The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-05-16

l ward that he looked at that spark and couldn't move He couldn't even yell. 1t crept along in little jerks and starts, and Phil knew any minute it might send the whole place up, Just as 1t was going beyond his reach he got his powers back again and threw himself down on the spark, crushing 1t out with his body, The next thing he remem- bered was hearing one of the men say:
 Hit him on the back; he's choking to death.'
 "Then he felt cold water over him where they ducked him in the stream, | and the feeling as if somebody's hands were throttling him went away, But next day his hair was covered with lit tie white patches, and they're there yet.
 "One of our teamsters had about as tough an experience with load of dy- namite-we were making dynamite then-that he was teaming to Rosen- | dale. Beyond the creek the roadway was soft, and hind wheel began to sink away down the bank. There was no help for it. He sat there and watched the wagon lean over until half a dozen cases of dynamite tumbled out one after the other and rolled down the bank. Why didn't they explode? The Lord only knows. The teamster came back to try to tell us about it, and it was awful to hear him. He could only | gurgle and googoo like baby, and he | tried to make signs. It had scared him l dumb, He got his speech back in few days. I never knew but one man that was perfectly fearless, and he got over l it. That was the queerest case l know | of. Nobody had the rights of it, but | the boys used to say that Stanton had lost all his family, or been disappointed in love, or something of that kind. One | things pretty certain, he didn't value his life, or at any rate, wasn't afraid of losing it. I've seen him when the rest got panicky about nothing keep right on at his work, never turning hair, and he worked through the worst thun- der storm we ever had. Lightning is something to make a man sick. l tell you, when he's near a powder mill. When two drunken fools got firing pis tols up on the road one night 1t was | Stanton that went up unarmed and took the pistols away from them.
 Well, as I say, nobody knew any- l thing about Stanton, but he gave us to | understand that nothing would suit him better than to be killed. It was a big surprise to us when one day little girl was brought over addressed to him, and he introduced her as his niece, who had been left an orphan. She was about ten years old, and a sweet little thing. It was no wonder that Stanton got to thinking the whole world of her, but the wonder was that he began to get cowardly. He'd get the panic more | than all the rest, and some days he wouldn't work at all. It ended in his | drowning himself in the creek, leaving crazy note that said he couldn't stand the fear of being killed since he had | found something to live for.
 l Speaking of Stanton's taking the re- volver away from those chaps reminds me of the great time we had with an old farmer down here once. There's a patch of woods over there where squir- rels are pretty thick. The powder com pany owns the land up to the woods, but beyond that we haven't any rights, of course. W il, this old chap came down there with a double barrelled gun of some kind and began blazing away at the squirrels. We didn't know whether he was shooting our way or not, but we got pretty nervous, and finally we went up and told him he'd to quit,
 "'Well, I don't reckon this patch be- longs to you folks, he said slowly. | "'We'll show you we've got some thing to say about it, though said one of our leaders. You'd better get out before there's trouble
 l "'No, I don't reckon on there bein' no trouble, said the old chap, cool and easy. 'Leastways, if there is l don't reckon to be the only one hurt
 Well, he had a gun, and we didn't, and it was all on his side of the fence as far as argument went, until one of the fellows went back and raked up | three revolvers from somewhere Where he got em l don't know, for l firearms aint mighty common around powder plant. You see, we'd got the notion that the plant owned pretty | much the whole country, or had the right of it. any way, and we were going to give that old eodger the run out of those woods. As soon as we got up there and showed our pistols, he stepped behind tree and made about as clean argued speech as l ever heard Near as can remember it was like this, and you can see it didn't have any frills on it.
 "'You fellers out there with them pistols Hey! My gums double bar relied one She's full up to the brim. There's enough lead into her to sink two men six foot under ground. I come out here to shoot squirrels. I ain't hankerin' to shoot nothin' else, but I kin. don't reckon as there's no game laws pertectin' fellers with pistols Now, dunn ye, if ye want to shoot, why shoot
 Nobody shot. It didn't look safe. We all sneaked back, and that old Joshhenry banged away to his hearts content, and every time he banged we shivered. Finally another chap and I were appointed a committee of two to go up and reason with him. We went, and I said to him:
 Here, my friend, you've got the rights of it, but you're keeping lot of workmen and their wives scared to death for fear you'll blow up the mill. Ain't there squirrels anywhere else to | shoot?''
 "'Bless ye, boys said the old man; ain't no dunn fool ner I ain't reckless feller to run no risk of havin' mems