Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1892-09-16
tn1ng 1Ke twenry-three miles, and the

miles long. They took every precau-
tion and made everything as secure
Is possible, having at their disposal a
well constructed boat alt they were
upset. thrown out, and escaped By only
n hairs breadth with their lives. With
the same motive 1t would have been the
very extravagance of folly for me to
have entertained the idea of going
down this fume. What madness was
it then for me to deliberately determine
on making that terrific descent, un-
certain whether the line of the flume
was continuous or not? The sagging
of g rock, the rotting of a timber, the
fall of a tree across it-any one of fifty
possible things would be enough to hurl
me into eternity and thoroughly thwart
my purpose.
"But there was my pardner, whose
case was every instant becoming more
and more critical He was growing de-
lirious, having bruised his head in tie
fall Ny heart vas big with grief at
the bare idea of his death / went out
and examined an old boat which had
been used to take trips down this flume
1t would serve my purpose. was
ready to start. Leaving my pardner in
the care of one of the men, after telling
him that would soon be back with the
doctor, came out of the rough log
cabin again in company with the other
man, who was to turn on the flood
gates at the reservoir when would be
ready.
''Night had come and a wind from
the south arisen. I noticed mass of
clouds was rolling around corner of
the mountain and its outer edge had
touched the line of the fiume. And at
the same instant there touched my ears
the faint, muffied echoes of thunder.
Following upon this came a sharp re-
port, which was preceded by an ugly
thrust OF lightning, which seemed to
cut through my path. / adjusted my
boat and told the man l was ready.
The old reservoir gate creaked as the
man worked mt 1t. A thin stream OF
water came at first sweeping beneath
my boat. / was firmly fixed within
watching the white line as it shot ahead
of me. The stream increased It
touched my boat. The next instant
the full tide struck me and away
shot. 1t fairly took my breath
away for the first few rods. The veloc-
ity and the fall gave me sinking SEN
sation and my brain began to reel,
while everything began to run together
in universal chaos about me. | knew
only enough tor hold on tight while
downward / spun, like a projectile
hurled from cannon's mouth. Out Of
this dazed condition of mind and sick
ness of heart | was jerlSed by sudden
jump of my boat. The line had sagged,
an uneyenness. But the de-
cline was so great, that the waters
plunged across and my boat leaped the
break and struck the other end OF the
fume, making the water spout up for
sixty feet. Then there was tremen-
dous jostling for a moment. l received
a splash of the water full in the face,
which revived me. Thereafter the
perils, known and unknown, and the
terrible rush only stimulated my facul-
ties.
Il was now swinging along like light
ming in the full light of the moon. The
swiftly-moving panorama of trees, of
forests, of rocks, ofyawn-
ing chasms-all stood out with terrible
The hume went straight
for awhile, then it curved and sllirted
the edge of a precipice which over
looked what seemed bottomless abyss.
Ahead was an enormous rock. Against
1t appeared to be rushing, when, like
a flash, the boat seemed to strangely
evade it and cling to its perpendicular
sides, for the flume was bracketed
against the dead wall and beneath
there was only an unfathomable depth
of darkness. On to the solid but steep
sides of the mountain the boat came
with bound again. Then there was a
frightful drop; it seemed straight
down, as though the bottom had fallen
out of everything in general and the
fume in particular. My! how the water
dashed and tore when the boat struck
the more moderate decline. Across
an awful chasm 1t shot, and
what n roar rose, borne up by the
chilling winds which struck me there
for an instant, making my teeth chat
ter. Once or twice after started had
heard the boom of distant thunder!
Into this thunder cloud my boat went
with its own roar. The moon was OBJ
scured and the cloud was so dense that
I could see nothing. 1t was simply the
blackness of darkness. The gloom ap-
peared Opaque, impervious to any light.
But the cracking of electricity was
going on all about me. Then came a
deafening explosion. This was fol-
lowed by one even more ear-splitting.
Fer a brief period the lightning illu-
the dense cloud and made it
seem like fine mist.
MY mad rush downward, in the
midst of these rolling vapors of inky
blackness, again and again flaring
frightfully into lurid hues, all a-tremor
with the crashing detonation of the
was to me the most realistic
illustration of what lost soul might
pass through in hurting itself into the
internal regions. A strange awe crept
over me. The uncertainty of my own
fate settled bodeful depression upon
my spirits. Every instant / expected
my rickety boat to collide with some
obstruction, or strike an opening, or
jump from the hume and hurl me into
an uWecognizable mass upon the rocks.
Then the realization of the spectacle of
my pardner lowering between life and
death, whom, it seemed, l loved better
than my own life, would give new reso-
luton to my spirit, and i would throw
off these dismal premonitions. ! was
in the folds of this thunder cloud but n
very brief period; but on such occasions
of great peril the mind works with pre-
ternatural activity, and it seemed that I
would never get oat of it. l strained
my eyes ahead, but could not see a
hands breadth in front of mo, and even
when the lightning illuminated the
cloud the mist gave the flume short
distance before me n ghos5ly appear
ance, which did not serve to reassure
me.
But at last l leaped out of the cloud
into the full shining of the moon, for
was near the other edge of it, and then
went skimming along the edge of a
precipice whose grim walls opposite me
rose up out of sight. A thunderbolt
just then smote those towering crags,
and immense rocks were split from
their sides and came tumbling down
right before me. 1t seemed that the
mountain was falling, and the re-
verberations of that bolt went rolling
over my head and all about the upper
peaks, while the rock slides as they
struck the bottom of the chasm beneath
made the whole earth tremble After
it all my astonishment grew to think l