took a trip to the city
(something he had not done before in
ten years. for the purpose of warning
the officials experimenting the new en-
terprise. They listened to him respect
fully, but paid no attention to his adj
vice, considering it simply a childish
whim of the old gentleman's. In this
nineteenth century there are few diff
culties which human ingenuity and
mechanical genius cannot surmount.
Finally the tracks were all laid and
the branch line connecting the city
with town some miles to the north of
us was in running order Uncle Hiram's
prophecies were forgotten by almost
every body, we boys included, until one
day, at the dinner table, father said:
Poor Uncle Hiram is still harping
on the old idea of the insecurity of the
road bed over the Bottomless Pit
johnson, the station agent told me
that the old gentleman has been to see
the superintendent of the road and
begged him to establish flag station
sat the edge of the swamp and keep a
man there night and day to watch the
track Of course the superintendent
wouldn't do it, for there is a track
. walker for that section of the road as
well as any other. So what is Uncle
Hi about to do but9 build O cabin for
= himself near the swamp and watch
.over thu track himself. Poor old man.
he's fest breaking up, I'm afraid"
''But isn't that part of the track dan
gerous?" asked mother.
mo more dangerous than any other
portion" said father, decidedly, and so
the matter was dropped.
q week or so later. al Reynolds and
1, while returning from days fishing,
went around by Uncle Hiram's new
house 1t was coy little cabin, built
substantially and was quite as cheer
ful inside as the old farmhouse in
which he had lived so many years.
Perhaps I'm a foolish old mar" he
said, when we spoke of his reason for
living on the edge of the swamp. .sIt
won't be very good for my rheumatic.
mebbe, and the land is malarial: but I
can't sleep or eat in peace for thinking
of what would happen if the track
should sink some night One of them
fast trains might be wrecked andeverv-
body aboard killed.
We couldn't laugh at his fears-he
was too much in earnest He looked
ten years older than he had when we
had last seen him. and both AL and L
left the cabin with the feeling that
Uncle Hi would not last much longer.
Pedestrians, belated at night, often
spoke OF seeing the old man, lantern in
hand. walking mp and down the track
across the pit, examining each rail as