The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 28, 1900, Page 14

14 “ THE MULES WERE CAREFUL TETHERED" sun beat down upon of a man who Fa figure desert rty es below Lees Fer- d tethered their and laughed the heat tha ge from the sands ver them: they % they fed themselves m animals their d-red rays of the com- t was Hanna who The vast still- there not a whirr of The stiliness was not CUTS GRANITE QOLUMNS CF RUNDRRDS OF TONS. machinery ladelphta firm, Machine Company /& heavy granite col- of the Bodwell alhaven, Me. It was ted by E. R. Cheney er of Boston, and is the s size adapted to turning ical use the pract machine was primarily concetved and constructed for the speclal work of turning end polishing the granite col- um to be used in the erection of the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York City, which will have thirty-two grenite o fitty-four feet long by six feet meter, and weighing when complete sbout 160 tons each. Innumer- t smalier dimen- used in the con- rning of which this The lathe itself 1s ngth and weighs com- six inches has eight ng a cut able columns of be cut- three inches reducing the col- wmn twents diameter a: one pass o of the stone. The be turned is cut ricas After dressing off th ch is roughly done by placed on the lathe, of about six weeks Is then " ss and polish the column, The bed of the lathe is made up of six Pleces, three on a side. each plece being twenty-one feet ®ix Inches long, making the main part of the bed sixty-four feet ®ix inches ngth. The whole is bolted together by tweive stay bolts, two inches in dlameter. The head and tall stocks are carried on extensions to the bed, each ten feet nine inches in length, giving the en- tire machine & total length of elghty-six feet. The head and tall stocks are of cast iron, weighing fifteen and fourteen tons, respectively, and are bolted down to ‘the sheers and anchors. The lathe has been in operation only a short time. seemed more intense. Then he missed the stamp of the mules’ feet, the crunching of their barley. Lifting himself up he looked toward the place where the ani- male had been left. They were gone. Leaping to his feet he scanned the horizon. The mules were nowhere in sight. Then he called his com- panions. As the sun came up they started after the animals, tracking them. But the sande of the desert are soft and the foot of the mule sinks in and draws out again to little purpose. Creeping low to the ground they hurried along, but with the hours of the morning the tracks grew fainter, as the sands settled back in the little hollows, The three men crept slow- er and slower, and now and then raised a hand to the brow to scan the monotony of the plain. At roon they gave it up and turned about—two of them. For the guide had followed a diverging track. They looked about and found him gone. Then the truth of it came to them—the dangers of thelr situation. Without their animals, without food, without drink and guideless in a trackless waste. They turned to retrace their steps. The heat was intolerable; they were thirsty and hungry; they were uncertain of their own tracks, and seemed to have gone fur- ther than they hed come, but the camp they had left wes nowhere visible, with its little heap of saddles and its demijohn of water and its bags of provisions. still they dragged But their weary way through the sinking sand, talking less and thinking more. Then they ceased to talk at all, and were afraid to think. For they knew they were lost. When the sun burled itself in the dls- tant sands, leaving its red flame along the horizon, the two men were still wan- dering, and Plerce, the gulde, had falled to join them. Together they lay down to slecp, trying to conceal from themselves 2nd each other the tortures of hunger and thirst. But they slept lttle and were moving before the dawn. They had de- termined upon traveling toward LlLees Ferry, which had been forty miles to the north when they had camped. They took their direction from the rays of the sun and started. Higher and higher the ball of beating fire rose in the heavens, showering down its heat steadily upon the stooping forms of the tolling, weaki ing men, and the heat came back to them from the sands, scorching their faces. The biinding glare from the white earth dimmed their eyesight and closed their ewollen eyelids. The cuticle on their kands and faces began to peel off in scales, leaving the skin tender and ex- posed. The alkal! dust arising from the glaring sand ate into the skin and added & torturing itch to thelr sufferings. Once they thought they saw a signal from their guide and strained their dizzy, THE SUNDAY CALL. “BATHING HIS FACE AND HANDS HERMANN REVIVED HIM SLOWLY? uncertain eyes to keep sight of it while they made a pitiable haste toward it. A mile they walked, then two miles and more, each step costing them agonies of physical suffering, then they came to their elgnal. It was only the tall, flowered stalk of a solitary cactus, standing alone and polnting stralght to the zenith, mo- tionless. Despairing they turned thelr course in their first direction, weaker physically and plunged into a deeper dejection. Two hours of precious time were gone and were worse than lost, for they had brought added exhaustion and the dis- couragement of hope dispelled. They trudged onward silently and when one of them essayed to speak his words were thick and unintelligible. In the middle of the day they saw & mirage, but they knew, and wers de- prived of the false hope. As their shadows grew long and slant, Hanna began to stagger, and Hermann silently took his arm as they struggied on together. As they dragged their steps through the sands, they measured their pitiable pro- gress by the bunches of gray sagebrush that now and then broke the monotony of the desert plain. Now and then they twisted off the bitter twigs of the brush and chewed them, staggering onward with eyes strained toward the north. But there was no break in the plain. Occasionally their feeble senses were alarmed by the sharp rattle of an angry snake, and half alive to the danger of the deadly reptile they would stagger to one side and