The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1899-04-21
rhs Marvellous Tale of n SOlemR-
Faced Man About u Risky
Western Journey.

"Speaking of bridges" said the sol
.mn-faced man, II think the most
novel and original, and, for that matter,
the most quickly-constructed bridge
ever heard of was one designed on the
spur of the occasion by a friend with
whom l was travelling, to connect the
sides of a chasm which we desired to
cross.
when we came to the place where
the bridge should haye been we found
the bridge that had Slammed this chasm
had been carried away by some of the
terrible gusts that swept down the tree
less adjacent mountains. 1t seemed to
me that there was nothing to do but to
go back and go around another way,
about IA miles further, but my friend
was quite equal to the emergency. We
were packing with us piece of brown
cotton cloth, 441a yards. The chasm
was 80 feet wide.
1--WE took that piece of cotton cloth
and doubled it into four folds, which,
you see, folded it up to the length of
"a feet 11a inches. When we arrived
there the wind was blowing a gale
square across the chasm. The weather
was the coolest ever knew.
'My friend took that piece of cotton
cloth, doubled it as 1 have told you,
and then loosely folded it over on itself
for convenience in carrying to warm
spring near by, with the situation of
which 1t seems he was acquainted, and
dipped it in the water. He kept it there
until it was thoroughly saturated,
meanwhile explaining to me his plan
of operations.
"When it was all soaked we took the
cloth to the edge of the chasm and
stood facing each other, he with his
right arm extended toward me and |
with my left arm extended toward him,
our hands meeting and the two arms
bowed slightly, with the bowed side
upward, like flattened arch. Then
we took that soaking wet bundle of
cloth and drew one end of it across
that arch, each of us holding a cor
ner down with his free hand, and then
we cast the rest of the cloth loose. The
gale blew the cloth out straight across
the chasm and it froze stiff as board as
it went. The other end fell on the op-
posite edge of the chasm and we set
our end down on this. 1t had shrunk
a little, of course, in freezing, and was
now "a feet scant, thus giving trifle
less than two feet over at each end,
a pretty narrow margin; but my
friend hadn't dared fold the cotton into
three lengths for fear that it would
not make the bridge stout enough to
bear our weight.
$50 there we had over this 30-foot
chasm bridge that was in shape like
an enlarged telescope coal chute, sucn
as they use on coal wagons in the city,
turned with the curving side upward;
bridge planned, constructed and put
up in about 80 minutes. 1t was slip
perry, but we put the wrong side up
for safety; but we each had new arc
ties with very much corrugated soles,
and by using great care we managed
to get across all right.
Then we pulled the bridge over and
carried II along with us on our shoul-
ders the way you would a canoe, to the
house of the man where we were 60
ing. We stood it up on end against
the side of that mans house, and left
it there. We didn't need the cloth
right away, and we left it there 10
thaw out and got our friend to fold il
up then and send it along by man
that was coming our way."-N. Y. Sun.