The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1894-10-26

suck and thud Of their pistons, the
dull beat on the air as the spokes of
the great driving-wheels came round,
a note the leather straps made as they
ran tighter and looser, and fretful
! tunult from the dynamos; and over all,
| sometimes inaudible. as the ear tired
of it, and then creeping back upon the
senses again, was this trombone note
| of the big machine. The floor never
| felt steady and quiet beneath ones
feet, but quivered and Jared. 1t was
a confusing, unsteady place, and
enough to send anyone's thoughts
jerking into odd zigzags And for
three months, while the big strike of
the engineers was in progress, Hol-
royd, who was blackleg, and Azuma-
ri, who was a mere black, were never
out Of the stir and eddy of it, but slept
and fed in the little wooden shanty be-
tween the shed and the gates.
Holroyd delivered theological lee
ture on the text of his big machine
soon after Azuma-zi came. He had to
shout to be heard in the din. "Look
at that" said Holroyd; where's your
'eathen idol to match it?' And Azuma-
ri looked. For moment Holroyd was
inaudible, and then Azuma-zi heard:
kill a hundred men. 1t helps pay
twelve per cent. on the ordinary
shares" said Holroyd, ''and that's
something like an idolr'
Holroyd was proud of his big dy-
namo, and expatiated upon it's size
and power to Azuma-zi until heaven
knows what odd currents of thought
that and the incessant whirling and
shindy set up within the curly black
Uranium. He would explain in the
most graphic manner the dozen or SO
ways in which man might be killed
by it, and once he gave Azuma-zi
shock as sample of it's quality. After
that. in the breathing time of his
la bort was heavy labor. being not
only his own but most of Holroyd's-
Azuma-zi would sit and watch the big
machine. Now and then the brushes
would sparkle and spit blue flashes. at
which Holroyd would swear, but all
the rest was as smooth and rhythmic as
breathing. The band ran shouting
over the shaft, and ever behind one as
one watched was the complacent thud
of the piston. So it lived all day in
this big airy shed, with him and Hol-
royd to wait upon it; not prisoned up
and Shaving to drive a ship as the other
engines he knew had been, but ma
chine enthroned. Those two smaller
dynamos Azuma-zi by force of con-
trast despised; the larger one he pri-
vately cbristened the Lord of the Dy-
namos. They were fretful and irregu-
lar, but the big dynamo was steady.
How great it was! How serene and
easy in its working! Greater and
calmer even than the Buddhas he had
seen at Rangoon, and yet not motion
less, but living! The great black coils
spun, spun, spun, the rings ran round
under the brushes, and the deep note
of its coil steadied the whole. 1t af-
fected Azuma-zi queerly.
Azuma-zi was not fond of labor. He
would sit about and watch the Lord of
the Dynamos while Holroyd went away
to persuade the yard porter to get
whisky, although his proper place was
not in the dynamo shed but behind the
engines, and, moreover, If Holroyd
caught him skulking he got hit for it
with rod of stout copper wire. He
would go and stand close to the colos-
sus and look up at the great leather
band running overhead. There was a
black patch on the band that came
round, and it pleased him somehow
among all the clatter to watch this re-
turn again and again. Odd thoughts
spun with the whirl of it. Scientific |
people tell us that savages give souls |
to rocks and trees - and machine |
is thousand times more alive than a |
rock or a tree. And Azuma-zi was |
practically a savage still; the veneer
of civilization lay no deeper than his |
slop suit, his bruises and the coal
CRIME on his face and hands. His IA
Their before him had worshiped me-
teoric stone; it may be, kindred blood
had splashed the broad wheels of Jug
gernaut.
He took every opportunity Holroyd
gave him of touching and handling the
great dynamo that was fascinating
him. He polished and cleaned it until
the metal parts were binding in the
sun. He felt mysterious sense of
service in doing this. He would go up
and touch its spinning coils gently.
The gods he had worshiped were all far
away. The people in London hid their
gods
At last his dim feelings grew more
and took shape in thoughts
and acts. When he came into the shed
one morning he salaamed to the Lord
Of the Dynamos, and then, when Hol-
royd was away, he went and whis-
pered to the machine that he was its
and prayed it to have pity on
him and save him from Holroyd. As