struggle onward. ‘Hanna was smaller of stature than Her- mann and had eaten little the day before. He grew dizzy and faint, and a great ‘white curtaln seemed to be rising and fall- ing before him. His limbs trembled and sank from under him. With the assist- ance of Hermann he struggled to his feet agaln and again, and fought against the blindness and the whirl in his brain. But at last he fell. “It's no use, Hermann, I can't go on— you’ll have to leave me.” The words came thick and almost unintelligible. Her- mann stooped him to help and en- courage, but himself staggered to the ground and was unable to frame the words he tried to speak. ; Kneeling beside his friend he raised his ®head and fixed a pillow of sand, then shading Hanna's eyes from the slant rays of the sun by an arrangement of his hat, he bent close and with great effort whis- pered thickly. “Keep courage, old man—I will come back for.you. Stay with it—as long as you can—and lie quiet. Good-by.” Then alone Hermann dragged onward, Again the sun buried itself in the distant sands, again it left the flaming red glow along the horizon against the sky, and it grew darker. The weakening man crept forwar, struggling against his physical weakness and the despair of heart and mind—for perhaps there was still a chance. Then, in the dusk, he fell, face forward in the sand. The heat of it burned him, and he lifted. It was at the crest of a knoll, and beyond was a clump of sage- brush, he had thought, but as he looked the dull gray tint of the leaves seemed gone, and the patch of shadow seemed darker than the sand. With eyes distend- ed, and straining his aching muscles in a last hope, he dragged himself toward the clump, now stumbling on his feet, now creeping on hands and knees. At last he grasped the branches of the shrubs and pulled himself forward. Exhausted by the effort, his body fell heavily to the ground, his hands outstretched betore him, ‘Where they reached the sand was damp. “Water! Thank God!" The swollen lips framed the words. The sound came husky and unintelligible. The new hope urged him to effort. It was a spring. The water was warm and stagnant, but it was sweet to the taste of the thirst-parched mouth, and long did the starving man drink. Sipping first, and then drinking long draughts, he lay beside the water until his thirst was slacked and his swollen lips and tongue lost their thickness. Then, refreshed, he remembered his PROMPTLY L.ASSOEDY AND TAKEN TO | CAMP 7 comrade. Taking his hav from his hea he filled it with water and started back calling as loudly as he could, bu was no answer. Hanna could n speak, and when his friend reached was just able to swallow the sips of wa that were given him. Batking his face and bands revived him slo for water w safe to let h Then thes new day. Herm and awoke B thirst satisfled Thetr y tortured them, and they wandered ab aimlessly, not knowing which way move and lacking the strength to star: out again. At 10 o’clock Hanna, who was looking from the top of a knoll, gave an excl tion. ‘With wide hat turned back from a care- free face, with long tapederos flowing from his stirrups and clad {n the plctur esque chaperreros of the Mexican, a c boy galloped toward them. With great expedition and few words the cowboy swung the two exhaus men across his horse and started the plain. They were only a few miles from & camp, where food a ar abounded in plenty, b the same w doled out sparingly to them wm t frenzy was gone. Two men were dispatched to hunt for the gulde. He found wand about, demented, near the place of tha first night's camp, and rescuers like a wild T Iy lassoed and taken It was several da to mutter, piteous ra were alway was e ran He w camp before he ceased gray dogs™ t & ed probably Whe ered Ty The most air is a safe a remove the ¢ bas oft ofl and m gometimes be su awa sue without Tab diately on y nature will le ofl or a s ter. A sliz m eated by a compress wet with witch The first thing to do with a spral apply water as hot as repeat until the p be st 1s to water wet clc newed fently immersed e hot next th is to keep the thoroughly warm. This is ing it with wadding or flan eprained limb sed kept, the more | quickly. o WRRT THEY DO WITH WILD ANTMALS ON SHIPBORRD. BE. Robertson, In Cassell's says that, compared with and elephants, lions, panthers a are small; they are alwa: ly ferocious, however, that care mu exercised in packing them up for st ment. To see such goods in process transit is to see simply a box that migh be taken for a packing case fu ing machines or sqme other harmless ar- ticle of peaceful iSerchandise. Look at the label, however, and you will read large letters: “Wild animals—with care.” Sometimes this is supplemented by a drawing of a lion or tiger or snake, or Vhlte‘er the animal inside may be, on the box. This s In case of its having to be handled by people who do not know the language in which the label is writ- ten. The box Is onlv & box in appear- ance, the woodw & merel side covering of the iron cage within, whole thing ed a den, and a to it is obtained by lifting a sliding door is is a small in e quieter it Is it 1s to get well o+ w azine, at one end. Be gate- way, through which the animal is fed and watered. At his journey's end the olaer end of the box Is knocked off, the exposed" fronwork 1s lifted out of its sockets, and the captive is free to walk out—not where he likes—but into the cage, against the open door of which has been placed the open end of the den he has been traveling in. It is easy to get him to walk from the small den to the large case, from cramped captivity to comparative freedom. Still, he i3 sure %o be suspicious, and to save time he has peen kept from food and water, both of which are temptingly displayed befors him in the cage. He makes a bound for- ward, intending to return to his now fa- millar lair with the joint he seizes, but the bars are dropped against him, and he glares deflantly at his jallers. Simflar devices are resorted to In getting a dan- gerous animal from his large cage into a small travellng den; If he prove very obstinate he Is quickly driven out by lighting & fire of straw in the cage -