| Show rf D adventurers VEN CLUB FROM THE LIVES PEOPLE LIKE murder machine ELLO EVERYBODY GL george orge H dowd of the bronx N Y sends me a n er r that starts out this is the first time I 1 have ever d to put an experience of mine down on paper shall ap veil ell the answer to that is for petes sake no george ause use george has turned in one humdinger hum dinger of a yarn the story of a barrage of hying flying steel that was set oft off by powder or any other sort of explosive but by actu actual ai er 28 horses galloping liell hell bent for election wing behind them a machine that apul spul d death dealing lucuies right left front and center ts the only case I 1 ever heard of where projectiles were wn by horses maybe some of those sword rattling dic rs of europe will pick up this idea and use horses when r supply of POW powder d or runs low I 1 done any expert ting with this idea and I 1 dont know how it would k but ill tell you george dowds story and you can re it out for yourself t happened along about the middle of july 1913 on idaho F falls alls development company dry farm a few miles west of idaho falls idaho that farm was a seven thousand aero acre M t ranch out in that section they harvest their wheat in july and rge ge who was just a young follow fellow then had a job working on one ie 0 big g combine harvesters sewing up sacks of grain there were three of those harvesters in the field one drawn ly mules a second drawn by a steam engine or tractor and the bird on which george was working drawn by 28 head of horses rhose hose combine harvesters have a group of cylinders in them hitched to the wheels and geared up to revolve at great speed ihben hen the horses are walking george was working on a wooden on that harvester directly over those revolving cylinders ers but the cylinders revolving at the moment for the be big machine was stopped for some minor repairs the repair 0 V u 41 piece by piece the platform was being shot away n in an was putting a draper belt into the header and the driver nd d the header man got down to help him leaving george alone a the machine steam pressure explodes safety valve and id then the fun started but it any fun for george dondl it was the steam tractor hauling one of the other harvesters hat it started all the trouble there was too much steam in the boller iler and all of a sudden the safety valve popped of with a aban ng g and within the same second says george oft off went the hor horses sl s wl with th the machine I 1 was on in what you would call a eat al runa runaway wayll 1 well ell sir a 28 horse runaway Is something to write home about that lat was only the beginning the men who were putting in the er belt were knocked clear ot of the machine ot at the first jump the es i made then those animals were off down the field at a full gal with th the great unwieldy machine careening along behind and ey y dashed along the cylinders of the harvester which revolved at speed when the horses were just walking began revolving at a greater than even steel can stand the horses gone a dozen feet when steel cylinders ben an bursting from rom centrifugal force and shooting out of the ma blue alne in all directions tho the first one ripped up through the boards n which george was standing ripped up with a deafening crack ke e the report of a cannon and shot past georges nose straight P in the air another one followed and another cylinders ars and bits of broken metal came flying out of that machine U a veritable barrage ile he clung to tho the harvesters reeling platform 1 I was on the U S S leviathan for 22 months during the war ge e says and I 1 have heard her guns bark a good many times I 1 would say that the reports these gears and hunks of metal made leaving the machine were about as loud as those made by a six cannon annon nd id george standing right in the midst ot of that hall hail of flying steel nt it do anything about it ile he was having all he could do to cling e swaying reeling platform of that harvester while the horses gal along at breakneck speed piece by piece and board by board the ring oring of the platform was shot away until it was e ven even with the heels Is shoes if hl hed id thought of it he be might have jumped but for the first ew moments he was too bewildered lie could feel the wind of hoso ose deadly metal projectiles as they whizzed by him one of hern hem hit him in the calf of the leg others ripped great holes in lie canvas awning over hla his head there were pieces of steel eughing eig hing three or four pounds shot from that harvester he says that were picked up later more han a mile away help was already on tile the way aul lit meanwhile help was already on the way the repair man had pd saddle horse tied nearby and in less than half a minute he was ie e saddle riding hard the runaways had almost a quarter of ofa a head bead start but gradually he closed up that distance the barrage let eel h had ad stopped by then and george was safe as long as he could I 1 t to 0 h his Is perch on the shattered platform lie did cling to that platform lie he clung to it fur a full mile hile the harvester reeled and swayed and threatened to tip over ut t at the end of that mile the repairman caught up with the cad a horses and brought them to a stop eorge tays that harvester was nearly new when it started but it a total wreck when it stopped george on the other hand was his piece of hying flying s teel steel had hit only injury was where that one 1 i leg and that he says gasn wasn t serious service |
