Show A NARROW ESCAPE story of maniac and his hid invention there ahr wre were a dozen of us ni who were waiting for a train that was loafing along four or live five hours behind time the junction where we were held un willing prisoners was a remote and lonely crossing without any scenic attractions tr of any kidd kiad and totally innocent of any means of of passing away the time not a book or paper could be bought arid and the alleged restaurant wax a place in which to eon con tract an aggravated case of dyspepsia dy 4 ia we read the timetables time tables and computed the distances between be tween the stations on the various roads represented we got hungry and fell to 9 talking of the hotels in various cities until satisfied with ith the f feast east our imaginations set forth that su subject b grew old we criticised criticized the ra railway ilay w managers of the country and a suggested laws with dreadful penalties for allowing trains to vary a second from arom IF the published time we vre compared compare d bur our watches and each insisted in that his h 6 was just right and had bad not varied aried for for months and still the train did did not come then with one accord we fell to watching a flock of pigeons that thai were were fl ying flying about one of them was a beautiful beau tumbler she would rise to a height of two hundred feet and suddenly her li er wings vinga would drop im as if she were dead and she would come tumbling over and 0 over ver until she would almost strike the earth wb when n she sha would recover herself an and d sweep up into the air only to repost repeat her performance among the party there was a portly gentleman who was evidently delighted with the birds action and his exclamations of delight were frequent that must be a glorious sensation for the bird he said t to 6 fall as if limp and lif lifeless elesa with the speed of an arrow knowing owing that she ahe is in no danger dangar I 1 was waa reading not long ago in some paper that men who have been saved after f falling alling long distances invariably claim to have experienced a delightful sensation while dropping through the sir air 1 I had a little experience in that line a short time ago said another of the party who was waa dressed like a priest or an episcopal minister and I 1 assure you yon ray my sansa tiona wera the reverse of pleasant hero here was waa a chance to kill time which we were quick to avail ourselves of and half of us asked the gentleman to relate late his bis experience he seemed perk perfectly willing to do so and a mome moment D afterward we 0 hla had disposed ourselves s on the edge of the platform and the trunks t ka that stood around in as comfortable for table positions as we could find 1 IL I am a clergyman began the gentleman and among the members of the church under my care is a gentleman who is an enthusiastic student of electric phenomena and to him the world is indebted for a number of improvements prove ments in the telegraph telephone and incandescent light i t which is credited to better known inventors recently he has been investigating the claims made that telephonic pictures were possible and I 1 have become very much interested in his researches though I 1 lay no claims to being an electrical expert my friends office is ia in the twelfth story of one of the high buildings guilding a in chicago where ray my homo home is and from the windows there is ia a distance of not far from one hundred and fifty feet to the pavement below I 1 have often thought that there would be no shadow of a chance for a man who should fall from one of these windows little thinking what was in store for me 1 I frequently call on my friend because his talk is int interesting cresting and because his office is high enough to be about as cool a place as there is in the city one morning about two weeks ago I 1 dropped into his office just as aa he was wag preparing to go out lie he sat down but I 1 insisted that he be should not stay on my account and finally he suggested that I 1 stay till he returned which he e said aid would be in the course of an hour I 1 agreed to this and was soon deeply interested in a new work which I 1 found lying on the table 1 I had not been alone long when a gentleman entered and saluted me saying baying art are you interested in electrical apparatus pa ratus I 1 answered that I 1 was waa to a certain extent and that my friend wh who 0 occupied the office was an expert 1 I have something here that I 1 want to show you said the stranger it is going to revolutionize the whole elec dec system ay tern of the country 1 I shall be glad to examine it I 1 replied as he be proceeded to unlock a small metal box ho he carried in one hand from the box he retook betook took a curious cariou i s looking machine that appeared to be made of some metal resembling aluminum it was in the shape of a box on one side aide of which waa a funnel shaped orifice resembling the receiver of a telephone the a sides ades des of the box were glau and inside was a complicated system of wheels taking a key from his pocket the stranger wound the machine up and the wheels began to run ran with astonishing toni shing rapidity little glass were inside the machine and a substance which I 1 surmised was quicksilver was in them As soon as the machine mach ine began to run this substance began bega n to shoot back and forth with the rap rapidity edity of lightning going to the telephone in the roo room in the stranger quick y detached the he t transmitter and replaced it with his hi machine ringing up the central station he seized asked me 6 the number of my telephone and I 1 pave gave it to him and soon boon the connection was alda turning to me he bald now waw look in 1 I did no BO and alid to my amazement I 1 saw that the interior of the room in my house in which the telephone is situated was in plain view though more than three miles away I 1 saw my wife come through a door and approach the instrument and when she spoke I 1 could coald