Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1898-07-07

X
$sSSSSSH1%Aw obtain light for
! Y'3MHlW his pipe. 1t Twas
! KIH1(l% long after m d.
F4v w. ~ night, and in the
open air thermometers registered far
below zero. Snow lay too deep for
comfort in the streets of the little
Pennsylvania mining town, and over
the mountains beyond great drifts
spread themselves, as if trying desper-
ately to crush out of view fences,
bridges, buildings, even the roads.
Colonel Fogarty had just come from
the last trolley-car which would run
until daylight
"Come, sit down here and have a
cigar while you tell all about it," 1
urged.
"Well, don't mind" replied the
Colonel. ''Fact is, I'm not particu-
larly hurried tonight, this being Sat
urday, and l being without an engage
ment until Chuseday afternoon.
So we sat down, and leaned back in
Easy chairs, and he commenced:
"The LATEST man / ever knew" be-
gan Colonel Fogarty, sis dead now.
He was too lazy to keep on living, 1
suppose. But L knew him ever since
l was youngster, and was working
as driyer-boy in the mines, miles away
from the Lehigh region, long before l
was elected to the Legislature at Har-
risburg. Jimmy Hoolahan, or some
such name, he was called, but as long
as L can remember he went by the
name of Lazy Tim-and he was that,
for sure. Let me tell you, when we
went to school the teacher would
always give him out Wednesday
lesson on Monday, because by no
earthly chance could he ever get
around to studying Chuseday lesson
Monday; and he'd always eat his lunch
before school commenced in the morn
ing instead OF at noontime, for the
/ reason that he never got around to
eating his dinner the day before. Lazy
Tim was a sort of inexpensive creature,
some ways, because he wouldn't out
grow his clothes, or wear 'em out
either, so he saved money for his
father, and when he got to be man
he spent less than any of his friends
for the same reason. Why, many and
many time I've known him to go
into Lanky Pete's place, down the
road apiece, and order glass of beer
at seven o'clock in the evening, and
when ten came he'd have full half of
it left, and he'd get the barkeeper to
put it away till the next night. That's
the kind of a man Lazy Tim was, and
IN fhazr,,haIn &C
did he hurry, excepting the time the
mine rats gave him warning, and that's
what I'm about to tell you Of.
''In the FIRST place, here at the very
beginning of the story, let me impress
you with the fact that the queer doings
I'm about to relate didn't happen in
this town, or anywheres near it. /
may want to go back to Harrisburg one
of these days, young man, and L don't
propose to have the railroad people
down on me when the time comes to
look for votes. 1t was years and years
ago, too, and may be Lazy Tim never
told any one else about it-but it is
true story, if it is strange and mysteri-
Gus, and it may help explain one of
those queer things college professors
and such like have been puzzling over
ever since rats first commenced to
leave sinking ships.
SIT happened years ago, on hot
summer day in July. went TO work
at seven that morning, but the sun
| came down hot even then as I walked
from home to the slope. But as soon
as / got into the car there with half a
dozen other boys, and we commenced
to slide down, of course the air got
cooler. There isn't any summer or
winter under ground; the air is the
tame all the year round, coolish and
moist, but neither hot nor cold, and a
| thermometer would mark about the
same in July and January. That's
| the main reason a man who has once
| labored under ground hates to come to
She surface and work. The miners
and their butties can keep comforta-
BILE year in and year out so long as they
stay below the surface, and that is why
so few of them ever get sick, barring
miners asthma, and [ suppose that
comes from the dampness as much as
anything else.
| However, we got aboard the car.
and went under ground. OF course it
was dark-dark as stack OF black
| cats-but all of us had lamps in our
caps, and we'd learned to see in the
dark that way pretty much as animals
can. Some of the men had 20 travel
] along the gangways under ground for