| Show io adventurers CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF the round tower by FLOYD GIBBONS GIBBON famous headline hunter H ELLO EVERYBODY paul hunt of new providence iowa comes a long way to tell us his yarn and ive got to admit that as far as we are concerned at least its worth the trip paul has discovered a unique way of getting yourself into trouble I 1 get to thinking I 1 know all the possible kinds of thrills a body can have but just the minute I 1 get to feeling that way bengl I 1 get socked in the eye with a brand new kind of yarn paul is another lad who have to journey to some fa far r country to have his adventures he found his biggest thrill right 0 on his dads farm just outside of the town of new providence he was just fourteen years old then for it was in the fall of 1920 and he was helping his father one afternoon by tramping ensilage at least what paul calls it but for the benefit of some of us city folks who know ensilage from camouflage he explains just what it is ensilage is just cornstalks corn stalks that are stored away in a silo to be fed to the cattle during the winter paul was tramping down silage ilage those stalks with the ears of corn com right on them are first chopped up fine in a machine and then fed into the silo through a small hole in the top the little chunks of cornstalk forced in by a blower rained down from above but they had to be packed down tight and where pauls job started he had to get inside and tramp the stuff down as fast as it feu fell I 1 guess you all know what a silo is its just a high round wooden tower with a conical roof they have small window like openings running up one side to let the crampers trampers tram pers Ders in and out As fast as the corn comes up to one of them it is closed and boarded up when the corn is up to the top window the tramper comes out and climbs down the ladder that runs alongside au all the windows and straight down to the ground it was a hard hot job paul had been inside that big tower most of the day and he was pretty tired one by one the windows had been boarded up until now he was past the fifth and moving upward toward I 1 it if lie he could only stop the blower the sixth the higher he got the nearer he came to the top of the silo the hotter it was chopped cornstalks corn stalks rained down on him from above as he tramped about in a never ending circle he was sweating and weary when at last the soft floor of green fodder under him reached the bottom of the sixth and last opening he could quit now and get out in the cool air while the blower filled the remaining space to the roof with unpacked stalks ile he was trapped in the silo he went to the window and called down to the men that the window had ad been reached then he went back into the dim recesses of the big round tower to give the corn a last stamping down the little wooden door now his only opening into the outside world blew shut that made it darker inside but he bother to open it again hed be out of there for good in a few minutes paul tramped the floor over again carefully where was that man with the wooden bars to close the window he went to the opening to see if he was coming but when he tried to push open the door it move he hammered shoved tugged but he budge it then with a sinking feeling he realized what had happened the man had been there and gone seeing the door closed he thought paul was out he had slipped the wooden bars in place leaving the youngster trapped in the rapidly filling silo paul started to yell but though he put everything he had into those cries he knew they be heard the walls of the silo were thick and outside the machinery was setting up a clatter that drowned out whatever feeble sounds might escape the blower was still pouring its flood of silage and to make matters worse paul was so close now that he got the full force of the blast every piece that hit him stung his unprotected head he got down on his knees then fell to his hands and knees trying to escape that agonizing ngon izing hail doomed unless ile he could stop the blower it was horrible he says 1 I was walled in alive and the corn was rapidly covering 1 me over breathing became harder and harder I 1 was suffocating if I 1 could only stop that blower stop that blower the thought had no sooner come into his head than he had an idea time and again he had seen the men stop work when the pipe had been clogged he crouched down in the corn and began tearing oft off his clothes he made a ball of his shirt and trousers and reached toward the blower the stinging blast drove him back he tried again the bits of corn that showered on him felt like sharp hailstones again he was driven back he looked down at his hands and saw that they were bleeding but in that glance besaw something else too his pitchfork paul grabbed for that pitchfork he wadded his clothes in a knot wrapped them around the end of the handle and once more thrust them toward the opening of the blower this time they went in and stayed in the pipe clogged outside the machinery stopped and the men heard his cries they climbed the ladder took the blower out of the top of the roof and it was a scared boy says paul that came crawling out of the hole it was the closest call ive ever had copyright service |
