 section one of the scrapbook volume one sampler by various edited by Frank a Muncie this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org reading by Bologna Times the coming test of American resources by James J. Hill section one James J. Hill seeing trouble ahead warns his fellow countrymen that there are dangers to be met at last James J. Hill the silent railroad King of the Northwest has given us his full and free opinion on the business policy of the United States throughout his long career it has been his plan to quote say nothing and saw wood unquote he has been too busy to talk the man who plunges into a dense wilderness as he did and transform it into four or five prosperous states has no time to run a public opinion factory but recently while at a gathering of his friends in St. Paul Mr. Hill unlocked his tongue and spoke out it was a remarkable address made by a remarkable man and the meat of it was as follows the nation at large feels that it is immensely prosperous we are cutting a wide swath there is no doubt of it but if we will get down closer and examine what we are doing we will find that we are living profligately and squandering our heritage in every possible manner we should insist upon better cultivation of the land for on that one item depends your future growth and prosperity and there is no other item to which you can look no other source of wealth than that which comes out of the cultivation of the soil if the soil is protected if it is intelligently handled if your crops are properly rotated if the land is fertilized and rested and treated with proper care you have a mine in the soil that will never be exhausted quite unlike the other mine the millions and hundreds of millions of dollars coming into the northwest from the annual crops while it is large isn't half as large as it ought to be our free lands are gone our public domain is exhausted last year over a million people came from across the Atlantic to the United States and the natural increase certainly is a million and a half more what is to become of these people they are to be driven fairly into the factories and workshops and no place else they can leave our country and go to the Canadian northwest as many have gone but that country will be populated to its extent very soon much sooner than you think it has not an unlimited area try and cast your mind 20 or 25 years ahead at that time we should have 150 or 160 millions of people where are they going who is going to feed them they can manufacture we have the raw material we have the coal and the iron and the copper and the lead they can manufacture who will buy it we have got to a point where we are selling our heritage we are selling our rich deposits of iron and our coal and our rich soil and exhausting it as well people of other countries are exercising the utmost closest intelligence in everything that pertains to economy and production take for instance the German nation today and they lead the world or any period in the history of the world in industrial intelligence and industrial management competition grows fiercer I was in England in November and met a sad site Trafalgar Square filled with idle people large numbers of idle people asking for bread up around Hyde Park why the men who carry on the work who paid the payrolls are no longer engaged in the business what they had they have turned into money and have bought securities or something else trying to save what they have got in the west of England which was a great center of broadcloth manufacturing and of woolen goods their output is less than a quarter of what it was 25 years ago Germany is selling cutlery and Sheffield and I took pains to look around London and to walk into the shops and find out I couldn't buy a pair of Lyle thread gloves that were not made in Germany under clothing stockings cloth almost everything made in Germany they have a system of education in Germany they educate their men now I am not going to undertake to say that their way is better than ours but I want to impress this on you that when this country has a hundred and 50 million people they have got to do something they have got to earn a living who will buy the goods who will employ them in what shape are they to meet the competition that England is meeting today and a million and a half of idle men asking for bread in England and no bread for them except such as charity doles out they have got to be carried out of Great Britain and a new place found for them there is no other solution it is all well enough to talk about what we are doing examine it closely and you will find that we are doing nothing except selling our natural resources and exhausting them when you dig a ton of ore out of the ground you can't plant another ton as you could potatoes it is gone and when the fertility of our fields the fertility of the soil is gone where are we going to replace it from teach the boys to work I am not going to find fault with education it never hurt anybody but if in place of spending so much time and so much money on languages and higher studies we fitted them for the life that they are going to follow for the sphere in which they are going to move we would do more for them I know that in two or three more or less railroads in which I am interested the payrolls cover 80 to 90 thousand people we have tried all manner of young men college men high school men and everything else and I will take a boy at 15 years old who has to make a living his chances will be better if he has to contribute to the support of widowed mother I will take him and make a man of him and get him in the first place before you would get most of the others to enter the race with him simply because he has to work he has to work he has the spur of necessity he must work if there be anything that you can do I feel sure that you will all put your hands to the plow and help but you will never build a city faster than you have a country to support it and that is the first and the most important thing end of section one section two of the scrapbook volume one sampler by various edited by Frank a Muncie this LibriVox recording is in the public domain reading by Bologna Times the progress of women by Lydia Kings mill commander section two an original article written for the scrapbook nothing is more wonderful in this age of wonders than the progress of women in all the civilized countries of the world never before were the doors of opportunities so widely opened never before were the barriers of sex so low the modern young woman does not face the one choice of her grandmother marriage or the fate of the old maid before her so many paths open that her only trouble is to choose her grandmother's girlhood was spent at home she was told that the happy woman is the woman with no history and a woman's name should be in the newspapers just three times when she is born when she marries and when she dies this is dead doctrine to the girl who goes whirling across the continent or around the world unchaperoned and alone and returns to meet the admiration of her friends and the interest of the public as she sits on the deck of the incoming steamer giving opinions on kings and countries chatting of the book she is about to write and handing out her photographs to a group of reporters she bears slight resemblance to the fainting amandas and clarices who raised their weeping eyes to heaven or fell swooning every time a mysterious sound was heard or even when a stray cow crossed their path how travel is made to pay if our traveler is practical and depends upon her own pocketbook instead of papa's she adopts a specialty and makes her trips pay for themselves she may be attached to some paper or magazine for the blue stocking is as fashionable today as once she was disgraced some women make capital of their travels in extraordinary ways one breaks records climbing mountain peaks at the risk of her life and then lectures to thousands upon the perils and pleasures of her feet another is with her husband on the Congo searching for traces of ancient african civilizations for the british museum in mexico and south america several women archaeologists are at work digging out relics of the astex peruvians and the original tribes of the amazon river a recent book on egyptian hieroglyphics was partly the work of a woman then there are the women who take parties abroad arranging for steamers trains boats and hotels buying tickets looking after baggage and keeping everybody interested instructed and satisfied such women and there are many of them must know half a dozen languages be familiar with the history customs and attractions of the country's visited be quick in an emergency full of tact so as to keep the party harmonious and clever enough business women to give everyone bargain rates and come out with handsome profits at the end of each trip but traveling for business takes other forms in the united states there are nearly a thousand feminine commercial travelers selling everything from perfumery to men's shoes and babies soothing syrup there are women factory inspectors who travel constantly from place to place the united states government employs a woman as superintendent of indian schools she covers thousands of miles every year and wields absolute power over the institutions under her care the woman who does not travel no longer needs stay at home in the old sense indeed she has little to keep her there the spinning weaving sewing and knitting which formerly where the home industries have been swept off into great factories in consequence the woman who does not want to be idle follows the work outside of the home and downtown in america 70 years ago in 1834 when harriet martineau visited this country she found only seven occupations open to women housekeeping keeping borders need a work teaching working in cotton factories book binding and type setting only the last four could really be counted as out-of-home occupations for keeping borders and sewing called for no new knowledge or skill apart from the training in housekeeping which all girls received it is safe to say that of those seven occupations six at least were not overcrowded the work of the world was done in the homes and housekeeping was the occupation of women there were few spinning mills but the old-fashioned wheel was in every house it was not kept in a drawing room alcove to prove its long ancestry but steadily busily hummed all day long as the soft rolls of wool changed into skeins and balls of yarn or thread after the work of the spinning wheel came the loom and the knitting needles cloth and stockings blankets mittens and mufflers were fashioned by the hands of the housewife and her daughters there were no factories for canned fruits pickles or preserves all these had to be made and stored up for winter use now the stores furnish everything from a handkerchief to a ball gown and from bread to canned roast beef the washing and ironing can go to the laundry and the family supplies can be bought the rush into business life since women had been working since work began they could not consent to remain at home idle the result is seen in the rush of the modern woman into business life the last census shows that in the united states women are following every trade and profession except the army and the navy even the army has a woman physician Dr Anita McGee who wears a uniform in europe the uniformed woman is by no means a rarity almost every royal woman wears military honors it will be remembered that queen victoria was carried to her grave on a gun carriage like an officer because as queen of england