The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-07-02

1t both ways-just like you wrap pack
ages. Then started to pull her UP to
the window on the outside. Quite
crowd was watching. All went well
till ! nearly got her there, then some
thing ] had neglected to calculate on
happened-ths rope began to stretch.
1t commenced slipping nearer and
nearer the edge of that slab. II It had
gone half an inch farther that big
piece of marble would have crashed
to the pavement Why I wouldn't
have had 1t happen for $1,000 with
all that crowd around. It would have
been breaking more than the marble
a precedent. Let me tell you when I
landed II inside was Just shaking.
Ny reputation never had such q close
call before and hope not soon again.
In addition to all these feats OF
magic White moves goods all over
Kansas IN huge trucks. His haps and
mishapS on these trips would fill a
book, but he always by some hook ar
crook reaches his destination and de-
liverS the goods. A few weeks ago he
was sent with q truck load clear to
the Nebraska line. Two days before
there had been a cloudburst-a regu-
lar gully-Washer in q section of the
country he had to cross He left here
Sunday, pIoughed thru all that mud
to his destination and got back here
Monday.
Truck Thru = Bridge.
Another experience he tells of Is
when he and his truck crashed thru
big bridge between here and Ottawa.
Part of the bridge followed them.
But as White was born under a lucky
star he didn't get q scratch and the
only delay was in pulling the truck out
OF the sand.
My narEowest escaps7-Weil, I've
had so many can't think which was
the narrowest- I had one the other
day that was about as close q call as
any.
up at Eskridgs they'd got a boiler
for the new high school 1t was so
big 1t gave all the movers around
Tor help. So took my jack bars and
ropes and drove up. AS was just
starting to unload il the little piece
OF cement that served as a brake on
the flat-car got knocked out. The
track was down grade so we started
to roll. Before you could say Jack
Robinson that car had crossed the
switch and was on its way on the %
miles down grade. Before 1t had
gained much speed, a darby who was
walking the ties thought this fIat-cAr
was just his opportunity, so he hoped
on. This grade got steeper-the car
went faster. When my companion
realized that he had chosen a runaway
car for his journey. he tried to jump
off. 50 had to sit on him. I didn't
wonder that he was scared to death
when he yelled TO me that there was
e passenger train coming from the
way we were headed due in Eskridse
that very minute! BY that time the
car had come to q comparatively level
stretch and was going about az fast
as a man can run. We both Jumped,
grabbed a couple OF ties from alongside
the track and hurled them under the
wheels. Let me tell you a man has
to be pretty scared before he can
pick up a tie and thow il like it was
a piece of stove wood! We heard the
train coming so I ran down the track
and tagged IL, and it pushed the rum
away back to Eskridge. To let you
know how fast we were going, we
made that eleven and q quarter miles
in fourteen minutes and forty seconds
nearly a mile a minute.
When I got back to Eskrfdge they
told US that the whole countryside had
learned Of the runaway and had raced
to Harveyvflle, twelve miles from Esk-
ridge. TO see the wreck, and II we'd
gone that other mile they sure would
mt have been disappointed"
Talk about thrills!