The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-10-16

Tic WOI1 Inr1Il1ng. Il under the
impression that a thrill was a pleas
ana excitement, such as soldiers might
get IN a charge or a policeman in
clean1ng a rough hot Sc with his club,
out such thrill stories as I have read
IN this column would indicate that
others. in an attempt to give their
'thrllF' experiences. point only to a
big scare To follow the general lead,
that is what I shall offer to the thrill
As a rule. the normal man is not
scarry' about himself. All of Us
have. at some time or other, been
scared stiff by the sight Of imminent
danger to some child or to member
of the family. l have been scared I'M
til was faint and weak for an hour
by danger to others, but my selfish,
personal scares have been few aId
~ far between For many years / have
led the peaceful, uneventful life of a
general utility newspaper man, and
before that time, natural timidity
kept me out of places that might offer
scares OF thrills But as this thrill er
contest seems to call for personal
scares@well-
1t was about the middle of Febru-
airy, 1897, that 1 found myself a gen
eral utility boy with the dynamiting
gang in Whitley Gap. Ark, eight
miles north of what is now DuQueen,
a division point the Kansas City
Southern-then called the "Split
Log" At that time DuQueen was an
old deserted field filled with half tent.
half slab shanties 1 had the honor
of naming it 'Hurrah City" The road
was built from north and south and
the ends met at Whitley Gap, where a
22-foct cut in solid rock effected the
union. Construction trains were
working forward from Silver Hill OF
the north and Horatio on the south.
and time limit was about to expire
We worked night and day and used
lots of dynamite and black powder.
One day they sent me to the arsenal"
a powder house up on the top of Whit
ley mountain. for a load of push"
Incidentally they gave me a team of
mules untitled for work on the grade
because their necks were so sore they
could not pull 1 picked up pieces Of
harness and one of those dump wag-
ons with poles for a bOttom-the kind
used for hauling sand or scrap rock
and went after the push" which was
the pet name for high explosive with !
our outfit.
At the arsenal 1 presented scrap |
of dirty notebook paper and helped
load some stuff, towit: Nine cases of
TO per cent dynimate, LA sticks to
the case; II 25-pound cans of black
powder and two boxes of illuminate
fuse caps. 1 didn't load the caps with
the other goods. l put them IN my
hat Anyone who has a speaking &C
quaintance with the illuminate cap,
knows that it is a peeVlsh, perVerse
invention, and very misleading: ABOUT
the size of a 80 caliber rim fire cart
ride it can do the dirty work of half
a stick of dynamite. I kinda hated
to plant them in my hat, but it was
awfully rough and the wagon had
neither springs nor shock disorders
Now comes the big scare, commonly
called thrill. We, the mules and the
apush'' and 1, started down the side
of the mountain. There were no
breechings or "holdbacks" on the &C
cursed chain harness, and no prake on
the wagon. The Internal mules must
hold back with their necks, and their
necks were tender and their mouths
tougher than tripe. was getting along
nicely, by lacking from one side or the
road to the other, when the Idiot cut
About half mile from the arsenal
vUas a moonshine joint, run by one Bud
WHITLEY. acknowledgements grand
son of the gent for whom the noun
tain was named. 1t was about TWO
hundred yards from the road, ana
concealed by screen OF blackjack
scrub oak And beyond that screen,
some simp of a mountaineer began
shooting at something bly, an
inoffensive jaybirdI matt a a. M hane
wasted ammunition like that had he
been sober, and when the first bullet,
turned over by a blackjack tw1g, went
''ow-wow-Wow1ng over my neau' ]
began to curse the man who invented
booze. ]
The mules heard it too. They not t
only heard the bullet, which SOUNDED
like a pe6VeQ nOTIet, pA~ IAASS = |
INV earnest depreciation. They began /
q sloppy sort of trot. pow wee-wee- j
wow-eeeee another bullet. I'll swear
II wasn't over six inches from the r
wad of sudden death in the top OF my r
hat The poor old mules loosed up
another notch. 1 yelled "Stoppit as c
loud as I could and the answer was f
another buzzer that hit a rock BESIDE 5
the road and glanced into the s1de- @
board of the wagon. began TO flg-
nre the size of hole we would make O
IN Whitley Mountain, and offer pro-
fame hope that the explosion would
reap the zap with the gum The
When they got started, they couldn't b
stop Their necks were so sore they b
couldn't hold back, although I was f.
pulling their necks to vertical posi- k
ion with the lines. In all, 1 was a
he gcop on the mountain side fired e
eleven shots. None of them missed
ne and my cargo over a rod-the o
aybird must have moved south with ii
he shooting. c
/ have never been profusely pro- f:
ane / was but a kid of Is at that k
ime, and had not learned num-
Ter of the fancier, modern cuss words b
ut what I said to those mules and tt
ition would not be fit to print in IL
he Pink Rag or Yellow Dog. 1t was 81
he BIG SCARE-caH it thrill if you ci
var to-of my life. II
My cargo of high push" was de- w
Iveied intact. I stopped the team by w
licking out vacant space between te
rees on the high side of the road
nd pulling the mules into it. We III
uni ed a stump and threw one case E
f "Danger-70 per cent out of the TT
wagon, but we checked our mad ca m
eer. Upon delivering the load I was nj