and empress of india she was head of the british army and of the greatest navy in the world to have an occupation is almost as natural to the american girl of today as to her brother for a woman to go into business used to be like climbing a mountain now it is almost like going down a toboggan slide when she leaves school she expects to work sometimes she finishes her education in a public school and goes into a shop factory or mill she may become one of the 75 000 billionaires the 100 000 saleswoman the 120 000 cotton workers the 275 000 laundresses or the 340 000 dressmakers if she can stay longer in school she may become one of the 320 000 school teachers or she may go to a college which sternly closed its doors in the face of her grandmother and carry off the prizes and the honors from the men she can enter a university come out b a m a or p h d and join the thousand women who are already college professors in the last strongholds of man if she fancies law medicine or the church her way is clear all three professions number their women members by the thousand though a generation ago the pioneers in each line were struggling against ridicule and opposition painting and sculpture were once considered masculine accomplishments but today 15 000 women have studios the musicians are three times as numerous even the more unusual occupations are well represented there are 261 wholesale merchants 1271 officials in banks 1932 stockraisers 378 butchers and 193 blacksmiths there are 200 women to mix cocktails or serve gen-fizzes behind the bar if they sell after hours or to minors there are 879 police men and detectives to watch them the traveling public depends for its safety and its accidents principally upon men but women already claim two motormen 13 conductors four station agents two pilots one lighthouse keeper 127 engineers and 153 boatmen among their number almost every paper one picks up tells of women's successes in some line of work a dozen women in chicago and probably three times as many in new york are making ten thousand dollars a year or more either as salaries or profits from business the property owned by actresses and singers must pay a handsome sum in taxes it is said that heady green the shrewdest business woman in the world can stand in city hall square new york and see five million dollars worth of her own property and everyone does she owes her millions to her own cleverness not to either husband or father a woman's building has been a feature of many of our great national expositions they have been filled with the products of women's labor but so far the structures though designed by women have been erected by men this can be remedied at any time it is necessary there are women builders of every sort 167 are masons 545 carpenters 45 plasterers 126 plumbers 1750 painters and glaciers and 241 paper hangers it is true the roofing would be a long job for only two feminine roofers and slaters are to be found in the whole country but the 1775 10 workers might help out if a steel frame were called for 3,370 iron and steel workers would stand ready and the eight steam boiler makers would put in the heating and power plant callings peculiar to the sucks not only have women conquered all the established callings but they have invented some of their own professional shoppers were never heard of in the old days though since the idea was started some men have adopted the business the welfare secretary who is guide philosopher and friend to the girls in factories or department stores has recently come into existence then there is the shopping advisor who pilots the uncertain mrs. new bride over one store or through many helping her to furnish the new home harmoniously fashionably and for a given some one woman owes her prosperity to her creation of the profession of dramatists agent a western woman raises animals for menageries and zoos another clears three thousand dollars a year by growing violets while a third is getting rich out of the proceeds of her ostrich farm altogether five and a quarter million american women or one-fifth of all the workers in the country are making their own money women's status in europe the women of the united states lead in this rush for education and for labor but in other countries the same advances being made if more slowly great britain has thirty five hundred university graduates fifteen hundred of these are from gerton known them and the oxford halls for women annexes of the historic universities but the examinations just as stiff it is a dozen years since miss faucet carried off the highest mathematical honors an english university can bestow germany looks a scance at any education for women that gives to her interests outside of the home the kaiser's four k's which become sees in translation clothes cooking church and children are popularly supposed to define the world of the german house for all the americans joke about women's fear has long been obsolete but that sphere is very real and very limited in most of the european countries yet even in the more conservative lands women are progressing the older dentists in germany and austria have to come to america for their diplomas today professional schools universities and colleges can be found where a woman can follow any line of study and fit herself for the professions in russia although the struggle for democracy is barely begun and representative government is as yet only at demand the higher education of women has been an accomplished fact for a number of years russian women doctors lawyers and professors are not uncommon norway and sweden have experienced a feminine revolution in the last quarter century the laws have been overhauled and revised the schools and colleges thrown open the trades and professions have flung down their barriers and work once a disgrace has become an honor to women sweden led in this movement but norway was quick to follow and it is now a question as to which will first reach the goal of full equality between women and men in political rights english and scandinavian women stand about on a level neither can vote for members of parliament but both have municipal and local suffrage which gives them power to exercise their gifts for housekeeping and economical management in civic as well as home affairs a woman's legal rights this growing liberty of women has affected her position as wife and mother in the days when she had no sphere but the home and no career but marriage she was a very insignificant creature even within those limits she could not own her home could not choose its location or have anything at all to say about it the home the children and she herself belonged to the husband who was lord and master in the sense of owner and dictator now in those countries where women have gained financial industrial and political standing they hold a more dignified position in the home formerly a widow could be left penniless and her children wheeled away from her the present english law gives to the widow one-third of the property and half the guardianship of the children in case of divorce the children under sixteen belonging to the mother unless she is notoriously unfit to have them very similar to these are the laws in the british colonies the united states and scandinavia in these countries too with the exception of certain of our states a married woman can own property earn money and collect her own wages sue or be sued make a contract with others and in some places with her own husband she is also entitled to support for herself and her children and to a divorce for various causes including infidelity brutality intoxication desertion failure to provide and felony in germany the wife is legally entitled to a certain proportion of her husband's income a right which women have in no other country everywhere else the vague term support is used and even that is not granted in seven of our states in holland austria-hungary belgium and denmark the women's movement is recent and slow the dutch queen is the only woman there who was not ruled and the dutchman wanted her called king so as to lessen their dislike of being subject to a woman's commands switzerland though it boasts of its democracy excludes its women from influence and political power it does not deny them work but like the german french and russian peasants the swiss women carry the heavy burdens of fieldwork and street cleaning without any reason to believe that there is dignity and labor in italy spain and portugal the upward movement of women has come mainly from the masses not as in russia from the aristocrats or as among the english-speaking races from the middle class in greece and the orient in greece the educated women are leading the crusade the principle of a girl's college in athens said recently it is true and beyond dispute that the greece of today owes its rapid progress to its women while greek women cannot vote they take an active part in political life during campaigns they make speeches for their husbands and brothers and at other times traverse the country expounding the doctrines of the party they espouse they resemble the english political woman of the style of mrs. Humphrey wards marcella a type scarcely to be found in any other country even into slumbering turkey land of harems greek women are carrying modern ideas of education there is a greek girl school in constantinople and principally through greek influence turkish women are studying european languages reading foreign books and looking toward the great world where women can be the comrades friends and equals of men instead of their playthings and slaves all through the orient the conditions of turkey are practically reproduced in spite of the abolition of the sati the poor widows of india have a mournful lot it is only the most daring of chinese mothers who would leave her little daughter's feet unbound a few japanese women rebel at giving up home and children simply because me lord has tired of his wife but to most the thought of opposing the customs of centuries is still remote even asiatic women nevertheless are progressing some come to america for the education their own continent cannot furnish a chinese woman doctor recently lectured on her country all through the united states and japanese women are found in our colleges the lands of emancipation in the pacific ocean far beyond china and japan lie the only two countries in the world which fully acknowledge the equality of men and women by giving political rights to all citizens of 21 regardless of sex they are new zealand and australia new zealand was the first by a dozen years to put her daughters on an equality with her sons it was in 1867 that the cry was raised shall our mothers wives and sisters be our equals or our subjects the answer was given in 1893 by the full enfranchisement of women in australia the change came more gradually province by province but a few months ago the final concession was made and now australian women like their sisters of new zealand are the equals and not the subjects of their husbands brothers and sons more conservative than england's colonies of the southern seas is her great northern possession canada there widows and spinsters are held in high favor for full municipal suffrage belongs to them but the married woman is barred out this is probably a survival of the subordination of the wife but the canadian woman is asking whether the acceptance of a husband should be considered unfailing proof of her inferior judgment progress in the united states there are four states in the union idaho wyoming colorado and utah where women have