The Holt County sentinel. (Oregon, Mo.) 1883-1980, 1915-08-06

II vent To such An extreme that eros.
by and I both became q bit uneasy.
The burlington WAS using a tempo.
,arv nile bridge while building the
p,esent great steel structure across
the river At Rulo, and II was this pile
bridve that came near giving me my
"axin's." On Christ mas day, 1885,
ven, over TO Craig to eat Christmas
dinner With 4 young lady friend Of mine
but I figured on getting back to Rulo
that night In order to take In the big
Christmas ball given by the men work.
ing on the bridge. That day the Ice
moved and the pile bridge Was twist.
ed ali out Of shape, and WAS ss un.
stable - water. I got to the east end
OF the bridge Just about dusk, only TO
find that there wasn't . train over,
and the bridge mighty unsafe. But
I was young and full OF vinegar, 50 In
spite OF warnings I started to walk
across that bridge. When about half.
way across.the Ice shifted some more
and . "bent" OF The bridge behind me
went out with . roar, while that part
on which I Vas walking began to pitch
and toss like the deck Of ship In .
great storm. I couldn't run and I WAS
afraid to walk. So got down on my
hands and knees and crawled - rap.
Idly as I could, finally managing to
reach solid ground. Before could
catch my breath the entirebridse went
out with q roar. Had been two
minutes later In reaching N ebraskasoil
would have been another victim Of
that bridge work-and II cost several
lives. I went TO the ball, but, believe
me, I didn't dance any that night.
Believe me or not, Just - you please,
bu, lived q century during the five
minutes I was crawling towards the
west end OF that wriggling old bridge.
While 'cubbIng IL" on the old SEN.
r,syL we boys used to spend Saturday
nights and Sundays fishing In the big
Tark" above Forest City, camping out
over night and setting our lines. Now
and then we would get a. far Is the
junction Of the "Big Tark" and the
Missouri river, some three miles
southwest OF Forest City, but we
found the best fishing In the other
direction. We used to think the big
Tark" was some stream. Some fifteen
wears interviewed bet ween my last two
visits to the big Tark," and It was
really wonderful how that once hefty
stream had dwindled. To my man.
hoods eyes Il WAS mighty spindling;
whereas Il was rather majestic to my
youthful vision. But ] guess the
rapid increase OF drainage bitches
across the Missouri bottoms had some
thing to do With II. We used to catch
some mighty hne bullheads In the
big Tark," and we used to have
some mighty line old swimming holes
therein. The chief trouble with the
swimming holes WAS that We didn''
dare try to Walk on the bottom, fo'
the mud WAS anywhere from seven &c
seventy feet deep, We had TO swim
clear across and back and climb out on
q log. And such great Old skating
parties We used TO have on the biI
slough at Forest CITY We younI
folks would either walk or ride from
oregon-usually walk-to Forest
which was about three miles, skate
until midnight and then walk back
II there was plenty OF snow we coult
coast more than halfway from Oregon
TO Forest, but we had to climb hill
oil the way back.
Oregon was three miles from q rail-
road In my cub days, but now It Is TIN
northern terminus OF the v'Oregoi
Short Line" The line isshort, beinl
+, less than five miles long, and Is owne,
by Oregon capitalists who built 1