Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-07-10
SID ELIeH rs.
AsN0
WORK OF THE CUB REPORTER.

4
The angels of night had spread their
ebony wings over the vast city, and q
stiffness as deep and profound as that
prairie was brooding over the red-til-
wherein the weary workers, worn out
by their herculean labors, were snatch
Ing an all too brief interval of repose
on the lotus-scented breast of Nor
pheus, when from out the eerie void OF
silence there rang forth, with paralyz-
ing suddenness, a stentorian shout OF
"Fire!"
No sooner had the dread alarm
ceased to fling its reverbrating thunder
over the responsive housetops than the
sleeping settlement became veritable
pandemonium OF noise and confusion,
Like myriads Of bees from an over
turned hive, the startled denizens
swarmed into the streets and focused
their dilating eyes upon dazzling eff
fulgence in the skies the crimson LUIS.
ter Of which made 1t all too awfully evil
dent that confagration of unpre-
| cedented fury was raging in the near
vicinity
Like fotilla Of fishing boats swept
irresisttbly on before a mighty, rush.
Ing tidal wave, the crowd surged In
conglomerate. inextricable mass to the
precise locality where the fire demon
held maniacal sway, and wall, re.
sembling the cry of a lost soul shut out
Of Paradise, filtered through their Inns
as they discerned the form of a won
drously beautiful maiden, clad in an
exquisitely chaste robe de mutt, peering
with the eyes Of startled fawn from
one Of the upper windows Of the burn.
ing domicile.
Merciful heavens, she win perish"
fvoctferated the crowd in cyclonic Choir.
us. For PHYS sake, save herr And.
as II in providential answer to this
clamorous appeal, the fire engine thun.
dered like rampant monster of the
antediluvian period down the congested
thoroughfare, and tumult of cheering
that seemed to cleave the heavens in
twain greeted the appearance of an in
| trepid young fireman of Titanic propor.
lions, who had reared an elongated lad.
der against the side Of the burning edi-
fee, and was bounding up with the
strides of Colossus to the rescue Of
the distressed damsel.
With what dazzling luminosity did
the pellucid orbs of the prepossessine
young lady light UP when she deserted
amid the esphyxiant smoke the form
Of her indomitable deliyerer! And
what mighty fusillade Of ecstattc
shouts burst from the leather-lined
lungs of the marveling multitude as
the valiant freman's ak shiyered the,
window frame! Instantly dense ex-
halation of volcanic vapor yoIIeyedI
forth with Vesuvian velocity, but, the
imperturbable fireman leaped into the
red-hOt furnace Of flame with inyuIner-
ability OF a salamander, and when ha
reappeared he held in his charred and
blackened arms something which. but
for an occasional eel-like wriggle and
a Enthusiastically feminine anxiety
concerning the symmetry of it's black
hair, might have been mistaken for q
marble statue.
| For moment the magnificent figure
of the lion-hearted rescuer poised II.
SELF In an eye-blinking frame of Are.
on the scorched window sill, then, en-.
folding his fair burden in a giant-like
yet infinitely tender, embrace, he made
breath-suspending dive into the
yawning fire escape, and not second
too soon, for, simultaneously with his
precipitous passage into safety, gor.
geous pyrotechnical display Of sparks
betokened the collapse Of the roof, and
the fire demon, wearying of his sat-
urnalian holocaust, permitted himself to
be reduced to impotence by the tons
and tons Of aqueous artillery which the
firemen poured in Niagara like cata1
clysm upon the once massive but now
woefully marred and mutilated cot.
tage.-Tit-Bits.
FAIRFIELD.
Fairfield, July THE Fourth In
falrneld passed without single ac-