Activate Javascript or update your browser for the full Digital Library experience.
Previous Page
–
Next Page
OCR
HAPPY DAYS
13
adapted to the nature of the country than
horses, as they can make their way through
KZ —
Fig. 4—How TuHey po iT 1n Laranp, Guna
gloomy jungles and tangled thickets where
horses could never g
igure 4 illustrates the methods
or travel in Lapland, Cuba and Rus-
oe ene sledge of the Laplander, with
its reindeer power, is probably one
of the swiftest nsthods of animal
travel in the w
it is also a very ancient one, for
the Lapps are but a remnant of the
people who inhabited Europe during
the glacial epoch when the whole
surface of the country was buried -
in under snow and ice, Then rein-
deers were the most valuable friend
man possessed, and it is highly prob-
able that all important journeys
were performed by their aid”
The second picture in Figure 4 is
a Cuban yolante—a curious kind of
chaise, still used in the Pearl of the
The enormous circumference of
the wheel and the lightness of the
vehicle sends the volante flying over
the road with great spe ‘he
driver of the volante always sits on
the horse's back as shown in
“The third picture is the Russian telega. |
indi
Fig. 6.—InTERIon oF A PULLMAN Car.
Usually it has three horses attached to it,
but here only two are shown. All summer
journeys throwen that fioomiest of coun-
tries~Siberla-—are performed in telegas,
ept, of course, by the con-
victs who are forced to walk.
The Russians have an odd
little one-horse vehicle, called
a drosky, much use for
short journeys. No
the telega seems well adapted
for long journeys over rough
roads, but it is a clumsy af-
fair at best, and in no way to
be compared with our light,
strong American vehicles.
Its day in Russia is rapidly
passing, for railroads are
taking its place in all parts
of the empire. Even. now @
railroad is being ‘constructed
through Siberia, and once it
is complete, the telega as it
has been in the past will be
known no more.
The odd horse motor
shown in Figure 5 is one of
the earliest attempts at rapid
travel made in the United
States. It was built
South Carolina no longer ago
than 1829, and was regarded
by everybody as a wonderful
ane prize of $500 offered for
the best motor called for
this horse treadmill.
Those were the days when
to go West was considered a
huge underta!
For passengers S bound West
from New York the Erie
Canal was the favorite route.
Canal boats fitted up with
passenger accommodations
ran on regular schedule time,
and indeed continued to run
r local travel even after the
AND Russia. railroad was built.
r day we were
talking with a gen ntleman who went to Cal-
ifornia in 1849, starting from Owego, N. Y.
Fig. 5.—Primitive Ways oF TRAVEL.
He first journeyed to the Susquehanna
river and went down that stream on a raft.
Reaching: Pittsburg after a
long roundabout journey,
went to St. Louis ona prinitive
steamboat, ere
worked his way to Independ-
ence, Missouri. The journey
across the plains was performed
partly on horseback and partly
on foot’. He. was months ac-
complishing it, and. mentioned
it in comparison with his dying
trip back over the railroad: re-
: cently, which occupied a trifie
over four days.
Compare such a journey with
the luxury of travel in a
man car, the interior of which
is shown in ire
Grumbling travelers, who find
fault with trifling delays, have
but little idea of the dangers
and difficulties of travel in their
frandfathers’ days.
The luxury of travelis purely
an American invention, and it
i really. surprising how behind
‘ e age in this respect our
“Enaush and European brethren
are
‘he modern Pullman there
is tele left to wish for, All the
mforts of a home go flying
~ across the continent with us.
We can have our private rooms,
or we can sit with our fellow
passengers; we can eat and
sleep as comfortably
“first-class hotel. Barbers and
boot-blacks accompany us:
Daily papers are ready for
as soon as issued; by the aid Ot
the telegraph we can communi-
cate with our absent friends in
a few moments, but in Europe,
with a few notable exceptions,
this is not so.
There railway passengers are
forced locked into
tuffy, ill-ventilated little cup-
boards,_ shut up with strangers with scarce
ly elbow room, unless, indeed, one is tich
af| one
enough to hire ‘a cupboard for his own
special use,
ng journeys performed on European
rallways are very trying to Americans ac-
customed the comforts of Pullman
travel; and the slowness of railway man-
agers to see this is the strangest part of it
all.
have we finished our improvements
in traveling facilities
Decidedly not. Ie is absurd to think it.
Electricity is the coming motive power,
and we confidently predict that there are
those living in New York who will see the
day when they can visit Chicago, transact
business and return between the rising and
the setting of the sun.
oe
Do you belong to a ‘* Work and Win”
Club? See “Work and Win”? No. 59, out
to-day.
[This story commenced in No, 271.1
THAT
Boy of Brown’s
The Wreck of the Denver
Mail.
By R. T. EMMET,
Author ‘of “The Boss of the Camp,” “Left
on Treasure Island,” “Cal the Canvas
e Boy,” “Nobody's Son,” etc., ete.
CHAPTER XIX.
“THIS WAY, GENTLEMEN, IF YOU WANT TO
DIE.”
d was now thoroughly alarmed. He
could not understand what he had done.
Yet it was certain something serious had
happened, for when he called again
Charley he got no answer, which drove
him half wild.
With all possible haste Ned pressed the
other button and he did it with fear and
trembling, wondering what was going to
happen next.
This time the result was quite different.
wn dropped a trapdoor and he ‘saw
that a ladder attached to the floor beam be-
neath by hinges led down into the dark-
ness. _
ain he called Charley, but, getting no
reply, he hastily lighted a small lamp which
¢ work bench and descended
the ladder ‘into the pit, a most disagreeable
ee eaking, for a terrible smell pervaded
the
na moment Ned knew the w
He found himself in a hole some ‘twenty
feet deep and perhaps six feet a
Three figures lay upon the ground. ” Tw
were roughly dressed men, evidently min.
