The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1898-12-02
The Saving Of Ida May.
BY JOHN n. WHlTSOM.
TOBE SPRINGER handled the dead

TOBE SPRINGER handled the dead
ly compound so much that he lost
all,fear of it. He had reached the men
tai condition of the inhabitants of those
villages which cling to the base OF
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-
structive force stored in one of those
innocent looking cans of nitroglycerin
to blot him out of existence in the
twinkling of an eye, yet his heart did
not quicken it's beat one-tenth of sec
ond when he lifted can to store it in
the wagon. He might drop it, and so
tear hole in the ground big enough to
bury 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
aginaton and had lost his nerve"
Turner had permitted his mind to dwell
so much OH 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
out as the wheels jolted over stones and
sticks. They grumbled and whispered.
too, while the wagon was rolling over
The smoothest roads. When a wheel
"chugged" heavily into rut, Turner's
lo,1 in, Mi oi,
ton of decorating, pulverizing blow.
One day the wheels dropped into so
deep rut and the demons cried so
loudly, that Turner descended from his
seat, tied the team to 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 nodemons 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 were busy years, too, and often,
to meet hurried orders, he had been
forced to drive at speed that was far
from assuring.
The Western Consolidated was spoken
of as a gas company, which it was not.
1t was merely a driller of gas wells.
Its field of operation was the Ohio and
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 Il kerosene lama
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 lobe
| Springer SO great 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 Bald
win, where he had decided she should
go, 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 a sunny-haired, blue-eyed,
loving little lassie of six. The fairies
had dinpled her cheeks and her chin,
had uptilted the tip of her little nose
which freckles had notified like the egg
of guinea-and had given to her
fluffy hair an attractive tendency to
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 filed she had no fear; for,
though she had been told that it's mis-
sion 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 fotbar md harcelf
Things went so well for time as not
10 justify the thrill of fear with which
timid people saw lobe Springer drive