News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1899-08-23
BOYS IN ABOx OF DYNAMITE:
Smoking ComplacentIy to the Horror OF

Smoking Complacently to the Horror OF
Interested Spectators.
'T was lying big water main, said
a contractor. 1--WE had completed the
Job and were filling up the trench.
Where the pipe ended we were Obliged
i to nut a board covering over the end,
as work on the next section had not
been started and probably would not
be for some time. We had filled up the
entire trench and placed the big board
covering over the end and had partly
filed the hole with dirt when he heard
a feeble cry from the pipe. The work.
men were frightened for a moment.
finally the foreman recovered presence
of mind enough to order them to re-
move the dirt and boards and see what
was in the pipe. When they had done
so out crawled about as thoroughly
frightened a boy as I ever saw. He
said he had crawled into the pipe IN
the afternoon to hide from his COM
panions and had fallen asleep and was
only awakened by the noise of the dirt
and stones falling against the boards
covering up the end of the pipe.
His mother happened along about
this time. When she learned what had
occurred she set down her market Das-
ket, picked up lath and treated us to
an exhibition of how a boy should be
properly spanked. She did the job in
artistic shape, and when she stopped
for breath that boy had the fact i'm
pressed upon his mind that a nap in
big water main was against the rules
of the family"
"Three small boys" said another
! contractor, gave me about as bad
scare last summer as I ever had in my
Fife, and if I had caught any one Of
| the three would have administered a
spanking which would have been up
! to all the contract requirements of a
well-regulated family. | had been do
ing a piece of work uptown near a
large open lot, and the small boys Of
| the neighborhood used to bother us by
| Interfering with the drills and other
| tools when the workmen were not
| about One rainy morning about a
week before the Fourth of July the
crowd had been annoying the watch
man by firing off frecrackers about
! the place. AS the men we're not work.
! ing on account of the rain, the boys
| had been having gay time. and about
II o'clock I came up to the place to
prepare to set the men to work at 1
o'clock, as it looked like clearing up.
J found the Waterman ENJOYING him
self in a saloon. and after I had be-
rated him for his negligence we pro-
| ceeded toward the place.
ITO our horror we saw that the lid
Of the large box where our dynamite
was stored partly open and propped up
with a stick, and from out the box
were coming frequently little puffs Of
smoke. We ran for our lives until we
had reached a safe distance and await
ed the outcome. AS there were 100
pounds of dynamite and about fifty
pounds of black powder stored in that
box, neither of us would have gone
near it for any amount of money.
I'VE warned every one who came
near did all we could to avoid an ac-
cident And after waiting about ten
! minutes in breathless expectation of a
terrible explosion we saw three young
sters stick up their heads and peep out.
We made a run for those youngsters.
and out they jumped and scampered
away. If the Waterman had been sober
and I had been about 125 pounds light
er and twenty-five years younger We
might have caught those little scamps,
but beer. age and avoirdupois were
against US and they got away"