Lakeland Evening Telegram Newspaper, December 31, 1914, Page 7

Because Christmas Is Over 3 g0 good Things to Eat are not in fiespecially during the remainder _ of the Holiday season. ;,’, Pound Cake, Fruit Cake and many other Delicacies =ry Richelieu Can Goods <. A They are the best money can buy. sand Truckers will please remember I am head juSEED POTATOES and all other Seeds. s = D. B. Dickson oo | ”e Turkeys, Chickens, Country | | e GIAL SALE g THIRTY DAYS we will “lake a Special Sale on the Improved White y Sewing Machine irty Dollars Cash 5t one-half the usual price Takes one of them ! let this opportunity pass without ) your needs. The quantity is * Come at once. When they are L:an’t duplicate the order. >"d THE CASH. You need the Our interests are mutual. tCome let us Serve you. ILSON RDWARE CO. 1 lix;lock Out lish Cost of Living 's with us, and getting the Best & Groceries at Prices like these .. $1.00 v snvsss BEDD r boury Flour ...... Lard ... Rard ......c00 ‘ matoes, 2 for .. ctory Corn offee, per pound ....... ceeeienens T b, WEEKS Phone 119 - FEIOPPBPEEEIIIEP z | | | little THE EVENING TELEGRAM LAKELAND, FLA., DEC. 31, 1914. | WHAT SWANSON DI By . R. STAFFORD. | (Copyright.) Swanson was fired at the bunk- house on the section bossed by “Old McQuirk” after he had used a spike- maul handle with telling effect on the heads and bodies of the five Italians who, with him and with McQuirk, made up the section-gang. And Mc- Quirk, who knew he would miss this solemn-eyed and big-shouldered youth from the Northland, and who loved him, too, for all he had half killed the gang, dismissed him sadly with a few well-chosen words: | “Anny mon, Swanson, that has that | smaal an intillict that he caan take the shirt aff 'is back widout havin’ to onbutton the collar av it is a bad mon to be runnin’ amuck wid the handle of a maul. An’ I'm sorry to lose the like av yez, Swanson, but,' faith, an’ yez don’t mix wid dagoes, ' an’ dagoes is aal there is in this domned counthry, so yez betther go' aff, Swanson, an’ cultivate that same ' intillict, an’ whin yez think yez caan' come back an’' bay a paceable mon, ' thin Of'll give yez a tip where yez zaan git yez a job. “But it won't be here, Swanson— ! it’ll be over the Rio Grande, whin me ' frind Porfieryo Dyaz, the prisidint of Mexico, is nadin’ a new spacies of polissmen. Yez haad betther clear, out, now, Swanson, for O maay not hear from the prisidint for some toime.” And Swanson, who did not under- stand exactly what McQuirk was driving at, did know for a certainty that he was fired, and that there was no help for it, and that there would be no use of his hanging around in the hope of getting taken back again, went into the bunk-house and crammed his few belongings into the little gray ' cloth bag that he had brought from Sweden Wwith him, Also, he got the few dollars coming to him for the time since last pay-day, and bidding the section-boss’ wife good-by, while great tears stood in his eyes, trudged away 8p the track, ' bert on reaching the siding 14 miles up the grade, from which the Red Horse mine got its supplies of grub and powder. Up there Swanson reasoned that he might find work, for he had been in the mines back in the old country, and would be a miner yet only that he had grown afraid of dynamite after the missed hole went off and killed his brother at his side. It was noon when he reached the Red Horse. Through a friendly fellow countryman who was on the night. shift he learned that there was nc work to be had; every place was full, and the mine would not run much longer unless powder came. Swanson shivered at the mention of the stuff, | They talked of the Northland—the ! home country—and the heart of Swanson melted within him and home- sickness so filled him that tears came into his eyes and sobs gripped him by the throat. | After the pang of homesickness had left him he still sat there. For in a. time, now, the east-bound: freight would be along, and perhaps he would see the good-natured brake- man who always threw coal at him playfully as the train passed the sec- tion-gang. After the freight had passed it would only be a little while until the east-bound express, drawn by two powerful locomotives, would