Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1895-04-25
JEsRY's BaBY.
BY T. S. RIDSDALE.

A little group of miners were in the
low rooted chamber at the foot of the
shaft. The orange glare from thelit-
tie oil lamps on their caps made oc-
casional swift reflections upon the
black walls. and when the men spoke
or smiled there was marvellous fash
ing OF teeth from out their dark
faces. Always, too, there could be
seen the cleaning OF their eyeballs,
of a fierce steel color in this somber
light. The greasy cables in the shaft
were running rapidly, and somewhere
in that strange hominy-like hole that
extended to the far away day light
the elevator was falling. like mis-
sile. A subtly strong odor OF pow
der smoke, oil, gas, wet earth was
eternally in the nostrils. Sud-
denly from behind those curtains OF
ink-like night, that stretched before
the passage that led away from the
foot of the shaft, there came a mys-
tic low rumble, the clank and rattle
of chains. the whistling and rafting
slash of whip, and boys shout
Then n train of two cars, drawn by q
tandem of straining mules, appeared
from out the darkness. The driver,
tiny begrimed urchin, yelled i'm
peratively, swinging his long LASH
The train stopped ut the foot Of the
shaft, and as the urchin unlocked
his team and swung them about he
yelled to the men: Amt it near
quittin' timer"
The elevator suddenly appeared, like
an apparition, with its load of mi
ners, whose lights ilickered and fut-
tered in reddish movements. The
s.insidc foreman" as he stepped from
the platform, called sharply TO the
urchin. Its quittin' time fer you
if yer don't hustle out more trips.
With another shout to his team,
the urchin started them on their re-
turn journey, and the rumbling of
the wheels on the uneven track con-
tinued until the little dancing flames
on the boys cap and on the head of
the lead mule were but mere yellow
points of light.
In the chamber at the foot OF the
shaft, the Inside foreman" spoke to
the men. Mr.. Williams told me
the baby's comm when tn shifts
change"
Cit out? Is she?'
"Jerry's baby"
Sure she u.s. said the inside
foreman.
The men smiled. Jerry's baby was
popular with the miners of the Matf-
cts Patch shaft. She gave them
adorable condolences; she was such
charming and trusted friend to those
men, rough, grim and dark with
coal dust, who labored all day in this
deep hole in the earth, far from sun
light. Jerry's baby, with her lisped
sentences and little gestures, treated
them all as comrades. When they
spoke of her, one might think they
were talking OF little silver doll of
some religion, And her power was
never questioned. Her baby smiles
ruled men, and, moreover. she had
done that which no man in the Maff-
cts Patch had succeeded in doing.
she had tanned Jerry.
Had you asked, three months be-
fore this time, who Jerry WIS, the
stable boss, you were man, would
have told you in a most vivid and
picturesque manner, which, though
it might have shocked, would have
forever impressed you with Jerry's
character. II n woman, the stable
boss would have said, after little
time to collect in his mind words to
fit the occasion, HE is the vicious
list, contraryist, stubbornist, wicked
est, and worse kicking mule in all
the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre coal
company's mines"
In the first place Jerry had bad
record. He came from the South
with lot of others and was sent
down the mine to wear his life away
in the damp, lamp lit darkness, pull
ing heavy cars during the day, eating
mush and corn, sleeping in a little
stall and having rats as large as kit
tens run over him at night. This
was decidedly Objectionable to mule
of Jerry's high spirits, but he appar-
emily realized he could not help him.
ocit ahu iOhbhWipi piOSOOuOu w ihuhC
life as disagreeable as possible for
those who had anything to do with
him. He could work IL he wanted
and when, as the drivers said, he had
"a working streak on" he could pull
heavier load and do it quicker than
any mule in the mine; but he did
not always have working streaks
on" lie was not different from o.
binary mules, except in one particu-
lar--his hind legs, when he was walk
ing, appeared to have no Joints. One
miner, when Jerry's life as mine
mule commenced, remarked this fact
and said That mules no good his
joints is stiff" and he scratched
Jerry's leg with long wisp Of straw.
1t tickled and the man lodged Just
in time to escape Jerry's hoofs, which
splintered the end OF car against
which he had been leaning. Thus
Jerry earned his reputation as a
vicious animal.