Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1907-01-30

ed BrOu1e now lHe CURRENT cdrrleu
them always across the well-every
time and always. Brodie noticed
southeast. Then Brodie made HALEY
dig many holes, and the Spider welled
into them, and he threw in bits of note
books and tobacco wrappers, but al
ways they Travelled southeast-always
the same-and a bigger fool than Bro
die could see that the water was all
there, only underground. But when
did it rise? asked Brodie. When the
Chinook spoke, said the Sioux. And
why? persisted Brodie. Because the
Spider woke, said the Sioux And
Brode went out of the camp of the
Sioux wondering.
And he planned new bridge which
should stand the Chinook and the Spi-
der and the dell himself, said Brodie,
medicine or no medicine. And full
seven year it lasted; then the fire wa
ter spoke for the wicked Scotchman,
and he himself went out into the night.
And after he died, miserable wreck
of a man, and of very great man, the
Spider woke and took his pawky bridge
and tied up the main line for two
weeks and set us crazy, for we were al
ready losing our grip on the California
fast freight business. But at that time
HALEY was superintendent OF bridges
on the West End.
His father was a section foreman.
When HALEY was kid-a mere Kid
he got into Brodie's office doing er-
rands. but whenever he saw drafts
man at work he was no good for er-
rands. At such times he went all into
mental tangle that could neither be
thrashed nor kicked out of him, though
both were conscientiously tried by OLD
man HALEY and Superintendent Bro
die, and Brodie. since he could do moth
ing else with him, finally kicked him
into learning to read-and to cipher,
Brodie called it. Then by and by Hal
ley got an old table and part of cake
of India ink himself and himself be-
came craftsman, and soon, with some
cursing from Brodie and LUX a
that now!' from his paralyzed daddy,
became chief craftsman in Brodie's Of
fee. HALEY was no college man. Hal
ley was a Brode man. Single mind ON
single mind, concentration absolute.
Mathematics, drawing, bridges, brains
that was Haley. But no classics ex-
cept Brodie. who himself was classic.
All that Brodie knew Haley had from
him, and where Brodie was weak Hal
ley was strong, master of himself.
When Brodie shamed the image he was
made in HALEY hid the shame. best he
could-though never touched or made it
his own-and Brodie, who hated even
himself, showed still light in the
wreck by molding HALEY to his work.
For one day, said Brodie in his heart,
this boy shall be master of these
bridges. When am rot he will be here
what l ought to have been-this Irish
boy-and they will say he was Brodie's
man. And better than any of these
dough heads they send me out, better
than any of their eastern graduates he
shall be, If he was made engineer by
drunkard. And HALEY was better-far,
far better than the graduates, better
than Brodie, and to HALEY came the
time to wrestle the Spider.
Stronger than any man before or
since he was for that work. All Bro
die knew, all the Indians knew, all
that life's experience, eating, living,
watching, sleeping with the big river
had taught him, that HALEY knew, and
when Brodie's bridge went out HALEY
was ready with his new bridge for the
Spider water which should be better
than Brodie's, just as he was better
than Brodie. 1t was to be such a
bridge as Brodie's bridge, with the fire
Howe truss, two pier, two abutment,
three span, pneumatic. caisson bridge
to span the Big Sandy river were sub
mitted to headquarters.
But the cost The directors jumped
their table when they saw the figures.
We were being MIXED at that time-to
put it bluntly, being sucked, worse
than lemons-by Wall street clique
that robbed our good road, shaved our
salaries, impoverished our equipment
and cut our maintenance to the quick.
They talked economy and studied pira-
cy. In the matter of appropriations
for themselves they were freebooters;
for us, they We're thrifty as men of
Hamelin town. When HALEY demand
ed thousand guilders for his Spider
water bridge they laughed and said,
Come, take fifty" He couldn't do
anything else, and he built fifty gull
der bridge to bar the Spiders crawl.
1t lasted really better than the average
bridge, and since HALEY never could
get a thousand guilders at once he
kept drawing fifty at time and throw
ing them annually at the Spider.
But the dream of his life-this we all
knew and the Sioux would have said
the Spider knew-was to build final
bridge over the Spider water, bridge
to throttle 1t for all time.
1t was the one subject on which you
could get rise out of HALEY any time,
day or night-the two pier, two abut-