The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1904-08-16

here was Marie, hurrying down the
alley with the whole days product of
her looms piled on her shoulders and
on her head. She was reaching up
with both arms, and steadying the top
most roll with the tips of her fingers.
Its a load for a mule" said Dell
Carpenter, in establishment.
Marie, who seemed unconscious of
the weight, pitched the burden lightly
into the rack and sped out of the room.
The oyerseer looked up from his
check list. Il advise you to let Peep
alone" he said. IF you provoke her
to take hold of you, some one is liable
to get hurt"
Late one afternoon after this Dell
Carpenter was dressing her hair in
front of her looms.
This was against the rules, which
were posted in a dozen places; but
DelPs hair was so long and thick that
dressing it required time, and as she
wished to go out to supper that even
ing, and did not want to be late, she
was disregarding the rules.
Marie had to pass Dell's looms doz-
en- times a day. and there was no love
lost between the two girls.
Dell rarely let the French girl go by
in peace; and Marie chased Dell some
times when she was unusually in
censed. During the hair-dressing
Marie passed down the room, and Dell
was too busy to do more than make
face at her. Marie's black eyes spark
led.
"I'll have handful of that hair"
said Marie vindictiyely to herself, 'if
she does that again"
In a few minutes Marie returned.
Dell flung back her hair and swung
round toward her with a mischievous
look; but the look changed to one of
horror, and she uttered piercing
| scream of pain.
Her hair had caught in the gears,
and she was dragged backward and
twisted sidewise to the floor.
There was no time for Marie to go
round the end of the loom to the brake.
So she leaped high in the air, above
the PROSTATE girl, and grasped the
belt with her bare hands to drag it
from the pulley.
A strong man, with work hardened
hands, might we'll have shrunk from
grasping that driving strip of leather.
But Marie chung to it, although she
was lifted bodily from the floor, up
up toward that deadly shaft.
If she were carried over that shaft
she would be pounded against the cell
ing, and every bone in her body would
be broken. But as her feet touched
the frame of the loom, she set them
against it and pulled She pulled with
all her might, using the weight of her
body and the strength of her arms.
She pulled so well that the belt came
off, 1inging her down with lacerated
hands and broken collar-bone.
Dell lay beside her, with her head
twisted against the gears, but al
though she screamed and writhed
pitifully, her scalp was unhurt; there
was not drop of blood on the floor.
Marie stood up without assistance.
She wrapped her hands in her apron
and leaned against the window, while
the others cut Dells hair and lifted
her from the floor. The block teeth of
the gears had printed their marks on
the side of her face and neck. Their
next revolution would have crushed
her skull.
The girls led Dell away. The fixer,
turning back the wheels, released
great tress of the beautiful hair, which
he tossed toward Marie.
''That belongs to YOU" he said.
Marie laughed. She had a handful
of DelFs hair, after all.
Then she thought of her looms. They
We're all still. The filling had woven
out, and she had not been there to
change the shuttles.
She ran to her work and began start
ing up her looms, although her hands.
raw and bleeding, began now to pain
her fearfully.
One of the workmen took her gently
by the wrist.
you are coming out to the doctors
at once to have those hands dress H."
he said. "Never mind the looms"
The girls crowded round sympatheti.
cally, but she resisted all persuasion;
she must stay with her looms. When
at last the overseer told her that she
should lose nothing, she consented to
go.
The doctor discovered the broken
collar-bone, and told her it would be
several weeks before she could re-
turn to the mill.
Then Marie broke down. and crying
bitterly, explained to the doctor and to
those who had accompanied her why
she was SO anxious to work.
Her mother was just beginning to
feel better. Now there would be no
more money for her, and she must
come home, and maybe fall sick again
and die.
That evening the overseer came to
see Marie, and found her being nursed
by the French people. He told her that
the company would pay her the full
wages all the time she was ILL.,. On the