full political rights they vote on every election from school trustee to president they are eligible for every office from pound keeper to governor they have sat in the different legislatures and have filled many executive offices these four states do not however hold a monopoly of the women voters four more have some form of local suffrage and in twenty five women can vote in school elections in new york for instance women taxpayers may vote on all propositions for the expenditure of public money in addition they have school suffrage and are eligible as trustees there are clubs and societies which enroll in this country about four million women there are associations of different nations to forward the interests of all women regardless of country such is the international council of women representing twenty lands its great congresses meeting every five years are the event of the year in the land where they convene there is the international women's suffrage alliance and the woman's christian temperance union with its branches in every country indeed the boundaries of countries are disappearing before this new sisterhood of woman of famous women it would be folly to attempt to speak america is justly proud of her many clever daughters but every nation has its brilliant women madame cary who was awarded the noble prize for science was born and reared in poland and lives in france this year the nobel peace prize fell to the austrian baroness von sutner considering the progress of the past half century one can but wonder what the next 100 years will bring end of section two section three of the scrapbook volume one sampler by various edited by frank a muncie the slipperbox recording is in the public domain reading by balona times a descent into the maelstrom by edgar allen poe section three edgar allen poe was born in boston january 19 1809 and died in baltimore october 7 1849 his father david poe while a law student in baltimore married elizabeth arnold a beautiful english actress and went on the stage himself several years later both died within a few weeks of each other leaving three children of whom edgar was the second impressed by the boy's extraordinary beauty and intelligence john allen a wealthy merchant of richmond adopted him poe was then sent to england to be educated there he spent five or six years in a school at stoke newington subsequently he was sent to the university of virginia and to the united states military academy at west point but remained only a few months at each institution finally he quarreled with mr allen who died shortly afterward and edgar was not mentioned in the will in 1833 the baltimore saturday visitor offered two prizes of a hundred dollars each for a story and a poem poe won both this led to his employment in various editorial capacities in richmond and new york quarrels with his employers usually resulted in his dismissal during this period he was distinguished by an extraordinary degree of literary activity however and it was not long before he was recognized as one of the most forceful figures in american literature scores of authors have found inspiration in the pages of edgar allen poe sardoe the celebrated french dramatist founded the main incident of his scrap of paper on poe's the purloined letter and conan dole has admitted that dupin the detective who appears in several of poe's tales was the prototype of sherlock holmes a descent into the melstrom is generally regarded as one of the most representative of his stories we had now reached the summit of the loftiest crag for some minutes the old man seemed too much exhausted to speak not long ago said he at length and i could have guided you on this route as well as the youngest of my sons but about three years past there happened to me in an event such as never happened before to mortal man or at least such as no man ever survived to tell of and the six hours of deadly terror which i then endured have broken me up body and soul you supposed me a very old man but i am not it took less than a single day to change these hairs from a jetty black to white to weaken my limbs and to unstring my nerves so that i tremble at the least exertion and am frightened at a shadow do you know i can scarcely look over this little cliff without getting giddy this little cliff upon which edge he had so carelessly thrown himself to rest that the weightier portion of his body hung over it while he was only kept from falling by the tenure of his elbow on its extreme and slippery edge this little cliff arose a sheer unobstructed precipice of black shining rock some fifteen or sixteen hundred feet from the world of crags beneath us nothing would have tempted me to within half a dozen yards of its brink in truth so deeply was i excited by the perilous position of my companion that i fell at full length upon the ground clung to the shrubs around me and dared not even glance upward at the sky while i struggled in vain to divest myself of the idea that the very foundations of the mountain were in danger from the fury of the winds it was long before i could reason myself into sufficient courage to sit up and look out into the distance you must get over these fancies said the guide for i have brought you here that you might have the best possible view of the scene of that event i mentioned and to tell you the whole story with a spot just under your eye we are now he continued in that particular rising manner which distinguished him we are now close upon the norwegian coast in the 68th degree of latitude in the great province of Nordland and in the dreary district of Lofenden the mountain upon whose top we sit is Helsingen the cloudy now raise yourself up a little higher hold on to the grass if you feel giddy so and look out beyond the belt of vapor beneath us into the sea i looked dizzily and beheld a wide expanse of ocean whose waters were so inky a hue as to bring at once to my mind the nubian geographer's account of the mayor tenebrarum a panorama more deplorably desolate no human imagination can conceive to the right and left as far as the eye could reach their lay outstretched like ramparts of the world lines of horribly black and beatling cliff whose character of gloom was but the more forcibly illustrated by the surf which reared a high up against its white and ghastly crest howling and shrieking forever just opposite the promontory upon whose apex we were placed and at a distance of some five or six miles out at sea there was visible a small bleak looking island or more properly its position was discernible through the wilderness of a surge in which it was enveloped about two miles nearer the land arose another of smaller size hideously craggy and barren and encompassed at various intervals by a cluster of dark rocks the appearance of the ocean in the space between the more distant island and the shore had something very unusual about it although at the time so strong a gale was blowing landward that a brig in the remote offering laid to under a double reefed tri-sale and constantly plunge her whole hull out of sight still there was here nothing like a regular swell but only a short quick angry cross-dashing of water in every direction as well as in the teeth of the wind as otherwise a foam there was little except in the immediate vicinity of the rocks the island in the distance resume the old man is called the norwegian's verge the one midway is muskow that a mile to the northward is ambaren yonder are illsen hatom killedhelm swarren and buckholm farther off between muskow and verge our otterholm flamin sanflitzen and stockholm these are the true names of the places but why it has been thought necessary to name them at all is more than either you or i can understand do you hear anything do you see any change in the water we had now been about 10 minutes upon the top of helsigan to which we had ascended from the interior of lofiden so that we had caught no glimpse of the sea until it had burst upon us from the summit as the old man spoke i became aware of a loud and gradually increasing sound like the moaning of a vast herd of buffaloes upon an american prairie and at the same moment i perceived that what seaman term the chopping character of the ocean beneath us was rapidly changing into a current which set to the eastward even while i gazed this current acquired a monstrous velocity each moment added to its speed to its headlong impetuosity in five minutes the whole sea as far as the verge was lashed into ungovernable fury but it was between moscow and the coast that the main uproar held its way here the vast bed of the waters seemed and scarred into a thousand conflicting channels burst suddenly into frenzied convulsion heaving boiling hissing gyrating in gigantic and innumerable vortices and all whirling and plunging on to the eastward with a rapidity which water never elsewhere assumes except in precipitous dissents in a few minutes more there came over the scene another radical alteration the general surface grew somewhat more smooth and the whirlpools one by one disappeared while prodigious streaks of foam became apparent where none had been seen before these streaks at length spreading out to a great distance and entering into a combination took unto themselves the gyratory motion of the subsided vortices and seemed to form the germ of another more vast suddenly very suddenly this assumed a distinct and definite existence in a circle of more than a mile in diameter the edge of the whirl was represented by a broad belt of gleaming spray but no particle of this slipped into the mouth of the terrific funnel whose interior as far as the eye could fathom it was a smooth shining and jet black wall of water inclined to the horizon at an angle of some 45 degrees speeding dizzily round and round with a swaying and sweltering motion and sending forth to the winds an appalling voice half shriek half roar such as not even the mighty cataract of Niagara ever lifts up in its agony to heaven this said I at length to the old man this can be nothing else than the great whirlpool of the maelstrom so it is sometimes termed said he we norwegians call it the Moscow strong from the island of Moscow in the midway the ordinary accounts of this vortex had by no means prepared me for what I saw that of Jonas Ramos which is perhaps the most circumstantial of any cannot impart the faintest conception either of the magnificence or of the horror of the scene or of the wild bewildering sense of the novel which confounds the beholder I am not sure from what point of view the writer in question surveyed it nor at what time but it could neither have been from the summit of Helsingen nor during a storm there are some passages of his description nevertheless which may be quoted for their details although their effect is exceedingly feeble in conveying an impression of the spectacle between Lofoten and Moscow he says the depth of the water is between 36 and 40 fathoms but on the other side toward Verr this depth decreases so is not to afford a convenient passage for a vessel without the risk of splitting on the rocks which happens even in the calmest weather when it is flood the stream runs up the country between Lofoten and Moscow with a boisterous rapidity but the roar of its impetuous ebb to the sea is scarce equaled by the loudest and most dreadful cataracts the noise being heard several leagues off and the vortices or pits are of such an extent and depth that if a ship comes within its attraction it is inevitably absorbed and carried down to the bottom and they're beat to pieces against the rocks and when the water relaxes the fragments