Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1894-11-09
LORD OF THE DYNAMOS.
Btory of a He athen Worship in
Civilized London.

way going, came out of Yorkshire,
and his name was James Holroyd. He
was practical electrician, but fond
of whisky, heavy red-haired brute
with irregular teeth. He doubted Car
not's cycle but accepted Dalton's
atomic theory, and he had read Shakes
peare and found him weak in chem
istry. His helper came out Of the mys-
terious east, and his name was Azu-
mari. But Holroyd called him Pooh
bah. Holroyd liked negro help be-
cause he would stand kicking-a habit
with Holroyd-and did not pry into
the mae hinery and try to learn the
ways of it. Certain odd possibilities
Of the negro mind brought into abrupt
contact with the crown of our civiliza
ton Holroyd never fully realized.
To define Azuma-zi was beyond eth
nology. He was, perhaps more negroid
than anything else, though his hair
was curly rather than frizzy, and his
nose had bridge. Moreover, his skin
was brown rather than black, and the
whites of his eyes were yellow. His
broad cheek bones and narrow chin
gave his face something of the viperine
V. His head, too, was broad behind
and low and narrow at the forehead,
as If his brain had been twisted round
in the reverse mode to a Europeans.
He was short of stature and still
shorter of English. In conversation
hay In nf mn
known m arketable value, and his in
frequent words were carved and
wrought into heraldic grotesqueness.
Holroyd tried to elucidate his religious
beliefs, and-especially after whisky
-lectured to him against superstition.
Azuma-zi, however, shirled the dis
cussion of his gods, even though he
was kicked for it.
Azuma ri had come, clad in white
but insufficient raiment, out of the
stoke hole of the Lord Give, from the
Straits settlements, and beyond into
London. He had heard even in his
youth of the greatness and riches of
London, where all the women are
white and fair, and even the beggars
in the streets are white, and he had ar
rived, with newly -earned gold coins
in his pocket, to worship at the shrine
of civilization. The day of his land
ing was dismal one; the sky was
dun, and wind-worried drizzle FL
tered down to the greasy streets, but
he plunged boldly into the delights of
Shadwell, and was presently cast up,
shattered in health, civilized in cos
tune, penniless, helpless, and, except
in matters of the direst necessity, prac-
tically dumb animal, to toll for
James Holroyd and to be bullied by
him in dynamo shed at Camberwell.
And to James Holroyd bullying was a
labor of love.
There were three dynamos with
their engines at Camberwell. The two
that have been there since the begin
ning are small machines; The larger
one was new. The smaller machines
made reasonable noise; their straps
hummed over the drums every now
and then the brushes buzzed and
fizzled, and the air churned steadily,
WHO'D! whool WHO'D! between their
poles One was loose in its founda-
tions and kept the shed vibrating.
But the big dynamo drowned these
little noises altogether with the drone
of it's iron core, which somehow set
part of the ironwork humming. The
place made the visitors head reel
with the throb, throb, throb of the en-.
gines, the rotation of the big wheels,
the spinning ball valves, the occasion
al spittings of the steam, and over all
the deep, unceasing, surging note OF
the big dynamo This last noise was
from an engineering point of view
a defect, but Azuma-zi accounted il
unto the monster for mightiness and
pride.
If 1t were possible we would have
the noises of that shed always about
the reader as he reads, we would tel
all our story to such an accompani
ment. 1t was a steady stream of din
from which the ear picked out first one
thread and then another; there was
the intermittent snorting, painting
and seething of the steam engines, the
suck and thud of their pistons, the
dull beat on the air as the spolSes o.
the great driving-wheels came round
note the leather straps made as they
ran tighter and looser, and a fretfu
tumult from the dynamos; and over all
sometimes inaudible, as the ear three
of 1t, and then creeping back upon tn,
senses again, was this trombone not,
of the big machine. The floor never
felt steady and quiet beneath one'
feet, but quivered and Jared. 1t wa
a confusing, unsteady place, anC
enough to send anyone's thoughts
jerking into odd zigzags. And TO
three months, while the big strike o
the engineers was in progress, Hol
royd, who was a blaclSleg, and Azuma
ri, who was mere black, were neve
out of the stir and eddy of it, but slep
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 machin
soon after Azuma-zi came. He had t.
shout to be heard in the din, 'Lool
at that" said Holroyd; where's you
'eathen idol to match it?" And Azuma
ri looked. For moment Holroyd wa
inaudible, and then Azuma-zi heard
kill hundred men, 1t helps pa.
twelve per cent on the ord.nar.
shares" said Holroyd, ''and that
something like an idol"
Holroyd was proud of his big dy
namo, and expatiated upon its siz
and power to Azuma-zi until heave
knows what odd currents of though
that and the incessant whirling an
shindy set up within the curly blac
Uranium. lie would explain in tn
most graphic manner the dozen or $
l.. ~ tfrht h. LII