The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-09-07
STARTING AN AVALANCHE

From the New York sun
Capt. Taylor, of Wyoming, eh7'
eyes, sir"
SIS it the, Capt. Taylor who ran for
the legislature three or four year
ago."
THE same man"
sand got defeated because he tipped
over mountain out there some
where?"
81 didn't exactly do that. but L was
beaten just the same
Captain, there was a story of some
sort about you and a mountain. Give
me enough to make page for the Free
Press.
st won't be as long as that. but I'll
tell you all about it, laughed the cap
tain as he settled down on the cushion
of smoker on the Michigan Central
road the other day.
Having lighted a fresh cigar and
thoughtfully stroked his nose for
moment he continues:
"You don't know where Toms
mountain is. of course, and so ] will
tell you that it is due south of the town
of Rawlins, on the Union Pacific road,
and only about twenty miles away.
Used to be lots of game up there, for
it's pretty fair chunk of a mountain
and well covered with timber. Five
years ago party of us went up there
on hunt and il was then the incident
happened you have probably heard Of
We had a camp about a mile from the
i 3 IL 80, D.
the camp and the end / one day came
upon great crack or assure. 1t was
mile long, from a foot to three feet
wide, and from ten to a hundred feet
deep. 1t was as if the south end of the
mountain had sagged down and was
trying to pull away from the other por-
ton"
1--WE got your assure, captain"
"All right. About the middle of the
mountain, where the assure was widest,
it was filed with ice 70 within five feet
of the surface. / dropped down on the
ice and found it as hard as iron and as
cold as miser's heart. 1t NAV have
been there for a thousand years, for all
] know"
Remains of the glacial epoch, sage
~ observed the man with the notebook.
Now, then, why / should go and
make a fool of myself about that is
sure is beyond my reasoning, but I
went into il with my eyes wide open.
] suddenly felt tender towards that
ice, which hadn't been tha~ed for so
many centuries, and determined 70
give II a change of feelings. There
was heaps of dry wood about,
and spent an hour tumbling
stuff into that assure. Leaves.
brush. limbs. roots and logs-every-
thing went. When the fire got under
Roadway there was a great frying and
sizzling down in the cold recesses- ]
got tired OF the fun after awhile and
went back to camp. That night about
midnight Toms mountain shook her
self three or four times "a II She had a
chill. Next morning we went out TO
the assure to find ourselves looking
down a precipiee The whole south
END of the mountain had taken slide
Your bonfire did the biz eh?7
We'll. that's where ] differed with
the Internal opposition They said II
melted the ice and brought about the
avala nche. and that only fool would
have started the IRE. got four COCO
fists 10 swesr that il made no differ
ence. bat when election dzy came !
wasn't half elected Tie papers sad
that man who'd fool with mountain
a million years old wouldn't hesitate to
sell his Influence 20 any corporation
which wanted to dam river discovered
only hundred years ago
Did the avalanche 60 any great
harm captain
'.Oh. no II was the principle 81 The
ehiaG thar lookad AZ hEahr7A