thereof are thrown up again but these intervals of tranquility are only at the turn of the ebb and flood and in calm weather and last but a quarter of an hour its violence gradually returning when the stream is most boisterous and its fury heightened by a storm it is dangerous to come within a norway mile of it boats yachts and ships have been carried away by not guarding against it before they were within its reach it likewise happens frequently that whales come too near the stream and are overpowered by its violence and then it is impossible to describe their howlings and bellowings and their fruitless struggles to disengage themselves a bear once attempting to swim from Lofedon to Moscow was caught by the stream and borne down while he roared terribly so as to be heard on shore large stocks of furs and pine trees after being absorbed by the current rise again broken and torn to such a degree as if bristles grew upon them this plainly shows the bottom to consist of craggy rocks among which they are world to and fro in regard to the depth of the water i could not see how this could have been ascertained at all in the immediate vicinity of the vortex the 40 fathoms must have reference only to portions of the channel close upon the shore either of Moscow or Lofedon the depth in the center of the Moscow strome could be unmeagerably greater looking down from this pinnacle upon the howling fligathon below i could not help smiling at the simplicity with which the honest Jonas Remus records as a matter difficult of belief the anecdotes of the whales and the bears for it appeared to me a self evident thing that the largest ships of the line in existence coming within the influence of that deadly attraction could resist it as little as a feather the hurricane and must disappear bodily and at once you have had a good look at the world now said the guide and if you will creep around this crag so as to get in its lee and add in the roar of the water i will tell you a story that will convince you i ought to know something of the Moscow strome i placed myself as he desired and he proceeded myself and my two brothers once owned a schooner rigged smack of about 70 tons burden with which we were in the habit of fishing among the islands beyond Moscow nearly to Virg in all violent eddies at sea there is good fishing at proper opportunities if one has only the courage to attempt it but among the whole of the Lofedon coastmen we three were the only ones who made a regular business of going out to the islands as i tell you the usual grounds are a great way lower down to the southward there fish can be got at all hours without much risk and therefore these places are preferred the choice spots over here among the rocks however not only yield the finest variety but in far greater abundance so that we often got in a single day but the more timid of the craft could not scrape together in a week in fact we made it a matter of desperate speculation the risk of life standing instead of labor and courage answering for capital we kept the smack in a cove about five miles higher up the coast than this and it was our practice in fine weather to take advantage of the 15 minutes slack to push across the main channel of the Moscow strome far above the pool and then drop down upon anchorage somewhere near otter home or sandflisten where the eddies are not so violent as elsewhere here we used to remain until nearly time for slack water again when we weighed and made for home we never set out upon this expedition without a steady sidewind for going and coming one that we felt sure would not fail us before our return and we seldom made a miscalculation upon this point twice during six years we were forced to stay all night at anchor on account of a dead calm which is a rare thing indeed just about here and once we had to remain on the grounds nearly a week starving to death owing to a gale which blew up shortly after our arrival and made the channel too boisterous to be thought of upon this occasion we should have been driven out to sea in spite of everything for the whirlpools threw us round and round so violently that at length we fouled our anchor and dragged it if it had not been that we drifted into one of the innumerable cross currents here today and gone tomorrow which drove us under the lee of flamin whereby good luck we brought up I could not tell you the 20th part of the difficulties we encountered on the ground it is a bad spot to be in even in good weather but we made shift always to run the gauntlet of the mosco-strom itself without accident although at times my heart has been in my mouth when we happen to be a minute or so behind or before the slack it is now within a few days of three years since what i am going to tell you occurred it was on the 10th of july 18 a day which the people of this part of the world will never forget for it was one in which blew the most terrible hurricane that ever came out of the heavens and yet all the morning and indeed until late in the afternoon there was a gentle and steady breeze from the southwest while the sun shone brightly so that the oldest semen among us could not have foreseen what was to follow the three of us my two brothers and myself had crossed over to the islands about two o'clock and soon nearly loaded the smack with fine fish which we all remarked were more plenty that day than we had ever known them it was just seven by my watch when we wade and started for home so as to make the worst of the strum at slack water which we knew would be at eight we set out with a fresh wind at our starboard quarter and for some time spanked along at a great rate never dreaming of danger for indeed we saw not the slightest reason to apprehend it all at once we were taken aback by a breeze from over helsigan this was most unusual something that had never happened to us and i began to feel a little uneasy without exactly knowing why we put the boat on the wind but could make no headway at all for the eddies and i was upon the point of proposing to return to the anchorage when looking astern we saw the whole horizon covered with a singular copper colored cloud that rose with the most amazing velocity in the meantime the breeze that had headed us off fell away and we were dead becalmed drifting about in every direction this state of things however did not last long enough to give us time to think about it in less than a minute the storm was upon us in less than two the sky was entirely overcast and what with this and the driving spray it became suddenly so dark that we could not see each other in the smack such a hurricane as then blew it is folly to attempt to describe the oldest seaman in norway never experienced anything like it we had let our sails go by the run before it cleverly took us but at the first puff both our mast went by the board as if they had been sawed off the main mast taking with it my youngest brother who had lashed himself to it for safety our boat was the lightest feather of a thing that ever sat upon water it had a complete flush deck with only a small hatch near the bow and this hatch it had always been our custom to batten down when about to cross the storm by way of precaution against chopping seas but for this circumstance we should have foundered at once for we lay entirely buried for some moments how my elder brother escaped destruction I cannot say for I never had an opportunity of ascertaining for my part as soon as I had let the foresail run I threw myself flat on deck with my feet against the narrow gunwheel of the bow and with my hands grasping a ring bolt near the foot of the foremast it was mere instinct that prompted me to do this which was undoubtedly the very best thing I could have done for I was too much flurry to think for some moments I was completely deluged I say and all this time I held my breath and clung to the bolt when I could stand it no longer I raised myself upon my knees still keeping hold with my hands and thus got my head clear presently our little boat gave herself a shake just as a dog does in coming out of the water and thus rid herself in some measure of the seas I was now trying to get the better of the stupor that had come over me and to collect my senses so as to see what was to be done when I felt somebody grasp my arm it was my elder brother and my heart leapt for joy for I had made sure that he was overboard but the next moment all this joy was turned into horror for he put his mouth close to my ear and screamed out the word Moscow strong no one will ever know what my feelings were at that moment I shook from head to foot as if I had the most violent fit of the agu I knew what he meant by that one word well enough I knew what he wished to make me understand with the wind that now drove us on we were bound for the whirl of the strum and nothing could save us you perceive that in crossing the strum channel we always went a long way up above the whirl even in the calmest weather and then had to wait and watch carefully for the slack but now we were driving right upon the pool itself and in such a hurricane as this to be sure I thought we shall get there just about the slack there is some little hope in that but in the moment I cursed myself for being so great a fool as to dream of hope at all I knew very well that we were doomed had we been 10 times a nighty gunship by this time the first fury of the tempest had spent itself or perhaps we did not feel it as much as we scutted before it but at all events the seas which at first had been kept down by the wind and lay flat and frothing now got up into absolute mountains a singular change too had come over the heavens around in every direction it was still as black as pitch but nearly overhead there burst out all at once a circular rift of clear sky as clear as I ever saw and of a deep bright blue and through it there blazed forth the full moon with a luster that I never before knew her to wear she lit up everything about us with the greatest distinctness but oh god what a scene it was to light up I now made one or two attempts to speak to my brother but in some manner which I could not understand the den had so increased that I could not make him hear a single word although I screamed at the top of my voice in his ear presently he shook his head looking as pale as death and held up one of his fingers as if to say listen at first I could not make out what he meant but soon a hideous thought flashed upon me I dragged my watch from its fob it was not going I glanced at its face by the moonlight and then burst into tears as I flung it far away into the ocean it had run down at seven o'clock we were behind the time of the slack and the whirl of the strong was in full fury when a boat is well built properly trimmed and not deep laden the waves in a strong gale when she is going large seem always to slip from beneath her which appears very strange to a landsman and this is what is called riding in sea phrase well so far we had ridden the swells very cleverly but presently a gigantic sea happened to take us right under the counter and bore us with it as it rose up up as if into the sky I would not have believed that any wave could rise so high and then down we came with a sweep a slide and a plunge that made me feel sick and dizzy as if I was falling from some lofty mountaintop and a dream but while we were up I had thrown a quick glance around and that one glance was all sufficient I saw our exact position in an instant the Moscow Strom whirlpool was about a quarter of a mile dead ahead but no more like the everyday Moscow Strom that the whirl as you now see it is like a