Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-12-18
THE CAPTAINS STORY.

1t was a stormy December afternoon
when I drove up to Capt. CaldWeffs
big white house. The captain met me
| at the door and when l was comfort
| ably seated in a rocking chair by the
fire, I told him that | had taken that
long cold drive for the sole purpose OF
hearing from his own lips the story
of the narrow escape he had some years
ago. The captain is a commercial trav-
eller and one of those jolly, good nat
ured fellows who enjoys hearing a
| good story and telling one, too. The
| story for which | asked was of an in
cident that had befallen him some years
ago, but the accident was so peculiar
and the escape so singular that | was
anxious to hear the Captains version
of the story.
"Well,' said the Captain, "a good
many people think 'drummers' have an
easy time travelling over the country,
but 1 tell you travelling very soon
loses it's fun when n must catch
trains at all hourse of the night and
morning, wait hours at stations m
times for trains that are behind time,
riding in cold cars getting all the dust
and dirt that's going, snatching a bite
of food wherever you can get it and
often sleep sitting UP in a day coach.
Frequently to reach small places we
have to drive through mud up to the
hub of the wheels, and, as we haven't
the privilege of ordering the kind of
weather we desire, WI often reach our
destination wet to the hide; we meet
all sorts of customers, must cater to
their whims and bide their time; often
we are kept waiting all day for a
evening does the busy merchant find
time to give attention, then We labor
until midnight when the merchant goes
home to bed, but the drummer must
| pack his samples and catch an early
morning train in order to make his
next poin. And yet with all we are a
| jolly set of fellows; have to be, could
MT succeed if we weren't, but in the
| eye Of the genial public we are put
down as immoral, almost outlawed,
class of men. This is all wrong. True,
there are bad ones in our ranks, but
you will find the same in all other vo-
cations and you will also find among
the knights of the grip many as true
and noble man as ever trod this earth
in any other sphere of action. I'll tell
/ you there are men,-but you want to
hear my high water accident. Well,
it doesn't amount to much; queer you
| should have driven five miles such a
day as this to hear it, and it happened
several years ago. too, but il is just
as fresh in my mind as though itwere
yesterday. 1t happened this way:
1t was in West Virginia about twenty
miles from the mouth Of the Little
Kanawha river which had overlooked
it's banks. The waters had now gone
| down but the roads were left in bad
condition for travelling. l was in a
small town and in order to reach my
next stopping place (Parkersburg) had
to drive across an area of the country
that had been under water. So. Al
though | was aware of the fearful con-
dition of the road, l secured a wagon
and a driver, and by nine O'Clock in
the morning we were on our way.
We had gone but a few miles when
we came to a pile of logs that the
water had carried into the road leaving
only a narrow passage way between
them and the river bank. Before we
started around these logs, l had the
driver go ahead and see If there was
room to drive our wagon across this
narrow passage. He came back and
reported that it was wide enough and
| perfectly safe. But it was a treacher-
Gus passage way, for the river had
| washed out a strata of sand about a
foot from the surface and twelve or
fifteen feet down, and when the horses
stepped on this they broke through the
thin crust and went pell-mell into the
river. As we went down the driver
jumped out of the wagon and swan
to the shore, but | was wrapped up
with o%vercoat, macintosh, muller,
gloves, arctics and g pair of ~gauntlets
and so rolled out of the wagon as it
fell and 1t turned w on me. The
horses. of course, rose and commenced
swimming out into the current. drag
| ging me along with the wagon. | at
first thought it was all over with me
under that wagon with all that cloth
ing on. but having passed my hoyhood