hear her so plainly and see ee the motion of her lips lipa so perfectly that I 1 could hardly believe that she was not stand ing face to fw face 0 with me it Is wonderfully wonder full I 1 exclaimed 0 4 looking around at the stranger who was stand jjr near what is in the principle upon which it works s it is i a discovery of my own oinbe be a answered I 1 11 1 I worked it out with much labor and at large expense I 1 h have ave spent a million dollars dollar on it I 1 reasoned that if the vibrations of a sound 0 und waves could be transmitted long distances the vibrations of light waves were subject to the a aada a m s laws law and only needed the proper i medium n to be transmitted 0 d also I 1 so this medium I 1 discovered and with it the glass tubes are filled the light waves strike the diaphragm ot of the receiving instrument and are transmitted with the sound bound waves over the w wire ires when they reach the receiver race iv 8 r they ar are transferred to the medium I 1 have discovered and the light from it is reflected in such a manner that a perfect picture of the speaker is thrown w n on the retina of the ey eye 0 of the j person son who is at the receiving end the invention lon is only in it its infancy cy ye tand its possibilities sara are only ad d ol of bipere IXL bi per perc fectea the matrie my mysto trie erieg of the star stan shall hall be made plain and the 06 secrete ciota of the heavens h s shall ll 11 be opened to every raan man in that day the whole world w 0 ald shall be of one family and you can c an sit bit in your home and talk with the remotest people seeing and hearing them as well as if they were in the same room with you then we shall know whether mars Is peopled pimpled or not and no star etar is ia so remote that we cannot study it as well as it if we were on it this illis flow of eloquence on the part paa of the tha stranger continued the clergyman cle agy man as astonished toni shod mo me and I 1 looked at him to tee it if he were ere in earnest 1 saw that be was only dying ray in g what ha h believed belia Ted and I 1 also alio noticed that ther was in his bis eyes a glitter that showed that he was on the border of insanity Y much application in working out the wonderful invention had no do doubt n bt caused him to lose lope lop e his bis judgment and a nd made him enthusiastic overenthusiastic over I 1 had bad no fear of at him for I 1 know that even if he were insane humoring his w bhima hima would keep him from offering me ma any violence and even in that vant event I 1 b have 1 lve some use of my hands and sour some co confidence ull in my strength 1 I had seen enough with my own eyes to convince me that a now nerr application of electricity had been discovered and I 1 was really not prepared to dispute with my visitor about the limits within which it would bo be confined for it is not safe in these days day to say aay to investors thus far shall thou go and no farther for they are constantly overstepping the bounds and the impossibilities etien of yesterday are the facts of today to day what is this madl madlom am you have to discovered I 1 naked asked it looks like quicksilver all ver before I 1 had time to think or de da fend myself the stran gerhad gr had mo me fast with one bound he grasped me ing around the arms with one of his and had me by the throat with hit his other othe r hand band then began tho the most awful a struggle I 1 was over oter engaged in ahal exclaimed my assailant you have guessed part of my secret have you and want to steal ray my invention it is time for you to die than I 1 realized reali sed that 1 I was in the hands of a raving m maniac fac who was wag bent on an comp compassing eAsing ray my destruction struggle as 1 would I 1 was as an a child in his hands without apparent he carr carried led me to the window and thrust me far over the SUL aul I 1 could see sea down that awful height and I 1 noticed that the people in the street were ware looking up A policeman rushed toward the on an trance but 1 know he be could n not ot h help a ip me for no elevator could bring brin him up quick enough to save rao me from tho the death that stared me ma in the face I 1 could not speak for the maniac hold held my throat in a grip of tel steel ri n air die die diel die cried ray my and in an instant I 1 was wan falling heid head long toward the atone hundred and fifty feet below be lovy it is i wonderful how bow rapidly the h human uman memory works work on occasion jolL I 1 remember that my whole life lif fia flashed shed before me m little incident of childhood came back as a clearly a if they had not happened happen sd half a lifetime be fors for I 1 wondered what my wife would ay a and ud how I 1 would look lf after ter I 1 had track struck the pavement I 1 speculated peculated as to whom they would call upon to preach my f funeral feml sermon and what they would say I 1 imagined what the papers would say ay azid and what would be b done dona with the min man who had murdered m all these things thing and a thousand mora rushed through my mind but above all and over orar o all was an awful horror of the death I 1 was about to di disc 1 imagined the dreadful crash as IT I struck and the feelings I 1 would experience peri ence as my bones and neah would crash onto the stones below it would take tak a lifetime to detail my thoughts and sensations during four seconds te condA for all of my life rose roa up before ma inc I 1 could see sea I 1 was nearing bearin the pavement and in an instant I 1 struck it with dreadful force wonderful Wonder full wonderfully wonder tull full exclaimed the portly gentleman most wondo wonderful r by what miracle were you saved d from instant death dillaye Il laye thought answered the rot ray berend gentleman gazing g reflectively down the line toward the belated train which came into view around a curre t that h at my osca escape PC was due to the fact that I 1 fell fall off my chair and woke up im harry N carew in in ohio F farmer armer |