The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1894-02-18
HE DUG A WELL.
And Was Hoisted Out of 1t i'm a
Badly Battered Condition.
Buffalo EXPIRES

A tall man, who had face OF most peculiar
appearance, sat in big chair 10 the lobby OF
an uptown hol ell and cOniemplatively smoked a
cigar. His nose appeared to be scraped OF
and there was a big dent in his forehead as il
somebody had In playful moment carved out
a chunk 10 retain as memento.
The tall man sat aud smoked alone for half
az hour or so and then a man SAT down near
him, and then another and another, until
finally there was a little knot of men around
him, and they were all listening 10 the story
he was telling. This was It:
81 suppose there are nifty people a day who
ask me how IL is have so little nose ana such
depression in my ,ehead. rarely tell any
person, but. as IL is nothing 10 be ashamed Of
and you have all expressed desire To know,
b. leve will reveal a few Of the secrets of my
past HE. When l was a good deal younger
than am now L got broke In a town In South
ern Illinois, and while there made the ac-
Quaintance of man who kept big boarding
house. There was no very good water in
town, and he concluded that he would dig a
well. had never dug we'll, but L made out
to him thai well-digglUg was a second nature
TO NE. and struck him for the job. He was a
little dubious but he finally concluded to let
me try it. We got one OF those fellows who
where waller is and he made tour OF the
premises aud decided on the most available
spot. Then got a rope and two pegs OF wood
and mari ed out a circle, borrowed a pickaX
and spade and began 10 dig.
The soil was sandy on top and the Thing was
easy Tor awhile. 1 reasoned with myself that
l could get enough TO e { me out OF town by
The job, and | was happy. Things took diff
ferent turn very soon, however, ana l struck
ROCK. q firmly believe that there Is no rock IN
the world that Is as hard as that fOck was
Pnaraohs heart was pudding beside IL. /
got drill and some blasting powder and went
al II. L went down thirty feet and there was
no sign OF wafer. The man who manipula ed
the forked twig was c0ck-suTe that there was
water In the earth bene IN that spot, and
Kept on blasting. One day / drilled very
deep hole, put In sending big charge OF pow
DER ana spent an hour tamplng in brickdusI
linen l went up and saw that everything was
ali clear, and told the man who was working
The windlass TO watch out, ana when / gave
went down and lgh ed the fuse.
just rs touched the match to the fuse
yelled 10 my man to pull me up. He began
working the wlndlass and l ascended quite
rapidly. l had almost reached the top Whe n
The dog gasted blast went OF. AS have re-
marked, Il was coiker. A big chunk of rock
MT The bucket on the bottom and drove me up
Into he air as If had been fired out Of a can
non. As l was coming up my nose and fore
head struck on tho edge OF twO-Inch oak
plank that lay across the well, and were i'm
meolatey reduced 10 their present proportions
Kept turning. As my head came up he saw he
blood. and yelled: My God, he's kfitl' Then,
with great foresight, he lei 20 the handi = OF
the wind SIS, and didn't do thing but drop
thirty tect down on that mass OF Jagged stone
That part Of the business broke a leg, an arm
and two ribs for me.
After while they fshed me out, and l was
In bed for weeks. When got out was worse
OF financially than l had been when l began
The well, and i was short nose a big chunk
of forehead and a lot OF manly beauty into the
bargain. have dug no wells since that time"