The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1900-05-05

NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
destruction. The fence posts were
old. and some of them rotten. Though
Johnson twitched and jerked to loose
himself, freedom would have been the
freedom of death, and the wire and
the post next to his foot held securely.
1t was agonizing to hang there, but 1t
was not death. Still, flesh and blood
could not have held out much longer,
and discovery and the difficult rescue
came not a minute too soon.
Below the cliff were quarries, skirted
on the outer edge by the Iron Noun
tain Railroad. Beyond the tracks
rushes the swollen Mississippi. John
son, who can remember little of how
he got into his plight, had been out
in the country a day or two before,
looking for work. Not finding it, he
used up his small store of money in
rum, and, then started to walk back to
the city. He had been sick and early
in the evening he lay down in the rain
upon a pile of boards near a house that
stands on the top of the bluff. Finally
he got up, and lurched along, uncon-
scious of the yawning chasm only a
few rods away. Suddenly his foot
caught ina barbed wire that ran close
to the ground, and he was flung head
long. It happened to be a loop that
tripped him, and he fell over the edge;
the wire twisted his body around so
that his back was against the cliff.
The wire frightened about his ankle
and then sagged. The shock Of the
fall sobered him partly, and he twisted
and turned to get loose. His finger
tips could just touch a ledge of rock,
but he could grasp nothing, though he
could relieve the weight of his body
somewhat. He could not see in the
murky night, but below he could hear
the swishing of the river.
The granite cutters in the quarry
come to work at 8 o'clock in the morn
ing, and a little before that hour Her
man spieckerman, the first of the
force, entered the quarry and went to
a shed to put on his working clothes.
He happened to look UP, and could
hardly believe his eyes when he saw
a man hanging head down from tho
face of the cliff away above. He ran
to the Office Of the boss and breathless-
ly told the men there what he had
seen. They telephoned to the fire de-
partment for a hook and ladder truck
and to a hospital for an ambulance. In
the meantime a gang of workmen hur-
ried to the spot and stretched a tar
.paulin under the swinging form, so
that IL the man should drop he might
not be dashed to death on the jagged
rocks. Other. men bounded up a road
that led to the top Of the cliff. Lying
face down on the edge and peering
over they could see the swaying body,
held in the loop of WIRE None Of them.
dared try to pull up the namely the
wire, for fear that it would slip OF
the foot. In the meantime the fire.
men, and the ambulance had come into
the quarry, and with them a crowd Of
men from the city. Advice was plenty,
but deeds were few. The 1iremen took
out their longest ladder and carried :
1t from ledge to ledge up the clif
until the top round wal within reach
Of johnson. He gripped it with des-
peration, though his blood-swollen
hands had little life in them. A fire.
man mounting the ladder fastened to
the negro's legs q rope that had been
lowered from the top Of the cliff, and
and carefully johnson vas
pulled up.
The head was distorted to abnormal
,ize by the tremendous pressure Of
blood; the pupils Of the eyes were dis
Tended and fiecked with angry. red
,pots; the lips were pulled to unusual
proportions and the cords Of the neck
we're knotted and hardened. The arms
md hands were swollen to grotesQue
1ugeness. The lungs were contracted
10 that not a word came from the
throat. The vital organs and
over limbs were cold with the creep
ng death dew.
The man. was chafed by rough hands.
nut the reactionary movement Of the
blood current was go swift after the
,ody was placed in q normal position
hat this remedy was unnecessary. It
Iurged from the flooded head back into
he lower extremities.. and. released
rom the thrall Of suffocation. the man