Arizona republican., 1912-05-13
River
 Bridge
By ARTHUR K. AYERS
COPYRIGHT. 1910, BY rHE PEARSON PUBLISHING co.

u SAC1Dulh bg d 0A 4pPAhco AAASSHSAAoNA from headquarters. It was the night of the seventh day of almost unremit- tent rain, the night of the Storm on the Blue Ridge division. Since noon the Crazy River had been justifying it's name, rising in leaps and bounds fed by raging tributaries in the hills. There was gloom in the sky. gloom in the hearts of the bridge and roadway men. Landslides threatened where they did not fall, washouts came with out warning Boyd, of the Mainte seventy-twO; Shelburn. Chief Engineer, not at all. At his great bridge over the Crazy. MahOney. his young assist ant. had been working and watching for two days
 Three other bridges had the river wrested from the railroad. With the loss of the third HolcOmb had brought from the west a tall bronZed man who had tunnelled the Rockies, sp2nned mountain streams in the Himalayas. and put a pair of rails through the desert past the Cataracts of the Nile. This was Shelburn. and he had held the river bound and helpless between the piers of the bridge he had thrown across it. Spring after spring il had gone stark raving crazy. tearing tooth and claw at abutment and pier, foam ing. frenzied, swirling, a yellow demon of a stream gone utterly mad. But never in the memory of the oldest crossing hagman had there been week like the past one. Never had the big bridge battled for its existence as it was doing now And the reports from the upper reaches of the river foreboded ominous things.
 The chief himself should be there; only one thing could keep him away. But overhead was that one thing the tiny son whom Gods finger was almost touching. The crisis would probably come this night the doctors said. so the Chief Engineer was re maining at home, watching the sllu- ation by wire, torn by varying anxi- cues, yet OutWdI uIy No4AI' A-4Si7D0' O' himself and his emotions. Every few minutes there came to him echoes Or the fight with the elements without and of that with a greater enemy in the room above Again the bell rang.
 "Six-thirty 35.4. Still rising. Ma honey" was the message. Scarcely mad the door closed before the tele- phone was calling him. It was Me Kelly with word that in Pine Creek | gorge six miles of track that had been under water all day had gone out along with a high wooden trestle. That meant that the Mineral division was cut in two for week to come. But if Shelburn's bridge held the main line would be kept open.
 At seven o'clock came the news "36 feet. Still rising Have ordered more men and twelve cars of stone from Pilot Junction" Along with it was a note from Bancroft saying that the wires were still good as far as the 1 bridge but were gone beyond Pilot i Junction, north of there. Outside the 1 rain fell ceaselesslv, dripping. splash l ing. driven agai1s- the window-panes 1 by furious gusts of wind. The wet branches of tree creaked and beat | against the house as though in agony. 1 Overhead were soft footballs and ar occasional little cry of pain that cut the man like knife.
 Hourly the river rose and the fury of the wind and rain increased. Every train possible was annulled and the sidings began to fill to overflowing. Al eleven o'clock Mahoney's report read "43.6. Rising faster. Am putting steam-shovel to work at Monica get ting out rock Need more men. Looks l bad"
 On its heels came another: "Durbau
 reports dam just gone out on head
 waters. Can you possibly come? Ma l honey"
 The Durban dam gone! The chiei
 groaned. Sixty-one miles above t'
 bridge it had held back the waters O
 the North Fork. Now in two hour:
 the crest of the greater flood would b'
 upon the scene of the battle whert
 already there was scant seven fee
 between the muddy foam-crestet
 waves and the ties.
 Could he come? For ten minute
 he fought it out with himself. Hol
 comb was already on the way. Dowl
 there at the river they needed him
 His bridge needed him. Yet dearer t
 him than all his beloved bridges wer
 the little lad overhead and his mother
 He owed them more than he did tn
 road Then for one illuminated in
 stant he saw with clearness the con
 sequences to thousands of others, th
 suffering bodily and mentally that woul'
 follow the breaking of the railroad
 line He recognized the immutabl
 law of the rails, that come what ma.
 they must be kept open; only to fee
 anew that he could not leave at sucl
 time Don't go away. Daddy Tn