Oxford Democrat., 1906-09-11

pipe ciooking out Of one corner or the
roof, said 1t was q beautiful tunnel.
He said it With cheerful confidence to
tie committee of five who ha.. cone to
Investigate. The five had just C:nel
expans.vely with Barclay, and il was
with good hunored brayudo that they
uow trusted themselves to the dinSy
| elevator ard descended the shaft. Six
ty feet be.ow' daylight they stepped out
ON q Shiny platform, and Gresson. the
underground boss, showed them q
moist red tube reaching outward under
the river. A row of misty incandes-
cent lights ribbed the tunnel at regular
| intervals with circlets of brightness,
| and Mt the far end they could see a
black wall with closed steel door.
For the beaatit Of the chairman Of the
| five, who thought that this wall was
the end Of tie tunnel. Gre:g,soa explain
| ed that the steel door led into the air
lock and that for 600 feet beyond
| stretched the pressure workings. Greg
| son confined himself strictly to infor-
| nation; he ventured no opinion at all,
as became a wise boss in the presence
of the contractor. The five walked
down the plank roadway on the floor of
| the red tube, their heads almost touch
| Ing the roof, the water dripping on
| their oil coats, their ears filled with
the strange echoes Of this underground
place.
You are now under the river" Bar
clay said; "the water Is not twenty-five
| feet over your heads"
The five looked at one another.
"Is there any danger?" asked the
chairman.
"Not the slightest" answered Bar
clay.
A small. cold rivulet dripped down
inside the chairman's collar.
LET us 20 up" he said.
Having now nearly reached the steel
door Of the air lock, Barclay invited
them to enter the pressure workings.
where twenty men and a mule were
toiling. but the chairman remembered
suddenly that he had weak heart and
couldn't take air pressure. and the 9TH
ers were certain that, having just
dined heartily. It would be very dan
gerous for them to venture. Barclay
looked relieved Mt this decision; Greg
sons face was grim. and he said moth,
ing.
So the FIVE went up with the hazy
impression that tunnels were generally
moist and uncomfortable. If not dam
gerous. and that Mr.. Barclay was re-
markably efficient contractor and ON
accomplished engineer, to say nothing
of being u genial good fellow. They re-
ported that the tunnel was a good and
perfect tunnel and referred in comp!i-
mentsry terms to the contractor. there
by relieving the fears Of a solicitous
public.
1t is q curious fact that the deeper
into a tunnel one penetrates the poorer
its reputation. The FIVE had not been
permitted to catch so much as
glimpse Of Jernigan, the sub-boss, lord
of the pressure workings. II Jernigan's
op.ncn of the tunnel had been asked,
he would have answered frankly, being
an outspoken man:
"She's laundering geeser."
In the cold ooze at the end Of the
tunnel. where the truth was, gaunt.
half clad men, with picks and clay
plugging balls, said things about the
tunnel that would not look we'll In
print. aud. being men Of experience In
tlcse things. they spoke with authority.
So bad was the reputation Of the tun-
mel among those who knew that no
boss but Jernigan could have kept O
crew at work where every pick thrust
was special invitation to death by
drowning
When tunnel No. 3 began to grumble
It was beautiful to see JerniSan hold
his men in hand. At the first sound OF
danger there were those who would
have gone rushing for the air lock and
safety, but Jernigan, standing there
behind them In the roadway, was more
terrible than the danger In front. OF
all the sounds known to these under
g;o@nd places there Is none quite like
thc grumblinS at tunnels end.
And yet, sudden and startling as
these sounds at tunnefs end may be,
they are nothing Of themselves. Their
terror lies in their significance. They
are the outcries Of danger. The tunnel
grumbles when 1t reaches spot where
the earth between it and the water OF
the river bottom IL thin, where there
are pockets of quicksand or deeps OF
thick mud. Its excuse for grumbling
is the best. The heavily compressed air
within the tunnel, thus compressed for
the main purpose Of keeping out water
and mud from the tunnels end. breaks
out through the thin earth where the
men are working with ripping wall
and goes boiling upward to the surface
Of the river. And when It escapes the
water and thin mud bursts in, and II
enough air goes out and enough water
comes in, It is ninetynine chances to
Cne that the workers, racing for the
air lock, will be overtaken and drown.
ed with their noses to the roof Of the
| tunnel like rats in rain barrel.
For $50 feet from the air lock In Jer-
nigan's working there never was bet
ter behaved tunnel. All the way it ran
IS straight and shiny as gun barrel,
! the men at the end driving their way
comfortably through hard sand and
clay, with here and there bowlder,
and not thought of the vessels plying
back and forth sixty feet over their
heads. Behind came the brickers build
ing the tunnel wall (for the brick tube
was always kept complete within a
| few feet of the tunnels end), the pipe.
| men with their wrenches and the elec.
tricians adding light after light to the
long row at the tunnel roof. Barclay
| rubbed his hands with glee, thinking
| of his profits, and GregsOn lay by and
| let Jerni.an do the work. 1t was tun'
| mel building according to the books.
ScrofuIa a
Few are entirely free from it.
It may develop 30 slowly as to cause
little if any disturbance during the whole
Deriod of childhOOd