Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-12-24
fore, he preferred to retire! v

| surface by means or eIeCIriC DelfS.
With touch Mr.. Kahn was snatched
away, leaving Dick and Vida in the
glimmering dusk beneath, standing
close together, gazing up the dark
shaft of the dock.
Dick turned to Vida, immensely
| proud of his position and full of ex-
| plantations of this and that. Already
he had acquired that pride in the per-
lection of his workmanship which Is
the craftsman's pleasure. And he felt
| that livelong day would not be too
| long time in which to expose to Vida
the wonders of the territory over
! which he ruled--if not as king, at least
| as viceroy
And it was "Mr. Kahn admired
| this'-or "Mr. Kahn wishes that
till Vida had to restrain her speech
by the thought of all that Dick had
done for her. Yet what would Dick
have thought if he had known that
his idol, with fell purpose in his
heart, had stopped the cage twenty
fathoms up the shaft from where
they stood On that even at that mo-
ment, he was striking match to Sc:
on fire the covering brattle-cloth
| which he had previously drenched
with paraffin. The flame flashed
about James Kahn in circle. was
promptly caught by the updraft an :
swept upward with roar into the
| long thousand feet of plt-props srd
brattice-work that divided the cage
ways from the ventilating shaft.
So swiftly did it spread TINT for a
moment James Kahn thought himself
lost-caught in his own prope; trap.
But he "belled" furiously. Johne-
mann, the engineer, responded instant
ly, and, with no mure than the SINCE
ing of his hair and smell Of fire on
lis clothes. he was lifted to the sur
lace. bringing witt, him the most ter.
rible news that can ever be carried
| through pit village.
"The pits on fire--No. 2 on fire. :
Where where" they cried,
running from far and near at the
| mere sight of his terror.
"In the shaft-near the bottom
Johnemann was quick or should
never have got through
How many are down there"
Nearly the whole morning shift
bar one or two!"
And Miss Vida"
She's there-old Dick F::,snan's
little girl, you mean Yes. saw hel
ga!"
And so, swift as the dartine light
Eing, the news spread The women
sitting at the shale heaps lei drol
their sleeves and for the first time
the strange, keen note Of mourning
Pit women was heard in K;;ktr wn.
I he regular safe work Of day-in and
d!y-out hal cchc on SO Long that II
seemed as il II ould go on forever
There had been individual cases. Of
course-falls Of rock on rash or care
| less heads inipr' sonments If longer
or shorter duration. owing til a tenn
t,trs dera Il" .c.nnt Of t5s pumping
| apparatus and the swift rising of the
notion waters.
But in Kirktown. never since tn:
name. of Incubus Or CORN or Romer
were known, had there been any
great accident. And there need have
been none now, save that certain
Gnetto-Serb was clearing his way
after his rectal manner, to a financial
| throne.
There were still few laggards on
the road-expectant Of fines for their
late hours. A father scolded a couple
of boys, who went along with down
cast heads on either side. The cid u
walked fast to make up time taking
long strides. The boys ran few
steps to keep up. Here and there was
an unmarried man, little red about
! of the night
the eyes, trudging stolidly along with
his boon companion of the night
Their hearts ached but their very
shortcomings had saved their lives.
AS always. up to the very nome II
when James Kahn arrived from tha
| pit-bottom, the black wheels on the
tall Incubus scaffolding spun and re-
versed. The beam engines danced
their awkward dance like elephants In
a show Down the deep. straight
shalt the men and boys dipped, leav.
Ing the light and the fields behind
them. Tools clinked as men packed
closely together shifted the weigh,
from one shoulder to the other. Moth
ing, after his children, is more dear to
the good pitman's soul than his tools
He treats them well, and In all hut
the most instant alarm, carries them
with him wherever he goes. Sixteen
! hundred feet beneath the yellow corn
| tS'oS pkSsNSA lUlAdfCu IcSl USuGdGQ
Mr. Kahns "Caravanserai," and vel
farther beneath the foundations III
high-perched CORN castle. lay the
workings, hranched and tunnelled and
duplicated, where an hour before the
earliest picks had begun to play their
merry tune-the tune that meant
work and wages to the brick rows O,
Kirktown
The ponyboys brought the wagons
quickly along the dark underground
ways. Here and there lamps glim
mered and danced over mounds of ore
or rubbish waiting to be picked inta
yet deeper wells" or the gloomy un
known inferno of the stump"
From the abandoned workings
away to the right, of which the Dol.
est fought shy, there came faint
faded odors-rather whiffs than down
right smells. Near to these, even on
ordinary days, the lamp flame some
times forsool1 the center wick and
seemed to cling strangely to the
gauzy wire of the Davy frame.
Continued in next issue)
The First Requisite Of Beauty,
| The J,rSt ronntSjto Of a.,