come snorting up the heavy grade. In due time the freight announced itself and came dragging up the steep ascent. There were no ore-cars lnl the train, and Swanson wondered why it was that a brakeman got off the end and ran forward to open the switch ' ahead of the engine. This soon be- came apparent to him. For as soon | as the switch was opened there came the pop of an air-pipe uncoupled and the hissing of air and grinding of brakes. Then the engine ran in on the switch, dragging elght cars. Half- way up the siding they stopped. The { brakeman ran past him and chocked | the trucks of the last car with bowl-slave a thry for yez. ders, and then, climbing up, set the | hand-brakes. After that there were more sounds of uncoupling, and then the engine pulled out, leaving the last car. The brakeman threw over the switch and locked it. It was Swan- son’s brakeman, but he was in such lq hurry that he paid no attention to | the Swede. | Swanson suddenly heard the sound of iron striking iron, like the ring of | a spike-maul when it misses the' spike and hits the rail. He turned around, and there within ten feet of him, right by the switch, with the broken lock-plate twisted around, and | with a driller’s sledge in his lcft hand, a squat and evil-lookinz Italian slow- {1y urged open the switch with his right hand. Swanson's slow wiis geth red them- selves as he got 1o hi t. He 1 dashed at the fellov, 1t 5 met by | the uplifted sledze. tooner for a l stone, but at that insi i zaw the He rang for- sledge descending. ward, and it was only the handle that | struck him on the head. He was dazed by the shock, but beat his an- l tagonist down with heavy blows, and | knelt upon him. | Suddenly there was the sound of | loosened brakes, and next the slow bump of a loaded car moving. looked up, and there, just where the cay Sad stood, were two men shaking their fists at him, but the car was | no denyin’ it. Oi have changed the "moind of me about yez, an’ me frind He ¥ 1 slowly coming down toward him. Of; & sudden he realized what it all meant; these were men who had been discharged. They wanted to have the dynamite blow itself up on the track, and so get even. ~ He had the charity to believe that they did not think of the possible consequence to the express. Suddenly his imagination filled with ) a sickening spectacle. A passenger train smashed all to bits, the smell of dynamite and fire, and of burning|* wood and burning flesh! Dead people everywhere along the right of way! He struck his fallen foe a sharp blow across the head with the sledge, and with an awful seuse of fear and horror he caught the side ladder of the passing car, and with the sledge still in his hand, swung himself abeard. He hurriedly clambered up and sticking the sledge under the foot- | z deck tried to set the brakes as he had 80 often seen the brakeman do. The wheel spun around easily, but it seemed to have nothing at the bot- tom of it. The car was now bumping merrily along, like an irresponsible calf broken from its yard He ran back to the rear end, and stopped there irresolutely. Swanson’s first impulse was to leap from the car, but the ground below was flying back very fast now. He saw that he had done a very foolish thing in getting aboard He looked down at the flying earth beneath and at the ragged blur of rock | and cacti rushing by. To leap meant certain death! To ride on meant death in the explosion that must come when the flying car should dash against the engine! As his eye roved down the flying track and back to the car again the glint of the sun on the face of the drill-hammer arrested his attention. He looked at it. It was an ordinary efght-pound sledge, and a plan like an inspiration came to him—a plan not to save his own life, for he looked , upon that as lost, but to save the train below him. He hurried to the forward end and peered over. Like a narrow ledge, barely as wide as the sole of his heavy shoe, hung the forward brake-beam, and down to that led the iron rod of the brakestaff. He looked only for a moment, nodded his head confldent-‘ ly, and reaching back for the sledge, gripped it firmly and slid down the rod. His feet touched the swaying brake-beam, and he exulted in the cun- ning