Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1895-05-30
Pete SANDERS TRIUMPH.
BY ARCHIBALD HoBsoN.

BY ARCHIBALD HObsONs
So Smithville was to have big
sewing machine factory According
to Giles Sanders the building was
to be bigger'n all creation, with
smoke chimbley hundred and
eighty odd feet high" And surely
Giles was in a position to know for
he had seen the plans with his own
eyes. He was bricklayer, and the
contractor had agreed to employ
him on the work. 1t was an all sum-
mer's job.
Now Giles had boy, Peter; and
Peter, it cannot be denied, had no
affection for work. The neighbor-
hood called him lazy good for moth
ing. The other boys nicknamed him
" Pretty Pete" in very irony of his
LONELINESS. Even his father had
very little good to say of him. His
mother alone, with the faith and
hope that mothers have. God bless
them, stoutly maintained that Peter
was q good hearted boy" And
she was right. : =', -!~--- -.--s'-.'
b Peter was the kind of boy that
people, especially sober-going, thrifty
people, find it hard to understand:
He was different some way, and when
any one is different" he is likely to
be disliked by the Indifferent Pete
was, to cut It Short, a genius. His
head was full Of ideas, but he was
retiring and sensitive, and instead Of
trying to "show off" he kept his
thoughts to himself. So it was that
he Knew a good deal more than peo-
pie gave him credit for. ==~-rss..s
!, But he hated work. Some way it
generally happened that when there
was wood to pile or potatoes needed
hoeing Peter was not to be found.
The chances were he was off hunting
or fishing or gathering specimens for
his butterfly or birds egg collections.
II not, then he was pretty sure to be
back in the corner OF the woodshed
that he appropriated, saving and
hammering away on some new inven-
ton OF his for using up Lumber and
nails. And it was like pulling teeth
to draw him away.
He was always making something.
But as the products of his ingenuity
were seldom anything practical his
father thought all this tinkering and
experimenting was time thrown away
or worse. But this rowing and tinker
ing bent was the extent of Pete s
wickedness. There was nothing NOR
ally bad about him. He was simply
tinctured with the responsibility OF
genius. perhaps.
Work went along on the sewing
machine factory steadily oil summer.
Gradually the walls arose one, two,
three, four stories; then the roof was
put on. By August the carpenters
were at work on the inside, and some
of the machinery, even, began to ar.
rive.
The last OF the masonry to be fin.
ished was the great brick smokestack,
hundred and eighty-fves feet high.
This was a very important piece Of
work. On account of its great height
it had to be built with extraordinary
care in every particular.
AS tier after tier Of bricks was ad
ded and the huge shaft rose higher
and higher in the air it became to the
country round a matter Of growing
interest 1t could be seen miles away
and before it was yet finished "tht
Smithville stack" was landmark
that half Of Smith County had seer
and the other half had heard al
about.
The chimney tapered gradually In
as it progressed upward, till, by the
time it was hundred feet high ther,
was only room enough on the littl,
scaffolding for one mason to work t,
advantage. And the man selected Il
complete the job was Giles Sanders
for he was, beyond question, the bes
workman in the neighbQrhood. -
Finally the last tier OF bricks wa,
laid and the chimney finished, all blu
setting in place the capstone tina
was to protect the top from the &C
ton OF the weather. The setting o
this capstone was made the occasion
for sort OF voluntary celebration b,
the good people of Smithville. TIL,
new factory was their factory, they
felt, and they had good reason to re
joice at it's successful completion
Their chimney was the highest chin
ney in all that part OF the State, an
it was thing for every man, woma
and child in the town to be proud oil
So il became noised abroad that o
Saturday Giles Sanders would set tn
capstone. Saturday was the day tina
all the farmers went to town, an
those OF the women folks that GO
wind Of the doings contrived TO hay
business in Smithville that day an
went along. In short, as Giles Sar
ders. proud man that he was, mad
his final trip to the top OF the chin
ney that bright September Afternoon
and looked down around him, i
might almost have taken a census
Smith township by counting IL
number OF heads he saw.
There lay the capstone at the fo'
OF the chimney, lacked up on tv
timbers. 1t was a great. ponderou
fat stone, with hole cut out OF
just the right size to fit the Gimme