Douglas daily dispatch., 1926-10-12
THE. CRASH OF THE CAROUSEL
by JAMES j. MONTAGUE

I But the best the motor could do
was to make the thing barely move
not more than an inch a minute, and
that speed wouldn't appeal to the kids
at all. My uncle was cast down for
while, but he soon frightened up and
went to see friend of his who was
engineer of a brewery, and knew all
about mechanics
1.-The trouble" says the engineer,
'is all in the gears. What you need
| is big gear wheel to be run direct
by the motor and little wheel meshed
into it that will make the whiligig go
round
I "He came over with a tape and
measured the wheel of the motor and
the gears on the motor and the bears
on the carrousel. Then he made u
lot of figures on an envelope and said
a big wheel So inches "in diameter
would do the trick about right.
my uncle went over to Center street
to get the big wheel, and while he.
was on his way he got to thinking
that if a 52-mch wheel would make
the machine go at regular gait, a
wheel 100 inches wide would make a
real pace, and draw kids from all over
! town.
"The best he could, get was 90-inch
wheel. He got truck and brought it
down, and he and some of the boys
of the district spend the night putting
| it in, so as to be ready for business
the next morning, which was Saturday.
"When they were already to start
Saturday morning about 10 o'clock, the
kids were preparing to jump on to the
number of several hundred, but my
uncle suddenly developed a cautious
streak, and said he'd give the machine
a practice spin before taking the first
I trip. A Greek, who had been helping
with the gears, was told to get on
one Of the elephants or camels and
tell my uncle just when he'd got the
right speed.
"This Greek was an ordinary ana
obligfng lad who would vote oftener
/ in one morning than anybody in the
district and who could be depended on
to do what he was told. But he balked
at riding on the trial trip, and my
uncle had to use pretty rough talk
to get him to do it. Also before the
start 1t was necessary to have three
the thing, which was just as we'll.
"My uncle himself turned on the
power. There was only one straight
switch, with nothing to regulate the
speed. She groaned a little at first and
we were afraid we didn't have enough
power. But presently she began to
pick up, and the Greek, flashing past
us about once in two seconds, hugged
the neck of the giraffe he was riding
on and grinned in a pleased way. He
was the envy of all the audience, and
it tickled his vanity for a while.
pretty soon she began to pick up
and the Greek got nervous and waved.
at US to shut off the power. But the
switch was jammed somehow and
couldn't come out. In another minute
the animals were going by so fast all
of them seemed merged with the others
like one of those dogs and tramp in
one of those pin wheels in comic
picture that you see. Then we heard
a yell out of the Greek and saw him
shoot off the giraffe, taking the neck
along with him and land on push
cart across the street.
4 '@The next thing we knew all the
wild beasts were going off at, tangents
i and the crowd was running for their
lives to get out of the way.
] Some of them weren't so lucky. The
heads of lions and tigers and hippi-
lpotamuses shooting out through the
lair did lot of damage-not only to
shop windows and to push carts, but
to people who couldn't get to cover
quick enough to save themselves.
when the big gear finally blew to
pieces from the speed it was going,
There was not SO much as a leg of
an animal left on the whirligig. Most
of them were block away.