mill race if I had not known where we were and what we had to expect I should not have recognized the place at all as it was I involuntarily closed my eyes in horror the lids clenched themselves together as if in a spasm it could not have been more than two minutes afterward until we suddenly felt the waves subside and were enveloped in foam the boat made a sharp half turn to the larboard and then shot off in its new direction like a thunderbolt at the same moment the roaring noise of the water was completely drowned and a kind of shrill shriek such a sound as you might imagine given out by the water pipes of many thousand steam vessels letting off their steam altogether we were now in the belt of surf that always surrounds the swirl and I thought of course that another moment would plunge us into the abyss down which we could only see indistinctly on account of the amazing velocity with which we were born along the boat did not seem to sink into the water at all but to skim like an air bubble upon the surface of the surge her starboard side was next the whirl and on the larboard arose the world of ocean we had left it stood like a huge writhing wall between us and the horizon it may appear strange but now when we were in the very jaws of the gulf I felt more composed than when we were only approaching it having made up my mind to hope no more I got rid of a great deal of that terror which unmanned me at first I suppose it was despair that's drawn my nerves it may look like boasting but what I tell you is the truth I began to reflect how magnificent a thing it was to die in such a manner and how foolish it was in me to think of so paltry a consideration as my own individual life in view of so wonderful a manifestation of God's power I do believe that I blushed with shame when this idea crossed my mind after a little while I became possessed with the keenest curiosity about the world itself I positively felt a wish to explore its depths even at the sacrifice I was going to make and my principal grief was that I should never be able to tell my old companions on shore about the mysteries I should see these no doubt were singular fancies to occupy a man's mind in such extremity and I have often thought sense that the revolutions of the boat around the pool might have rendered me a little light-headed there was another circumstance which tended to restore my self-posession and this was the cessation of the wind which could not reach us in our present situation for as you saw yourself the belt of surf is considerably lower than the general bed of the ocean and this latter now towered above us a high black mountainous ridge if you have never been at sea in a heavy gale you can form no idea of the confusion of mind occasioned by the wind and spray together they blind deafen and strangle you and take away all power of action or reflection but we were now in a great measure rid of these annoyances just as death condemned felons in prison are allowed petty indulgences forbidden them while their doom is yet uncertain how often we made the circuit of the belt it is impossible to say we could reared round and round for perhaps an hour flying rather than floating getting gradually more and more into the middle of the surge and then nearer and nearer to its horrible inner edge at this time i had never let go of the ring bolt my brother was at the stern holding on to a small empty water cask which had been securely lashed under the coop of the counter and was the only thing on deck that had not been swept overboard when the gale first took us as we approached the brink of the pit he let go his hold upon this and made for the ring from which in the agony of his terror he endeavored to force my hands as it was not large enough to afford us both a secure grasp i never felt deeper grief than when i saw him attempt this act although i knew he was a madman when he did it a raving maniac through sheer fright i did not care however to contest this point with him i knew it could make no difference whether either of us held on at all so i let him have the bolt and went a stern to the cask this there was no great difficulty in doing for the smack flew round steadily enough and upon an even keel only swaying to and fro with the immense sweeps and swelters of the world scarcely had i secured myself in my new position when we gave a wild lurch to starboard and rushed headlong into the abyss i muttered a hurried prayer to god and thought all was over as i felt the sickening sweep of the descent i had instinctively tightened my hold upon the barrel and close my eyes for some seconds i dared not open them while i expected instant destruction and wondered that i was not already in my death struggles but moment after moment elapsed i still lived the sense of falling had ceased and the motion of the vessel seemed much as it had been before while in the belt of foam with the exception that she now lay more along i took courage and looked once again upon the scene never shall i forget the sensation of awe horror and admiration with which i gazed about me the boat appeared to be hanging as if by magic midway down upon the interior surface of a funnel vast in circumference prodigious in depth and whose perfectly smooth sides might have been mistaken for ebony but for the bewildering rapidity with which they spun around and for the gleaming and ghastly radiance they shot forth as the rays of the full moon from that circular rift amid the clouds which i have already described streamed in a flood of golden glory along the black walls and far away down into the inmost recesses of the abyss at first i was too much confused to observe anything accurately the general burst of terrific grandeur was all that i beheld when i recovered myself a little however my gaze fell instinctively downward in this direction i was able to obtain an unobstructed view from the manner in which the smack hung on the inclined surface of the pool she was quite upon an even keel that is to say her deck lay in a plain parallel with that of the water but this letter sloped at an angle of more than 45 degrees so that we seemed to be lying upon our beam ends i could not help observing nevertheless that i had scarcely more difficulty in maintaining my hold and footing in this situation than if we had been upon a dead level and this i suppose was owing to the speed at which we revolved the rays of the moon seemed to search the very bottom of the profound gulf but still i could make out nothing distinctly on account of a thick mist in which everything there was enveloped and over which there hung a magnificent rainbow like that narrow and tottering bridge which muslimans say is the only pathway between time and eternity this mist or spray was no doubt occasioned by the clashing of the great walls of the funnel as they all met together at the bottom but the yell that went up to the heavens from out of that mist i dare not attempt to describe our first slide into the abyss itself from the belt of foam above had carried us to a great distance down the slope but our further descent was by no means proportionate round and round we swept not with any uniform movement but in dizzying swings and jerks that sent us sometimes only a few hundred yards sometimes nearly the complete circuit of the world our progress downward at each revolution was slow but very perceptible looking about me upon the wide waste of liquid ebony on which we were thus born i perceived that our boat was not the only object in the embrace of the world both above and below us were visible fragments of vessels large masses of building timber and trunks of trees with many smaller articles such as pieces of house furniture broken boxes barrels and staves i have already described the unnatural curiosity which had taken the place of my original terrors it appeared to grow upon me as i drew nearer and nearer to my dreadful doom i now began to watch with a strange interest the numerous things that floated in our company i must have been delirious for i even sought amusement in speculating upon the relative velocities of their several descents toward the foam below this fir tree i found myself at one time saying will certainly be the next thing that takes the awful plunge and disappears and then i was disappointed to find that the wreck of a dutch merchant ship overtook it and went down before at length after making several guesses of this nature and being deceived in all this fact the fact of my invariable miscalculation set me upon a train of reflection that made my limbs again tremble and my heart beat heavily once more it was not a new terror that thus affected me but the dawn of a more exciting hope this hope arose partly from memory and partly from present observation i called to mind the great variety of buoyant matter that stirred the coast of Lofoten having been absorbed and then thrown forth by the muskestrom by far the greater number of the articles were shattered in the most extraordinary way so chafed and roughened as to have the appearance of being stuck full of splinters but then i distinctly recollected that there were some of them which were not disfigured at all i could not account for this difference except by supposing that the roughest fragments were the only ones which had been completely absorbed that the others had entered the world at so late a period of the tide or from some reason had descended so slowly after entering that they did not reach the bottom before the turn of the flood came or of the ebb as the case may be i conceived it possible in either instance that they might be thus world up again to the level of the ocean without undergoing the fate of those which had been drawn in more early or absorbed more rapidly i made also three important observations the first was that as a general rule the larger the bodies were the more rapid their descent the second that between the two masses of equal extent the one spherical and the other of any other shape the superiority in speed of descent was with the sphere the third that between two masses of equal size the one cylindrical and the other of any other shape the cylinder was absorbed the more slowly since my escape i have had several conversations on the subject with an old school master of the district and it was from him that i learned the use of the words cylinder and sphere he explained to me although i have forgotten the explanation how what i had observed was in fact the natural consequence of the forms of the floating fragments and showed me how it happened that a cylinder swimming in a vortex offered more resistance to its suction and was drawn in with greater difficulty than an equally bulky body of any form whatever there was one startling circumstance which went a great way in enforcing these observations and rendering me anxious to turn them to account and this was that at every revolution we pass something like a barrel or else the yard or the mast of the vessel while many of those things which had been on our level when i first opened my eyes upon the wonders of the whirlpool were now high up above us and seemed to have moved but little from their original station i no longer hesitated what to do i resolved to lash myself securely to the water-cast upon which i now held to cut it loose from the counter and to throw myself with it into the water i attracted my brother's attention by signs pointing to the floating barrels that came near us and did everything in my power to make him understand what i was about to do i thought at length that he comprehended my design but whether this was the case or not he shook his head