St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1898-12-24
The Saving Of Ida May.
D. John u wHIrsoH.

TOBE SPRINGER handled the dead
~ compound SO much that he los
nll fear of it. He had reached the men
tai condition of the inhabitants of thos,
villages which cling to the base O
threatening volcanoes, who go on tend
ing their vines and olives, loving and
hating. marrying and burying. in ap
parent forgetfulness of the dangers
of their situation.
lobe knew that there was enough de
structiye force stored in one Of those
innocent locking cans of nitroglycerIn
to blot him out of existence in The
twinkling Of an eye, yet his heart did
not quicken its beat one-tenth of Sec
0nd when he lifted "a can to store it in
the wagon. He might drop it, and so
tear hole in the ground big enough to
bury a stage coach; yet he knew he
would not drop it.
Perhaps he lacked imagination. Jim
Turner, whom he succeeded as driver of
the "nitroglyc" wagon, was man of i'm
agination and had lost his nerve -
so much on the destructive power of
those cans that at last each took on the
personality of the demon hid in its
heart. He could hear the demons cry
cut as the wheels jolted over stones and
sticks. They grumbled and whispered.
too, while the wagon was rolling over
the smcothest roads. When a wheel
"chugged" heavily into rut, Turner's
flesh crawled and cringed in anticipa-
tion of decorating, pulverizing blow.
One day the wheels dropped into SO
deep a rut and the demons cried SO
loudly. that Turner descended from his
seat tied the team to a tree, and hur-
ried in his resignation by telegraph.
The man sent by the angry and dis
gusted superintendent to take Turner's
place was lobe Springer; who cheer
fully mounted to the vacant seat, and
TO whom no demons ever cried from The
hearts of the cans, no matter how deep
were the ruts or how jolting the stones
of the highway.
lobe had driven the nitroglycerin
wagon for the Western Consolidated
for two whole years, now. and never in
all that time had he lost his nerve"
They we're busy years, too, and often.
TO meet hurried orders, he had been
forced to drive at a speed that was far
from assuring.
The Western Consolidated was spoken
of as gas company. which it was not
1t was merely q driller Of gas wells.
Itr Col ~
Indiana gas belt. which had then no Ger
tainly-known boundaries. The time
was one of great commercial excite
ment- Spouters" were being struck in
the most unlikely places. Whole coun-
ties, which had never seen a light
stronger than that of a kerosene lamp.
were nightly Redeemed by great gey-
sers OF fire, that roared and famed
through weeks and months and would |
not be subdued.
The railways and express companies
did not like to haul the destructive and
unreliable explosive used in shooting"
these wells, except at rates that were
almost prohibitory, and in some cases
refused to touch the stuff altogether:
SO wagons were used TO convey it from
the mandatory in an Ohio town to the |
points where it was needed.
Long familiarity had bred in Tobe
Springer SO great a contempt for the |
danger which other men saw in his
work. that, when he was ready. one
June day, TO set out for an Indiana gas
town, he put Ida May, his motherless
daughter. in the seat by his side.
He could have sent her by rail to Ral,l-
win. where he had decided she should
60, to live with an aunt, after the death
Of her grandmother; but, by taking her
with him on the "nitroglyc" wagon he
thought to save few dollars, and have.
besides. the pleasure of her company on
the long journey.
She was sunny-haired, blue-eyed
loving little lassie of six. The fairies
had dimpled her cheeks and her chin
had uptilted the tip of her little nose
which freckles had notified like the egg
OF a guinea-and had given to ner
huny hair an attractive tendency tn
curl and tangle.
In her father she reposed unbounded
confidence. To her, he was the wisest.
the best, and the handsomest of men.
Of the nitroglycerin with which the
wagon was filled she had no fear; for,
though she had been told that its mis-
son was to shoot" wells, she had only
the dimmest idea of what that meant
and no thought at all that it's presence
IN the wagon might be perilous to both
her father and herself.
Things went SO well for a time rs MT Z
70 justify the thrill of fear with which (
imid people saw lobe Springer drive {
away with the child. Springer was
careful driveS. He would have been .
sareful driver il the load in the wagon
ID been only cordwood. He avoided ,
20 and stones as much as he could |
gave his half of the road with cheer
fuIness in passing teams, and avoided
the crowded streets of towns. This
last he would have been forced to do bv | j
The authorities. il he had not chosen
hat course himself.
Nitroglycerin' was painted in big
~ letters on the sides of the wagon.
= Wes amusing, sometimes, to seeI ,
asse5s and teamsters, who were shar. II
= H. road. crowd their teams into 4,
1snee corners. when their bulg- /
eanenk the meaning Of those
Slilss luttei |,
~ anything in the world !
oe nlfroglycerin toSnAke the I
Z Springer had more than !
ke6. and there were
= show that he was !,