The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-04-15
VODKA MAKES HDM SEE LIFE
OLD RUSSIAN TELLS HOW INAAIAATE OBJECTS MAY RISE AT
LAST AND SMITE HUMAN OPrTISSOIS.

wheezed and coughed and pounded
and the fails shrieked and creaked as
though their bearings had not been
oiled in IL hundred years.
The faithful old machine had
through years of continuous service
earned it's right to rest. 1T had thresh-
cd the wheat, oats II barley grown
not only on Miller's, farm. but ON
fifteen ncishboring farms. Six days "a
week it was kept at its monotonous
work. and on Sundays Miller connect
ed the motor with a pump and filled
the irrigation bitches" Many u time it
had shown what in a horse or a mule
would be designated as temper. 1t
had once slapped the old man in the
Jaw With its snapped. betting SO hard
that for Il week afterward he had had
to live on a diet of soup and milk.
One Sunday afternoon as he was
! weighing the safety valve a steam
tube sprang a leak, and he withdrew
7 hastily. his hand badly scalded and
blistered. He took no heed of these
warnings. He once lost Il finger. then
he had his left foot crushed when the
krate got loose and. fell down. He
would not read the handwriting on
the wall. Every one else scented trou-
bic ahead. Every. %ncighbor told him
when he was hopping about the VIII
lage with his bandaged foot: That
NsNA> aA"N tii' IL SSN " 81 ttlII I
scared of it, he snapped back.
NO. he was not scared. On the day
of the fatal accident. as l learned aft
crward. the motor had gone on "A
strike about 4 o'clock in the after
noon. The old l had tinkercd with
it for two hours without any results,
surrounded by the grinning harvcsters.
delighted over this unexpected chance
to take a rest. AT 6 o'clock he had
gone. home furnished, cross and S wear-
ing fr,ghttully.
During the night Inc %bethought
himsalf of aome mechanical detail
which could probably account for the
stoppage of his cnglnc. He immedi-
htcly arose. as was his custom when
eyer amy such thought occurred to
:lin., about / o'clock. sadd'ed his mule
and rode 20 the field where the fan
tastic CID machine stood like a threat
enins no"N in the moonlight. What
hap?e led then no one Will ever tell.
The shrie king and coughing of the en-
gines and fails in the peaceful hour
of night set all the dogs in the near
ant distant farmyards bowling dis
mally. Then a blood-curdling call
rang over the fields, followed by abso-
lutte silence.
The first farmers to reach old Mil
lcrs thrashing ground beheld a weird
scene of destruction. The front axle
of II engine was broken. and the en-
sine had lurched forward like a worn
out horse fallen on both knees, the
cylinder had exploded. the fywheel
was gore. and tangled in the wreck
of the fails bled the body of old Mil
Ter. thrashed like a sheaf of wheat and
pinned to the wreckage. by the weight
Of the f1ywhec'; the top of his skull
had been blown off by a fragment of
the exploded cylinder.
"a frightful accident? Well. that
is what they called it.. Was it: I
for one refused to admit the simple,
obvious explanation which no one
doubted: An accident? No. sir: the
machines revenge. And. thanks to
that weird experience, my research
work has ever since been constantly
brought TO bear on life and conscious.
ness in h so-called inanimate things.
simpson. won't o have another
glass Of vodka? I tell you what an
ignorant world calls l~ifeless is as full
OF life as YOU and L. 1t may react in
a slower way upon in outside stimu.