despairingly and refused to move from his station by the ring bolt it was impossible to reach him the emergency admitted of no delay and so with a bitter struggle i resigned him to his fate fastened myself to the cask by means of the lashings which secured it to the counter and precipitated myself with it into the sea without another moment's hesitation the result was precisely what i had hoped it might be as it is myself who now tell you this tale as you see that i did escape and as you are already in possession of the mode in which this escape was affected and must therefore anticipate all that i have further to say i will bring my story quickly to conclusion it might have been an hour or thereabout after my quitting the smack when having descended to a vast distance beneath me it made three or four wild gyrations in rapid succession and bearing my beloved brother with it plunged headlong at once and forever into the chaos of foam below the barrel to which i was attached sunk very little farther than half the distance between the bottom of the gulf and the spot at which i leapt overboard before a great change took place in the character of the whirlpool the slope of the sides of the vast funnel became momently less and less steep the gyrations of the whirl grew gradually less and less violent by degrees the froth and the rainbow disappeared and the bottom of the gulf seemed slowly to uprise the sky was clear the winds had gone down and the full moon was settling radiantly in the west when i found myself on the surface of the ocean in full view of the shores of Lofoden and above the spot where the pool of the Moscow Strom had been it was the hour of the slack but the sea still heaped in mountainous waves from the effects of the hurricane i was born violently into the channel of the Strom and in a few moments was hurried down the coast into the grounds of the fisherman a boat picked me up exhausted from and now that the danger was removed speechless from the memory of its horror those who drew me on board were my old mates and daily companions but they knew me no more than they would have known a traveler from the spirit land my hair which had been raven black the day before was as white as you see it now they say too that the whole expression of my countenance had changed i told them my story they did not believe it i now tell it to you and i can scarcely expect you to put more faith in it than did the merry fisherman of Lofoden end of section three the great southwest by Charles m harvey section number four of the scrapbook volume one sampler by various edited by frank a muncie this liber box recording is in the public domain reading by balona times the great southwest by charles m harvey the marvelous development agricultural industrial and commercial that is now in progress in the states of texas and arkansas and the adjoining territories revised from muncie's magazine and brought up to date by the author for the scrapbook editors note in the growth of interest in the great states west of the mississippi river the southwest has until lately been commonly neglected gold sent men rushing first to the mountain states then grain led them to the prairie states with a more fertile wheat lands fully occupied there has of late been a tendency to the canadian northwest but at the same time a remarkable development commercial and industrial as well as agricultural has been going on in the southwest the progress made in texas during the last few years is simply astounding unknown to the great mass of the people of the united states a new empire is being planted in the southwest much is being written about the thousands who are crossing the canadian frontier and settling in manitoba a cinnaboya and alberta but very little is heard about the tens of thousands from the northwest and the middle west from the east and europe who are moving into arkansas oklahoma the indian territory texas new mexico and arizona the officials of the railways running into this latter region could tell a little of this story if they wished to last year from april to november something like a million dollars was paid into the treasuries of the acheson topeka and satafay the chicago rock island and pacific the iron mountain the missouri pacific the saint louis and san francisco and the missouri kansas and texas railways for fares by seekers of homes in the southwest about one third of these prospectors become permanent settlers the money put into farms into manufacturing industries and into business of various sorts in that region according to the estimates of the railway officials and of immigration agents has amounted during the past 12 months to fully 200 million dollars the empire state of the future consider for the moment the state of texas as she was as she is and as she will be admitted to the union in 1845 newly baptized with blood in her struggle against the mexicans she then contained a little more than a hundred thousand inhabitants today she has three and a half millions and ranks fifth among the states having passed missouri since the last census only new york pennsylvania illinois and ohio are now ahead of her if all these states continue to advance in population at the same rate as in recent years she will pass ohio before 1920 illinois by 1930 and pennsylvania by 1940 before 1950 she will have outstripped new york and will be the empire state of the union in spite of her more than 20 fold increase during the past six decades texas is still comparatively speaking a sparsely settled region she has as yet a mere fraction of the population her generous soil could support remember that she is larger than france or germany larger than two italy's or two great britains when she became a state she had two square miles of land for each of her inhabitants she now has about 13 people to each square mile the state of new york has 160 people to the square mile and is steadily growing in population massachusetts has 375 to the square mile and is steadily growing belgium has 590 to the square mile and is steadily growing england has 625 to the square mile and is steadily growing if the present ratio of increase continues think of the incalculable growth that the coming years will bring to the great southwestern state if texas were peopled as densely as new york state she would have 42 million inhabitants more than 10 times what she has settled as closely as massachusetts she would have 100 millions as closely as england 166 millions this american state is destined to rank with the powers of the world remarkable as was the showing that texas made at the last census other portions of the southwest could point to a still more phenomenal gain while the population of the lone star state advanced 36 percent between 1890 and 1900 that of arizona rose 105 percent that of the indian territory 117 percent and that of oklahoma no less than 544 percent in the 10 years texas now leads in railways from 1870 till 1904 illinois had a larger number of miles of railway than any other state in 1904 texas passed illinois on march 1st 1906 the great southwestern state had approximately 12 000 miles of main railway track or over 200 miles in excess of illinois pennsylvania iowa ohio michigan and new york in this order stand below illinois in railway mileage new york's total at the same date being a little short of 9 000 miles in recent years about half of the country's entire new railway mileage has been built in the southwest the increase of mileage between 1897 and the end of 1903 was 12 and a half percent for the united states it was 10 in the middle state seven percent in the rocky mountain region and on the pacific slope and three percent in ohio and indiana it was 27 percent in the section comprising arkansas oklahoma the indian territory texas and new mexico there could scarcely be a more significant index of advancing wealth population and industry the land of corn and cotton the southwest at this moment is enjoying a prosperity unexampled in its annals last year's yield of corn wheat and cotton proved better than was expected early in the season the corn crop being particularly good land values have doubled in much of this region during the past five years the prices are still so much below those prevailing in missouri iowa minnesota ohio illinois and indiana that the inrush from those states continues to be large traveling salesmen report better business in oklahoma texas and their neighbors than in any other part of the west more visitors came to the st louis exposition from the southwestern states and territories than from any other part of the country in proportion to population which was a good test of that region's financial condition before the civil war when the south was proclaiming cotton to be king cotton's realm was in the atlantic seaboard states but texas now produces nearly a third of the country's entire crop her recent average has been about three million bales last year the yield was a little less than that the indian territory and oklahoma are beginning to figure prominently in cotton production cotton accounts for much of the prosperity of the southwest more and more the farmers of that region are raising other crops for a living and using the proceeds of their cotton fields as a surplus fund what statehood will mean statehood of course will give a new impetus to the growth of the territories of the southwest attracting settlers and capital it is practically certain that oklahoma and the indian territory are shortly to become a state under the name of oklahoma the political future of new mexico and arizona is more problematical being a subject of controversy at washington as this is written it is variously proposed to admit each territory separately to admit new mexico while excluding her sister territory or to unite them into a single state probably under the title of arizona the question will have been settled before this reaches the reader unless its settlement is postponed to a later session of congress the state of oklahoma will start with a population of fully a million and about equal to that of california and considerably above that of such commonwealths as louisiana south carolina or maryland if new mexico and arizona should be united they will have about half a million inhabitants in area they will form the second state in the union inferior only to texas the growth of the gulf ports through the growing popularity of the gulf ports as outlets for the country's merchandise the southwest is bound to be a great gainer as compared with 1904 there was a larger gain in the exports by the ports of the gulf of mexico in 1905 than the atlantic port showed this gain is due to several causes more and more the great railways are establishing terminals at the gulf outlets from the chief productive centers of the mississippi valley the distances to these points are shorter than to the atlantic and the grades are easier in population productivity and general industrial and commercial importance the southern end of the vast mississippi valley is growing with disproportionate rapidity the southwest pole on the population center of the united states is shown by the fact that during the decade ending with 1900 that point moved 14 miles westward and three miles southward the center of the country's production of wheat and of oats and the center of the total area and the country's farms are now west of the mississippi the center of the production of cotton now on the western verge of the state of mississippi and the center of the production of corn now in the western part of illinois will cross the big river before 1910 