Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1908-02-06
NEARLY FREEZES
10 0eathin In His Own Refrigerator
an Atlanta, Ga.
DOOR SHUT ON HIM

Adventure in his Ice House. Where
He Had Gone to Sec How the
Thermometer Was Working and
If the Meats Were In Good Condi-
tion.
This is the story Of how an Allan
Ia man was lost in the artics Sunday
morning and kept himself from freez-
Ing to death only by dragging the
lorequarter of beef frantically back
and forth for more than an hour as
told by the Atlanta Journal.
On last Sunday morning shortly
atter ten O'Clock w. II. White, Jr..
or the White McLendon company.
wholesale dealers in meats, stepped
into the refrigerator of his ware
house at l and 3 East Wall street
for the purpose of seeing what de-
gree his thermometer registered. No
sooner was Mr.. White inside than
the door of the ice house banged and
the spring lock clicked fast.
From then until IL o'clock he had
no need to consult the thermometer
to know the temperature.
Il have discovered the north pole"
he said shortly after his release.
and l can tell you it's n bad thing
to hunt for"
While Mr.. White was working his
hardest to keep up n faint spark OF
warmth in his blood. his carriage
with Mrs. White in it was awaiting
him In front OF Durant's restaurant
on Alabama street. He had called
at the restaurant few moments be-
fore to take James S. Gaines and
Mrs. Gaines for morning drive. Mr..
Gaines was slightly delayed so Mr..
White said:
Il think I'll drop by the warehouse
while were waiting and have a look
at the mercury. Be back in a min
ute"
When the minute had passed and
twenty more had followed the ladies
grew uneasy. BY eleven o'clock Mr..
Gaines yielded to their anxiety and
set out to find the trouble.
In the meantime strange and,
for the time being n terrible drama
was being enacted in that ice house.
Anyone who could have peeped in at
the time would have seen q white
faced man lighted by the misty blue
OF solitary incandescent globe rae
ing from one side of the box to the
other with huge quarter of beef
on his shoulder. He would hang the
beef first upon one hook and then
upon another. all the while swinging
his arms high above his head and do
ing a thousand and one Swoboda
stunts.
1T was either this or freeze" ex-
planned Mr.. White. IF man is
hard at work he can live in such
refrigerator hree or four hours, but
If he stands still he will pretty soon
he like one of those petrified animals
that biologists dig up in northern
Russia.
And so back and forth he tugged
the beef until the end OF his impris-
onment 1t looked like a soup bone
that had done duty three days
Once telegram messenger boy
passed on the alley on which tiny
side window of the refrigerator OPP
ems. Mr.. White heard him whistllng
and with all his might he shouted
and beat upon the sides OF the ice
house. But the boy kept on his way
unheeding. Then he began to think
what might happen. He concluded
at first that someone was playing a
joke on him and then he decided
that pretty soon the policeman OF
hn
keys in the front door would lock
thinks up and go away.
He conjectured that In the mean
time Mr.. Gaines and the ladies would
decide that he had been detained on
business and would take a prelimi-
nary drive over town. However, he
might view the situation, 1t looked
hopeless and he remembered all the
stories he had read OF travellers being
buried under the snow and freezing
to death with no earthly sound to
greet them. except the lugubrious
howl OF far away packs OF wolves.
Every detail of his strange prison
fell into harmony with such roman
ces. The incandescent globe cloaked
in its chill fog shot forth fantastic
rays that seemed like the aurora
borealls and the huge blocks OF Ice
that hemmed him in were for all the
world like the mountains of Lapland.
BY the time the quarter of beef
had been frazzled to gaunt skeleton
Mr.. Gaines arrived. Inside the store
he heard the steady beating against
the walls and pretty soon recognized
L FL 81 n
shout for help.
Mr.. White never stopped to see
what the thermometer registered
when the door was finally pried open
and he stood once again in the tenn
perate zone.
'I don't believe there's a ther-
mometer with enough notches on it
to tell the story" he said.