The sun., 1907-08-04
DISASTER JUST BEHIND Hin
NARROW ESCAPES MARK FRANK
&. kITTSON's TRAVELS.
Wrecks. Explosions. Landsiieses. lAwhtning
lB0Its. Pots0nlngs. Floods That Have
Come After He HAS Dot out Of the Way
ITS Beginning tO Oct On FITS E9-vrs.

Come After He HAS Got out Of the Way
its Beginning to Oct on FITS Ec-vrs.
frank Z. Kittson OF Pittsburg begins
to believe that he Is Troubles advan CO
agent.
Because" he explains. Il always seem
to he just about four jumps ahead Of dis
aster. Nothing has happened to damage
me yet. But IL things keep on breaking
this way I'm going to be had sooner or
later"
MIR. Kittson whose days work calls for
him to sell and to set up bridges and trestles
everywhere in the world for Pittsburg
steel manufacturing concern. has pocket
notebook filed with memoranda about
calamities that he has been just a little
bit in front of. The last note in the book
il about the steamer Columbia, which sank
of the coast of California the other day
with the loss Of more than $50 lives.
Il rode down from Astoria. Ore, TO San
Francisco on the Columbia about a month
ago." said Mr.. Kittson. There was a
dense fog all the way to the Golden Gate,
but We didn't meet UP with either ship or
steamer on the trip, and deep water COLI
sions are mighty infrcquent out on the
west coast. Yet here the Columbia gets
a port bow ram from another steamer
a couple of trips after I get my dunnage
OF Of her and goes to the bottom.
The Columbia made the third Pacific
Ocean steamer I've cruised aboard Of
that met with disaster shortly after I'd
made my rides on them.
ten years or 30 ago I came up from
Acapulco. Mex, to San Francisco on the
Colima OF the Pacific Mail Line. On her
very next voyage down the coast she
heeled to a terrible hurricane Off Cape
St Lucas and went down with nearly all
hands losing their lives.
Il made the ride from Yokohama to
San Francisco on two occasions. the last
time on the trip Immediately preceding the
ono which ended In the Rio de Janeiro's
going down nearly at the entrance to the
Golden Gate. A lot Of people went down
in her. including the American Consul
General at Hongkong. Mr.. Wildman, and
his family.
Il was on board the United States gun
boat Bennington a number Of times at
Honolulu more than ten years ago. and
so when. a couple Of years ago. while at
San Diego l found that she was in the
harbor there boarded her again to see
il any Of her old officers of my acQuaint-
ance happened to be aboard. On the
following day the Bennington went into
the air from burst boiler, with heavy
loss OF life among the ships company.
Down in the State of Sonora in Mexico.
four summers ago, was standing under
the half shelter of a trestle with a crowd
of peon laborers during terrific electrical
storm-Sonora is where all Of the worst
l. a.. L. -
I used to think-and the bolts were hitting
all around and the smell of sulphur in the
air made it hard TO breathe. A collie dog
belonging to one Of my foremen was running
toward our group when log loosened
bv the rain rolled down a little hill upon
her. pinning her TO the ground.
Hearing her yelps OF pain I ran over
TO release her. I was ppending the log
to. give the dog a chance to slide out when
there came the worst crash / ever heard.
1t knocked me over on top Of the dog. but
I wasn't hurt worth mentioning
The bolt. though. had hit the trestle
Just at the point where I'd been standing
beneath it thirty seconds before and nine
Of the poems were killed outright. That
part Of my nice trestle, was twisted into
Junk, warped into mere scrap steel.
"A year or 80 after that, down on the
Tehuantepec hailway-I was peddling
h ridges and trestles and setting them up
- ~. ,;na-Ivas aeated on a rocL under
Oh U,o ,s .S - ,,-o,, - 80.
smal cun' Ut .'e siee'" AnooA o,' i'oui'
About thirty laborers ana tneir foreman
were spread around in the shade OF the little
clin. rolling their corn shuck cigarettes
after eating.
My pipe was in the pocket OF my coat.
and the GOAT was hanging on the iork OF a
tree little way across the hollow went
over to the coat to get the pipe. l hadn't
made thirty steps across the hollow before
a landslide rolled upon the little elm loosen
ing the rock. and about ten tons OF II came
down upon the spot where l d been squatted
a few seconds before.
-Four of the laborers were killed. and
nearly all the rest of them had to be pick
axed out of the mess, all more or less dam
aged / couldn't have beat that piece OF
trouble by more than twenty seconds at the
outside.
-You hear about plenty OF imaginative
chaps who, in their minds. were in the Johns
town flood, the Galveston Hood and the San
Francisco earthquake. I wasn't in any
of those messes but missed the Galveston
Nood and the San Francisco quake by mere