more than 65 of the country's exports already originate west of the mississippi galveston and the panama canal for all the region between the mississippi and the continental divide of the rockies the texas ports chiefly galveston will be the natural outlets to the sea in aggregate value of merchandise exports galveston has left charleston baltimore philadelphia and boston far behind in the last calendar year she stood third among american ports in the value of her merchandise shipments new york and new orleans being the only two ahead of her she has gained so rapidly on new orleans in recent years and the crescent city led her by so slight a margin in 1905 that for the 12 months ending with next december it seems safe to predict that the texas seaport will take second place much has been said of the benefits which the panama canal will bring to the united states by giving us a shortcut to the pacific literal of our own continent to the west coast of south america and to asia and australia undoubtedly the ispian waterway will open new markets to galveston and other texas ports and will be a powerful influence in enabling the southwest to score further industrial and commercial conquests end of section four section five of the scrapbook volume one sampler by various edited by frank a munsey this liberbox recording is in the public domain reading by balona times an occurrence at owl creek bridge by ambrose beers section five among living american writers of short stories ambrose beers is unexcelled in strength and fine simplicity born in 1842 he served during the civil war and was breveted major for distinguished services he went to california in 1866 and his name became familiar to readers of pacific coast journals his contributions however quickly won a hearing throughout the country and in england wither he went in 1872 remaining for a few years and writing for english periodicals later he returned to california and more recently he removed to washington the keenest most incisive most telling contemporary criticism was found in the column he used to contribute to the san francisco examiner prattle a transient record of individual opinion of his verse at least one poem the passing show is deserving of a permanent place in literature more verse more fiction would be welcome from his pen he has produced less than those who read the following story will wish for the reason perhaps that he has freely given so much of his time to teaching others how to write it is natural considering the experiences through which he passed at the time of life in which conscious impressions are most vivid that mr. beers should turn frequently to the incidents of war the very restraint of his style makes his war pictures the more impressive adds to their potency as arguments for peace an occurrence at owl creek bridge is mr. beers at his best powerful grim pathetic it deeps deep into the well of the human soul this story is taken from in the midst of life a volume of mr. beers's tales copyright 1898 by gps putnam suns new york a man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern alabama looking down into the swift waters twenty feet below the man's hands were behind his back the wrist bound with a cord a rope loosely encircled his neck it was attached to a stout cross timber above his head and the slack fell to the level of his knees some loose boards laid upon the sleepers supporting the metals of the railway supplied a footing for him and his executioners two private soldiers of the federal army directed by a sergeant who in civil life may have been a deputy sheriff at a short remove upon the same temporary platform was an officer in the uniform of his rack armed he was a captain a sentinel at each end of the bridge stood with his rifle in the position known as support that is to say vertical in front of the left shoulder the hammer resting on the forearm thrown straight across the chest a formal and unnatural position enforcing an erect carriage of the body it did not appear to be the duty of these two men to know what was occurring at the center of the bridge they merely blockaded the two ends of the foot plank which traversed it beyond one of the sentinels nobody was in sight the railroad ran straight away into a forest for a hundred yards then curving was lost to view doubtless there was an outpost farther along the other bank of the stream was open ground a gentle aclivity crowned with a stockade of vertical tree trunks loophold for rifles with a single embrasure through which protruded the muzzle of a brass cannon commanding the bridge midway of the slope between bridge and fort were the spectators a single company of infantry in line at parade rest the butts of the rifles on the ground the barrels inclining slightly backward against the right hand resting upon his right accepting the group of four at the center of the bridge not a man moved the company faced the bridge staring stonily motionless the sentinels facing the banks of the stream might have been statues to adorn the bridge the captain stood with folded arms silent observing the work of his subordinates but making no sign death is a dignitary who when he comes announced is to be received with formal manifestations of respect even by those most familiar with him in the code of military etiquette silence and fixity are forms of deference the man who was engaged in being hanged was apparently about 35 years of age he was a civilian if one might judge from his habit which was that of a planter his features were good a straight nose firm mouth broad forehead from which his long dark hair was combed straight back falling behind his ears to the collar of his well-fitting frock coat he wore a moustache and pointed beard but no whiskers his eyes were large and dark gray and had a kindly expression which one would hardly have expected and one whose neck was in the hemp evidently this was no vulgar assassin the liberal military code makes provision for hanging many kinds of persons and gentlemen are not excluded the preparations being complete the two private soldiers stepped aside and each drew away the plank upon which he had been standing the sergeant turned to the captain saluted and placed himself immediately behind that officer who in turn moved apart one pace these movements left the condemned man and the sergeant standing on the two ends of the same plank which spanned three of the cross ties of the bridge the end upon which the civilian stood almost but not quite reached a fourth this plank had been held in place by the weight of the captain it was now held by that of the sergeant at a signal from the former the ladder would step aside the plank would tilt and the condemned man go down between two ties the arrangement commended itself to his judgment as simple and effective his face had not been covered nor his eyes bandaged he looked a moment at his unsteadfast footing then let his gaze wander to the swirling water of the stream racing madly beneath his feet a piece of dancing driftwood caught his attention and his eyes followed it down the current how slowly it appeared to move what a sluggish stream he closed his eyes in order to fix his last thoughts upon his wife and children the water touched to gold by the early sun the brooding mists under the banks at some distance down the stream the fort the soldiers the piece of drift all had distracted him and now he became conscious of a new disturbance striking through the thought of his dear ones was a sound which he could neither ignore nor understand a sharp distinct metallic percussion like the stroke of a blacksmith's hammer upon the anvil it had the same ringing quality he wondered what it was and whether immeasurably distant or nearby it seemed both its recurrence was regular but as slow as the tolling of a death knell he awaited each stroke with impatience and he knew not why apprehension the intervals of silence grew progressively longer the delays became maddening with their greater infrequency the sounds increased in strength and sharpness they hurt his ear like the thrust of a knife he feared he should shriek what he heard was the ticking of his watch he enclosed his eyes and saw again the water below him if i could free my hands he thought i might throw off the noose and spring into the stream by diving i could evade the bullets and swimming vigorously reach the bank take to the woods and get away home my home thank god is as yet outside their lines my wife and little ones are still beyond the invaders farthest advance as these thoughts which have here to be set down in words were flashed into the doomed man's brain rather than evolved from it the captain nodded to the sergeant the sergeant stepped aside part two Peyton Farquhar was a well-to-do planter of an old and highly respected alabama family being a slave owner and like other slave owners a politician he was naturally an original secessionist and ardently devoted to the southern cause circumstances of an imperious nature which it is unnecessary to relate here had prevented him from taking service with the gallant army which had fought the disastrous campaigns ending with the fall of Corinth and he chafed under the inglorious restraint longing for the release of his energies the larger life of the soldier the opportunity for distinction that opportunity he felt would come as it comes to all in wartime meanwhile he did what he could no service was too humble for him to perform in aid of the south no adventure too perilous for him to undertake if consistent with the character of a civilian who was at heart a soldier and who in good faith and without too much qualification ascended to at least a part of the frankly villainous dictum that all is fair and love and war one evening while Farquhar and his family were sitting on a rustic bench near the entrance to his grounds a gray-clad soldier rode up to the gate and asked for a drink of water mrs. Farquhar was only too happy to serve him with her own white hands while she was gone to fetch the water her husband approached the dusty horseman and inquired eagerly for news from the front the yanks are repairing the railroads said the man and are getting ready for another advance they have reached the out creek bridge put it in order and built a stockade on the north bank the commandant has issued an order which is posted everywhere declaring that any civilian caught interfering with the railroad its bridges tunnels or trains will be summarily hanged I saw the order how far is it to the all creek bridge Farquhar asked about 30 miles is there no force on the side of the creek only a picket post half a mile out on the railroad and a single sentinel at this end of the bridge suppose a man a civilian and student of hanging should elude the picket post and perhaps get the better of the sentinel said Farquhar smiling what could he accomplish the soldier reflected I was there a month ago he replied I observed that the flood of last winter had lodged a great quantity of driftwood against the wooden pier at this end of the bridge it is now dry and would burn like toe the lady had now brought the water which the soldier drank he thanked her ceremoniously bowed to her husband and rode away an hour later after nightfall he re-passed the plantation going northward in the direction from which he had come he was a federal scout part three as Peyton Farquhar fell straight downward through the bridge he lost consciousness and was as one already dead from this state he was awakened ages later it seemed to him by the pain of a sharp pressure upon his throat followed by a sense of suffocation