The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1892-04-29
EIot1lNe ON A HleA rowER.


water works company. 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 inside of the
tower, while the men who hammer the
rivets to a head work on the frail scat
fold on the outside To the beholder
who stands on the solid earth this out
side scaffold seems to be as thin, as
frail and as delicate as a spiders web
There it winds around the tall black
iron tower, frail below and dwindling
away in the upward distance into moth
ingness. Ninety feet from the ground
and on this frail scaffold two riveters
were working, and from some unac-
countable cause became involved in an
alteration.
Bessemer steel is hard but 1t is not
harder than the hearts of Infatuated
men. Iron rivets, awaiting the touch
of the hammer, are hot, but they are
not hotter than the infiamed 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 Dennice. Each
man swung a seven pound hammer
Mique made a nislick and struck Den
nice on the hand. Maddened with the
sudden pain Dennice became at once
a demon, and swung his hammer full
and fair at the head of Mique Had
the iron head of the hammer crushed
in those locks a mangled and lifeless
and half headless corpse would have
toppled down TO the solid earth, ninety
feet below. Mique, however, threw
up his hammer i'm a defensive way and
parted the blow. Again the hammer
of Dennice swung and again it was par
ried, but as its head caromed on the
steel head of Mique's defensive hammer
it shot off on tangent like a CHANGING
arrow that strikes a tree, and knocked
away one of the supports of the scat
fold
There was a sickening. cracking
sound as the frail upright was knocked
away from the braces, and down went
the ends of two planks comprising ono
section of the scaffold. Mique, who
had been retreating from before the
fierce advances of Dennice. was on
firm footing, but Dennice was compel
led to make giant spring to save him
self In the terror of the moment he
leaped almost to the very shoulders of
the affrighted Mique and knocked him
down backward, falling on top of him.
The force of the conclusion was such
that both men rolled to the edge of the
scaffold, and over went Dennice.
Instinctively and in the desperation
of the moment he caught one heel in
the upright Immediately behind him
and threw his left arm around the neck
of Mique There he hung on the edge
of the scaffold, suspended by only ono
heel and wrist, while below him-near.
ly a hundred feet below-was row of
iron pipes and plates of steel To fall
was to be dashed to pieces
To fall on the pipes was to break
arms and legs and back TO fall on
the curved and upturned edges of the
plates was to be cut into huge and
CHASTITY slices
The mans hand trembled, and his
hammer dropped from his nerveless
grasp. 1t went swiftly downward, hit
a projection in the scaffold, bounded
off, and striking Is inch pipe broke
it in two as cleverly and as keenly
as if it had been split with knife
The hand swung over and grasped
Mique around the loins with an awful
tenacity, and there the men struggled
on the awful verge of the scaffold
Dennice had almost managed to swing
his weight on the scaffold when Miques
hickory shirt ripped, and back the man
went into space, this time losing the
purchase of his heel and swinging clean
over so that he held himself only by
one arm and hung suspended upright
in the air
Mique managed to thrust the toes OF
his left foot between two narrow planks
that made the scaffold, and thus &C.
quired leverage. Throwing over the
other shoulder by strong and almost
miraculous movement he swung the
suspended body of Dennice back to the
platform and dashed his face against
the tower. There they lay, motionless
and still, and when their companions
reached them they found that both
had tainted dead away The awful
duel had lasted less than forty seconds,
but there is none on record that can
,or,,r,ok, ,,.lAl,