The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1908-07-25

I uetiaTeu. 1 wanted TO DO N-1Or the
experience, you know 1 guess no
cyclist ever did 1t before. And that
footpath was the shortest way from
| Grindewald to Meiringen.
"Ah. l groan yet when think OF
that path. l started up. shown the
old bike, siidin' on the powders and
stickin' in the mud, and pluggin'
| up and up, and stoppin' for breath,
up and then up again, blowin' and
| steamin' and groanin'. and always
lookin' for the top. Every once in
while Id see It, up under the clouds,
! and then when got there it wouldn't
be the top at all. After a while l got
| above the clouds.
Then the wind turned, and blast
right out O the refractory struck me,
I and snowfiakes, hard like hailstones,
beat up my face and hands. But at
last l reached the top. knew it was
the top. because the clouds swung
off to the left. and hung over the
Faulhorn like washing on a line.
well, it was worse goin' down.
And there was more of it. I slid and
rolled and tumbled, and doubled up
! the bike and dragged it. apJ plunged
down and down and down. After a
while it got dark No moon, no stars
Nothing but clouds and gray noun
tain above, and dark trees below,
and black gorges, and roarin' floods,
nj ho l;,,,
among EN-.
AT last l found myself on smooth.
solid highway. 1t was glorious coast
in'-the road doublin' up sharp on
the edge of the cliffs and wrigglin'
away in the blackness. just a faint,
gray line. But hair-raisin'! No fem
ces-rock wall on one side, and jump
in OF places on the other. After I
caught myself two or three times
on the edge OF precipice, got of
and walked again. My eyes had be-
gun to see roads in the air.
Then the rain came on-a deluge.
crawled into hole alongside the
road and stayed there for an hour or
two. Then it stopped rainin', and ]
moved on, scratchin' with my heel
to feel whether l was on the road.
But at last the lights on Merlin
gen sparkled up through the pines. l
could see better now, and jumped on
my bike, and slid down that old noun
tainside regardless. Then that hub
brake got red-hot-it always does 60
in down mountain sides-and there
was the cause of my catastrophe.
when hub-brake gets hot you've
got to pour water on it. l saw that
cold, white column streakin' down
from the tail of the Rosenlaui glacier,
reachin' up out Of sight and down out
of sight-straight as the rain-pipe
from the roof of house where good
sensible people live and are happy
without travelling.
Il never thought of the force OF
that water. just stopped with jerK
at the inside of the road. where an
iron grating hung over the chute, and
swung the bike over so the ice water
would hit the hub.
"The water hit it all right. Grabbed
the bike, and bent it double, and
chucked it through the hole inside
the grating-and me with it!
ut happened so quick, you see, l
couldn't let loose. ! remember bein'
snatched and ,crammed through a
hole, and then droppin' downtown
and sort O. wonderin' how long it
would take that ice water to reach
the boilin' point when we struck
Hades.
"Well-I didn't land in Hades. I
woke up in-the top of a tree! You
needn't laugh. It wasn't funny! The
top Of tree way down at the foot
of the mountain-me hangin' limp and
numb across the branches, kind O
wonderin' what had happened, and
whether l was alive. After while
I noticed little stars twinklin' through
the boughs up above, then q bunch OF
lights OF to the left-and it dawned
on me that there was place called
Meiringen.
II rubbed some of the deafness out
o. me, and felt myself all over. Then
few more clouds drifted of my
brain, and I realized that cold spray
was dashin' over me, and there at
my feet was q white. roarin' basin,
where that solid water column had
chewed a hole in the granite and
was hammerin' away like 1t wanted
to bore clear to hell.
II saw then what had happened to
ue. I'd slid down that toboggan slide
like a wet spider, and instead o
In l'd 0imnlX