keen poignant agonies seemed to shoot from his neck downward through every fiber of his body and limbs these pains appeared to flash along well-defined lines of ramification and to beat with an inconceivably rapid periodicity they seemed like streams of pulsating fire heating him to an intolerable temperature as to his head he was conscious of nothing but a feeling of fullness of congestion these sensations were unaccompanied by thought the intellectual part of his nature was already effaced he had power only to feel and feeling was torment he was conscious of motion encompassed in a luminous cloud of which he was now merely the fiery heart without material substance he swung through unthinkable arcs of oscillation like a vast pendulum then all at once with terrible suddenness the light about him shot upward with the noise of a loud splash a frightful roaring was in his ears and all was cold and dark the power of thought was restored he knew that the rope had broken and he had fallen into the stream there was no additional strangulation the noose about his neck was already suffocating him and kept the water from his lungs to die of hanging at the bottom of a river the idea seemed to him ludicrous he opened his eyes in the darkness and saw above him a gleam of light but how distant how inaccessible he was still sinking for the light became fainter and fainter until it was a mere glimmer then it began to grow and brighten and he knew that he was rising toward the surface knew it with reluctance for he was now very comfortable to be hanged and drowned he thought that is not so bad but I do not wish to be shot no I will not be shot that is not fair he was not conscious of an effort but a sharp pain in his wrists apprised him that he was trying to free his hands he gave the struggle his attention as an idler might observe the feet of a juggler without interest in the outcome what splendid effort what magnificent what superhuman strength ah that was a fine endeavor Bravo the cord fell away his arms parted and floated upward the hands dimly seen on each side in the growing light he watched them with a new interest as first one and then the other pounced upon the noose at his neck they tore it away and thrust it fiercely aside its undulations resembling those of a water snake put it back put it back he thought he shouted these words into his hands for the undoing of the noose had been succeeded by the diarist pang which he had yet experienced his neck ached horribly his brain was on fire his heart which had been fluttering faintly gave a great leap trying to force itself out at his mouth his whole body was wracked and wrenched with an insupportable anguish but as disobedient hands gave no heat to the command they beat the water vigorously with quick downward strokes forcing him to the surface he felt his head emerge his eyes were blinded by the sunlight his chest expanded convulsively and with a supreme and crowning agony his lungs engulfed a great draft of air which instantly he expelled in a shriek he was now in full possession of his physical senses they were indeed pretty naturally keen and alert something in the awful disturbance of his organic system had so exalted and refined them that they made record of things never before perceived he felt the ripples upon his face and heard their separate sounds as they struck he looked at the forest on the bank of the stream saw the individual trees the leaves and the veining of each leaf saw the very insects upon them the locusts the brilliant bodied flies the gray spiders stretching their webs from twig to twig he noted the prismatic colors in all the dew drops upon a million blades of grass the humming of the gnats that danced about the eddies of the stream the beating of the dragonfly's wings the strokes of the water spider's legs like oars which had lifted their boat all these made audible music a fish slid along beneath his eyes and he heard the rush of its body parting the water he had come to the surface facing down the stream in a moment the visible world seemed to wheel slowly round himself the pivotal point and he saw the bridge the fort the soldiers upon the bridge the captain the sergeant the two privates his executioners they were in silhouette against the blue sky they shouted and gesticulated pointing at him the captain had drawn his pistol but did not fire the others were unarmed their movements were grotesque and horrible their forms gigantic suddenly he heard a sharp red port and something struck the water smartly within a few inches of his head spattering his face with spray he heard a second report and saw one of the sentinels with his rifle at his shoulder a light cloud of blue smoke rising from the muzzle the man in the water saw the eye of the man on the bridge gazing into his own through the sights of the rifle he observed that it was a gray eye and remembered having read that gray eyes were keenest and that all famous marksmen had them nevertheless this one had missed a counter swirl had caught farquhar and turned him half round he was again looking into the forest on the back opposite the fort the sound of a clear high voice in a monotonous sing song now rang out behind him and came across the water with a distinctness that pierced and subdued all other sounds even the beating of the ripples in his ears although no soldier he had frequented camps enough to know the dread significance of that deliberate aspirated chant the lieutenant on shore was taking apart in the morning's work how coldly and pitilessly with what an even calm intonation per saging and enforcing tranquility in the men with what accurately measured intervals fell those cruel words attention company shoulder arms ready aim fire farquhar dived dived as deeply as he could the water roared in his ears like the voice of Niagara yet he heard the dull thunder of the volley and rising again toward the surface met shining bits of metal singularly flattened oscillating slowly downward some of them touched him on the face and hands then fell away continuing their descent one lodged between his collar and neck it was uncomfortably warm and he snatched it out as he rose to the surface gasping for breath he saw that he had been a long time underwater he was perceptibly farther downstream nearer to safety the soldiers had almost finished reloading the metal ram rods flashed all at once in the sunshine as they were drawn from the barrels turned in the air and thrust into their sockets the two sentinels fired again independently and ineffectually the hunted man saw all this over his shoulder he was no swimming vigorously with the current his brain was as energetic as his arms and legs he thought with the rapidity of lightning the officer he reasoned will not make that Martinets air a second time it is as easy to dodge a volley as a single shot he has probably already given the command fired will God help me I cannot dodge them all an appalling splash within two yards of him followed by a loud rushing sound deminuendo which seemed to travel back through the air to the fort and died in an explosion which stirred the very river to its deeps a rising sheet of water which curved over him fell down upon him blinded him strangled him the cannon had taken a hand in the game as he shook his head free from the commotion of the smitten water he heard the deflected shot humming through the air ahead and in an instant it was cracking and smashing the branches in the forest beyond they will not do that again he thought the next time they will use a charge of grape I must keep my eye upon the gun the smoke will appraise me the report arrives too late it lags behind the missile that is a good gun suddenly he felt himself world round and round spinning like a top the water the banks the forest the now distant bridge fort and men all were commingled and blurred objects were represented by the colors only circular horizontal streaks of color that was all he saw he had been caught in a vortex and was being world on with a velocity of advance and gyration which made him giddy and sick in a few moments he was flung upon the gravel at the foot of the left bank of the stream the southern bank and behind a projecting point which concealed him from his enemies the sudden arrest of his motion the abrasion of one of his hands on the gravel restored him and he wept with delight he dug his fingers into the sand threw it over himself in handfuls and audibly blessed it it looked like diamonds rubies emeralds he could think of nothing beautiful which it did not resemble the trees upon the bank were giant garden plants he noted a definite order and their arrangement inhaled the fragrance of their blooms a strange rosy at light shown through the spaces among their trunks and the wind made in their branches the music of alien harps he had no wish to perfect his escape he was content to remain in that enchanting spot until retaken a whiz and rattle of grapeshot among the branches high above his head roused him from his dream the baffled canoneer had fired him a random farewell he sprang to his feet rushing up the sloping bank and plunged into the forest all that day he traveled laying his course by the rounding sun the forest seemed interminable nowhere did he discover a break in it not even a woodman's road he had not known that he lived in so wild a region there was something uncanny in the revelation by nightfall he was fatigued foot sore famishing the thought of his wife and children urged him on at last he found a road which led him in what he knew to be the right direction it was as wide and straight as a city street yet it seemed untraveled no fields bordered it no dwelling anywhere not so much as the barking of a dog suggested human habitation the black bodies of the trees formed a straight wall on both sides terminating on the horizon and a point like a diagram and a lesson in perspective overhead as he looked up through this rift in the wood shone great golden stars looking unfamiliar and grouped in strange constellations he was sure they were arranged in some order which had a secret and malign significance the wood was full of noises along which he distinctly heard whispers in an unknown tongue his neck was in pain and lifting his hand to it he found it horribly swollen he knew that it had a circle of black where the rope had bruised it his eyes felt congested he could no longer close them his tongue was swollen with thirst he relieved its fever by thrusting it forward from between his teeth into the cool air how softly the turf had carpeted the untraveled avenue he could no longer feel the roadway beneath his feet doubtless despite his suffering he had fallen asleep while walking for now he sees another scene perhaps he has merely recovered from a delirium he stands at the gate of his own home all is as he left it and all bright and beautiful in the morning sunshine he must have traveled the entire night as he pushes open the gate and passes up the wide white walk he sees a flutter of female garments his wife looking fresh and cool and sweet steps down from the veranda to meet him at the bottom of the steps she stands waiting with a smile of ineffable joy an attitude of matchless grace and dignity ah how beautiful she is he springs forward with extended arms as he is about to clasp her he feels a stunning blow upon the back of the neck a blinding white light blazes all about him with a sound like the shock of a cannon then all is darkness and silence patent farquhar was dead his body with a broken neck swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the owl creek bridge end of section five