The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-07-20

4
la Why shor.r~:'t he lower Miss Pay
son TO the ground with it, and then
slide down it HIMSELF"
"He explained his plan 70 the lady,
but she didn't seem TO like il. She said
she was sure the rope would break. or
that lie would drop il, or that she
would be- killed in some sort of way, if
the experiment was tried, No. says
she, Il will remain here ard trust to
your honor as a gentleman TO defend me
from the sneers of the heartless world.
4, | ress,n,yy haven't the courage TO allow
YOU TO lower me down this awful
height with any rope,
"Halsey wouldn't hear 20 her cbJec-
tions and argued with her long time.
1t wasn't until he accidentally men,
toned that the steeple was chock full of
mice and rats and bats and such that
Miss Payson consented to try the rope.
Even then she was mighty dissatisfied
woman and came very near resolving
| that she would take the risk of the wild
| animals rather than lose such a first
class chance for capturing desirable
| husband. Halsey rugged up sort of
| seat for the woman. so that she could
sit in the blight of the rope, with lash
| ings around her here and there, and
couldn't fall out if she wanted TO. Then
he got her TO stand on the window ledge
and lowered away. Miss Payson
shrieked a good deal at first and begged
Halsey to let her come back and die
close to him. but he wasn't going to
have any woman dying around his neck
if he knew himself So he lowered her
down gently and easily, encouraging
her all the time, till he found that his
rope had come to an end. 1t wasn't
quite as long as he had supposed that it
was, and the upshot was that there was
Miss Payson about 30 feet from the
ground, with no possible way of reach
ing it unless Halsey should let go his
end of the rope.
''He thought of letting go of it, but
being humane, good tempered man, as
l said, he couldn't bring himself to do
it, since the result would have been
that either Miss Payson would have
been killed or at least most of her limbs
would have been broken. So he made
the end of the rope fast TO beam and
called out to Miss Payson not to lose
courage, and he would soon think of
some way Of getting her out of the diff
Guilty. She begged him 10 draw her up
again, and he actually tried TO do it,
knowing all the while what the conse-
quences would be if he succeeded, but
he found that he didn't have the neces-
cfr Daxcp,,
than she looked to be, though she was
mostly bones, but she was good 20
feet below him, and it would have
taken two men Of his strength to have
hoisted her up into the steeple again.
He pulled at the rope till he was pretty
nearly exhausted, for he naturally felt
little ashamed of acknowledging TO q
woman that there was anything that he
wasn't strong enough to do. However,
he had to come 70 it at last and tell her
that if it was to save both their lives he
couldn't manage to pull her back into
the steeple. So she settled down to cry,
and he settled down to smoke a pipe,
with view to clearing his ideas.
'All Of a sudden he saw what he
ought TO do and wondered that he had
been such an idiot as to not have seen
it before. There was the bell just above
his head, and all he had to do was to
climb up and ring it by swinging the
clapper from side to side till the alarm
should bring back the sexton with the
keys. By this time it was getting rath-
er dark, and Halsey set to work at that
bell and kept on tolling it slow and
regular, for that was the only way he
could manage 10 ring it.
cts the custom with us to toll the
bell when anybody dies and to give
just as many strokes on the bell as the
deceased had lived years. When Halsey
began to toll the bell, the Athensville
people listened to find out how old the
deceased had been. When the strokes
had got up among the eighties, they al
lowed that the Oldest settler III the
town must have died very sudden, for
he had been seen drunk, as usual, and
in perfect health that afternoon as late
as 3 o'clock. But the bell kept on, and
bimeby, after it had tolled some 250
times and showed no signs of stopping,
folks began to think that the sexton
mad just happened to hear about tho
death of 1ethuselah and was notifying
other people of the fact.
'You may ask why didn't somebody
60 to the church and find out what the
bell was ringing for. Well, for one
thing, it was just supper time, and no
body felt anxious to take walk of a
mile or two just at that hour. Them
too, it had been said that the Baptist
churchyard was haunted, and there
wasn't any general desire to interfere
with ghosts i'll case they should have
taken a notion TO toll the bell. The toll.
ing kept on till Halsey had toled the
bell over 400 times, and then Rev. Mr..
Humphreys arrived OF the spot, and
when ne heard Miss Paysons voice
somewhere in the air over his lead his
was considerably startled, though not
being bc!ieycrin chests lie wasn't the
least bit frightened.
''How Oil cath did you come up
there ma an, 80 lrr1 fro minister saud