of his plan. The wind whistled in his ears and drove his long yellow hair into his eyes. The jolting jerks seemed al- ways about to throw him off. He waited, for it needed a curve to make his plan effective. Suddenly his eye caught the coveted curve barely a hun- dred yards away. Just at the middle of the turn he thrust the maul-head down on the fly- ing rail just forward of the wheel. There was a sudden, tremendous jerk; he had a feeling of being thrown a mile, and that was all! Afterward, when the crew of the ex- :§: ,:§: press came up to find out whether it was an earthquake or a volcano that had broken loose and disarranged the landscape, they found him lying in the middle of the right of way, thrown there by a strange trick of fate, while the box car, with its dead- ly cargo, had been hurled clear into the canyon below. They poured water on his head and listened to his story. Then they took him with them to the end of the run. When the superintendent heard his tale and found that it was really true he asked him what he could do to “square” the business. Swanson, whose mind was simple, and who still feared mines and dynamite, made an- swer: “Ay tank Ay like to go back to Meester McQuirk. Ay ‘er': hay might haaer from his frand by dis tame.” So, he went back, and McQuirk shook him by the hand and put heart and hope into him with a few more well-chosen words: “Swanson, yez have no more intil- | lict than a jack-rabbit, although yez have improved it, but yez do be havin’ an amazin’ intilligince now, an’ there’s the prisidint of the Raypublic of Mex- ico will have to take a back sate ontil the prisidint of this railroad caan | “Swanson, be gobs, yez caan hav yer job back if vez kill aal the dagoes on the division.” | NOT WISDOM TO FOLLOW POE Gifted Author's dourse of Reading Hardly One to Commend Itself to All. Devotees of Edgar Allen Poe revere October 7, his aini ary, and for a month or so flowers are seen grow- ing and blooming on Fayette street, Baltimore. It was a peculiarity of Poe that when he was most melancholy he read the most lugubrious books, and being a sort of Mark Tapley, he was happiest when he was most miserabie. But Poe's rule would not be a good one for the average man to adopt Don’'t read Schopenhauer, Hartman, Byron, nor even the misanthropic Poe himself. Read Sterne’s “Tristram Shandy,” Thackeray's “Newcomes,” “Innocents Abroad,” “Barry Lyndon,’ | and for quiet, restful humor read any | of the works of Anthony Trollope. But | whatever you read, by all means adopt | a reading habit the antithesis of Poe's. | —Philadelphia Ledger | Where A'l Attend Church. The letter carriers in Jortugal save themselves much walking on Sundays | by delivering letters at church. | FAT T RL T 22 g k3 S R g T = B3y ey I When You Think of Gents’ Furnishings You instinctively turn to the house with the reputation of high class goods I % % % X Our Hart Schaffner and Marx Suits are selling better this Fall than last. Now is your time to get one. Also, our Boys’ Suits are extra good in Quality and Low in prices. Come in and look over our Stock and convince yourself as to Prices and Quality of our Merchandise. L R I The Hub THE HOME OF Hart Schaffner and Mcrx Good?Clothes LR IR A JOS. LeVAY Don’t forget to askfor your Calendars for 1915 l NUrTTerestessesesteseneviriistisitetscane e frefrErgrgrBrgudiy D O - L e T 0 D T 5 0 (O RO GCES B oo 3 i & G EGHEN I EHEHS) e B4 Bt e 3 Siegady gy By Jreds o8 At the BATE S*Store Pictorial Review Patterns For February b & 'Z;I Iedni dreocr Fashions Books for Winter Fashion Sheets for the Asking SSL2P2 PR 4,.(,“,,“ B PGe BEHGHEHEH e eEndni Lower Prices on Ford Cars Effective August 1st, 1914 to Augustist, 1915 and guaranteed against any reduction during that time. All cars tully equipped f 0. h. Detroit. Runabout... ... ...$440 Towing e ..oviini 490 Town Car... ...690 'Buyers to Share in Profits vl retail bhuyers of new Ford cars from Angust 1Ist, 1914 to August Ist, 1915 will share in the profits of the company to the extent of $40 to $60 per car, on each car they buy, FROVIDED: we sell and de- liver 300,000 new Ford cars during that pe- riod. Ask us for particulars FORD MOTOR COMPANY Lakeland Auto and Supply Co. nOLK COUNTY AGENTS.