They were dead and, no doubt, ha a
been so for some
Charley . Pitkin Tay behind the ladder
quite unconscious, h severe scalp
wound on his forehead.
He revived just as Ned bent down over
him and staggered to his feet.
“At last!” he gasped. “Oh, Ned! Get me
out of here! The ladder fell! It hit me
onthe head.’-I—hold me up, Ned. I’m
fainting again.”
Ned threw his arm around him and sup-
ported Charley till the fit passed.
“Can you climb up the ladder?” he asked.
“Try! We cant oer another minute in
this horrible p!
“Horrible indeed" panted Charley. “Ned,
this is a regular death trap. See that trap-
door overhead there? That's the way I
came down. Old Hildreth | Sprang it on me
and I dropped. I don’t ‘hy I wasn’t
killed outright. The ‘old wretch drugged
me, but I wasn’t quite unconscious when
he dragged me to the trap. Look at these
two poor fellows! Dead, both of them. Ob,
it’s horrible—horrible! . Here, help me on
to the ladder and keep close behind me. I
tell you the worst stories that were ever
told about this place did not half cover
the Eround
as hard work getting Charley up to
the, laboratory for twice the faintness
seized him aj le
Once there Ned stood a chair on a small
table and was able to reach the trapdoor
and open it. He climbed through and after
or- two attempts managed to pull
Charley after him.
This ended the chapter for a while,
Charley fainted dead away and it took a
big drink of whisky to bring him back to
life,
2
Later Ned got him upstairs into one of
the rooms and all that day and all through
the next night he watched with his friend,
being disturbed by no one.
a soul came to the stone store nor
did Ned see any one pass along the trail.
The following morning Charley awoke
feeling quite himself again, and after Ned
had served him with a cup of coffee and a
good breakfast he got up and dressed and
came downstair:
Long before this affairs had been fully
discussed between the boys and Charley
knew all that Ned had to tell.
“We've got to get to work now, young
fellow,” he declared. “This trouble of mine
as held you per when you should have
gone forward long ago.”
“I know it,” repli ied Ned. “Charley, it is
a terrible thing to leave that poor girl in
ie hands of Mat Morgan. We must do
something, but I am sure I don’t know
at.”
“Of course we must. Then there's all
that money, Old Hildreth went off with it.
That terrible wretch should not be allowed
to escape,
“You have forgotten the most important
thing of all, Charley.”
'o, I haven't. You refer to the plot to
wreck the Denver mail again to-night, of
othat’s it, Dozens of lives may be sac-
rificed. Fact is, Charley, there is no tely
for any one traveling on the D.
while Mat Morgan lives.”
“So, come to boil it all “down, we've Jus
got to get up and get, young fellow,” aid
Charley. Well, thank good , I'm able
to move now, but don’t you say one word
about the time I put in down there in that
porriple pit It unnerves me to think about
Our first job is
to warn the railroad J people, that’s sure.”
It was ten o'clock when they finally
After a good deal of talk it was deter,
mined to follow the trail to the left, al-
though neither of the boys knew exactly
where af fame out.
“Tt 1 take us
right, woke,
trail which will do
down the mountain all
8
other, seeing that it’s the way all the rest
of them have gone.” -
The trail proved to be anything but an
easy one to follow. It went winding around
in and out among the cliffs, sometimes as-
cending for a short distance, then sharply
descending again.
They were gradually working down the
mountain, but whether they were going to
reach the railroad before dark or not began
to look pretty- doubtful, for to all appear-
ance they were no nearer their journey’s
end than oer and thus far they had not
met a single
Charley stood it well, but he was begin-
ning to get pretty tired when four o'clock
2
2
“I don’t know what we are ever going to
do if we don’t come out of this pass soon,
Ned,” he remarked, glancing up at the tow-
ering rocks on either side of them, be
tween which they had been traveling for
hours, “By srgcious! I’m about played
out.”
“You've got to brace up, Charley, I won't
go off and leave you. ink of the train.”
“I know it; there’s the girl, too. You
ought to leave me, |. You really ought.
If you had been alone I don’t doubt. that
you would have been down the mountain
by this time. Strange we don’t meet any.
body. I don’t know much about this trail,
but it must lead to some mine or another
aud, by thunder, there’s a man now
nea stopped short and stared down the
tral
a ‘tall man, bareheaded and barefooted,
had suddenly stepped out into full view
and stood there directly in their path.
“Death! Death!” he shouted. “This
way, gentlemen, if you want to die.”
CHAPTER XX.
LOST UNDERGROUND.
“By gracious, Charley!
man!’ cried Ned.
Before Charley had time to answer the
TMjman threw up his hands, and, with a hor-
rible yell, sprang over the, ee, of the
ravine, which for a long ie they had
been following on their left ‘Wand, and dis-
appear
PNted cried Charley. “He’s got the
jim-jams or some omer old thing. You say
N
- “Teresa's fat! her?
“Yes.”
“Sure?”
“Positive, Charley
know more about th:
“You thought Le was dead before and
Tl swear he is now,” cried Charley, as
they ran on down the trail. Nobody could
take that jump and live.”
~ Death! Death!”
Tang out again, coming from
the ravine apparently.
moment the boys gained the spot,
where the man had disappeared.
Looking over the edge of the ravine they
saw that there was a long, narrow shelf
five or six feet .
‘he hatless en had disappeared, pat
there lay an old,.whitebearded man.
stretched out upon his back, stone dead.
“Old man Hildreth!” cried Ned and
Charley in a single breath. .
It was nobody else.
Hurry! * We must
I know that
CC