Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1902-04-29

COlUFe. CurIOuSiy Ul6ds. OI were WuuiLy
blue or green, or a fine Mephistolean
red; they were, indeed, quite ''subdued
to what they work in''-dyed even to
the roots of beard and eyebrows. As
looked, wondered whether the con-
slant wearing of this engrained war
paint were not of itself enough to keep
ever alive in these men, peaceful as
they looked, fierce passions, which in
other men usually slumbered. An
outbreak of savage nature among them in
the mephitic vapor inwhich they worked
might be no very unusual thing: was it
some such outbreak, ending in a fearful
death for one of them, of which the dead
man lying in that house, with the
white blinds drawn, had been terror
stricken witness? Or had his confess
sion been merely the raving of delirium?
-delirium, which seemed in some
measure to have been communicated to
me, tired as l was with the excitement,
and with want of sleep.
When I reached my lodgings, I went
to bed, and slept for some hours. 1
awoke more myself, disposed to take q
clearer and soberer view of things.
Over my late breakfast I resolved what
I would do. 1, for my part, would say
nothing of the confession heard in the
night, until could be sure it had some
foundation in fact. This I would that
morning try to discover in the village.
knew that any of the shopkeepers
would be only too ready to welcome a
gossip; for except at meal times, and
in the evening, the village is nearly
empty of customers.
found the draper, a little middle
aged man, who bore the evidences of
hard work in the mills from his earliest
youth. He was the very man 1T
would have chosen for my purpose; he
had a feminine fondness for gossip, and
he knew the affairs of every one in the
village, and all that had happened for
generation or two. / had no diff
Guilty in arriving quickly at the end I
had in view. He already knew that I
had been called up in the night to visit
the dying victim of applied chemistry,
and that Freeman and / had been with
him till he end.
every delirious," said the draper,
81 hear say he was-jabbered and RAM
bled away about a. kinds O. stuff, and
then slumered (slum mbered) off again,
I suppose? Yea; that's the way they
do. Eh, deal! It's bad business for
the wife and the family"
"Are diseases like his" I asked,
"often got at the chemical works?''
"Nay," said he, 81 think not; the
smells seem to agree WI most folk
pretty weel"
"But the work is very dangerous,
is it not? Don't accidents often hap
penn"
"Yea; it is risky. When they work
over the watts, and the retorts, and
things, they nun tie up their mouths
and noses wi clout, and even WI
that they may sometimes get choked
and overcome dwalmlike all at wonst
VII th' smell, or sommat. and then
they're a goner.
Accidents often happen, them"
"Weel, mon, they do and they don't.
Mates, you see, are aye at hand. The
lads often get an eye burnt, but they
don't reckon much to that. See
there's lad over there by tn beer
shop door"
L looked and saw sturdy fellow all
red, with white handkerchief tied
round his head under his cap.
"He's been two or three times like
that-wi' his eye burnt. Oh, yea; it's
risky; but we don't often ha' grit ac-
cident. The worst remember was a
lad on tn night shift that fell in and
was smothered; he was found in thing
next morning. That was a bad busi-
ness; a tn hair was off, an th' skin
and flesh was-but it mak's you feel
queer; yea, can see it do. 1t was a
bad business"
every horrible" said I, while my
heart thumped almost audibly. ''How
long was that ago?"
"Let me see. It's matter, do be-
lieve, O. Is year ago.
81 hope" said I, ga death of that
sort don't often occur"
"Nay; or our folk, quiet as they are
mostllns, might pull the whole men
agerie down."
/ was surprised to see the vindictive
glitter that passed from the little mans
eyes.
"Has there really" I asked with
some constraint, ''been any other death
like that since the one you mention2"
"Nay; Gonna remember one."