PERILS OF BRIDGE-BUILDING.

Clutha Leader, Volume XL, Issue 70, 10 March 1914, Page 1

PERILS OF BRIDGE-BUILDING.

| Under ordinary circunisiai:co< it takes | a gocd deal to irighton a bridge mechWhen v:s:t.Tif; a Canadian bridgebuilding tamp not long ago I heard a , thrilling story. A spur line was penei trating Ontar.u's limber wastes, and tin. j railway had to sjwn one of that proj vince's famous rushing waterways. Tho structure was not particularly large, ! some 2()oft in length, with the raiia about 70!t above the water. | Tho riveting gang was toiling strenu- , ously from the slung scaffolding, riveti ' n S, up the diagonals in a side panel, j Suddenly thero was a piercing yell, ; which was heard plainly above tho rin<>of tho hammers. One of the party missed his footing, and as thero wa;; nothing between him and the water lie struck the latter with great forcp. His companions watched the episode hor ified, and although they peered intently into the froth and foam they i'ailoJ to (see their Companion reappear. ! "Guess hes a-goner," growled tho boss.

Work was resumed without more ado, but each man mentally resolved to take care that ho did not go the same way. The hammers once more were swung to flinch steel to steel, the red-hot rivets sizzled as they came up through the air in a steady stream to be caught nimbly in a bucket, grabbed with tongs, slipped into the holes, and driven weil home. The gang was one short" now, and as time was against them it meant harder work to make up for the lost hand.

"Say! Throw me up a hammer!'' The crashing cf steel stopped suddenly. Every man looked up somewhat fearful that he was going to bo confronted by a ghost, for the voce was only too familiar. Their feared looks alighted upon a dripping figure with hie, long hair matted to his lace and hs blanched features disfigured by two dark red stains. "Wh-wh-what! Is It von?"

''Aye! Who do you think it is?" The scared visitors looked vacantly at one another, up at the figure above, and then down at the water below.

"Ha!" grated the voice. "Ycu thought she had got me, did you? Well, she ain't. 1 (heated her "this time. I cut the water like a kniin, banged my head aga : nst the bottom, struck out desperately, come up again about 100 yards lower down with my head singing like a boiling kettle, kept afloat until I had got my senses hack a bit, and then crawled ashore. But, for heaven's sake, give me a hammer, so's I can get to work again, or I'll freeze to death."

The fly who had received such a ducking knocked off with the rest of the gang that day, and later in the evening had Tiis scalp dressed. He certainly received two nasty wounds, as the scars which he showed proved only ton well Fredk. A. Talbot, in 'World's Work. 1