Show tad adventurers CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEO PEOPLE LIKE L fa widow maker FELLO ELLO EVERYBODY ha H L william of chicago chicag comes to bat today with a y yarn arn about a place where tree stumps grew on trees you know at first glance a fellow would be liable to say that a tree is a natural place for a tree stump to grow I 1 ought to explain that these stumps grow down at the bottom of said trees where they were supposed to no you found them hanging in branches branche s of other trees trees they even belong to the fellows had a name for those dangling stumps bill will tell you about that later but now lets get on with the story of how bill won the reputation of being a man of iron nerve bill says he deserve that reputation at all its true f he stood his ground when death came boun bounding ding toward him but bill says he stood there for a totally different reason from the one the other fellows at attributed tri buted to his a action it was in august 1933 that it happened and bill was a member of a outfit in a camp twenty three miles from the town towa of mehama mahama oregon they were building a mountain road and bill explains that the road builders worked in three crews the first gang to follow up the markings made by the surveyors were the timber fen fellers ers they went up the line cutting down all th the a trees that stood in the way of the road then followed the dynamiters dyna miters who blasted all the stumps and roots out of the ground after the dynamiters dyna miters came the laborers crew ordered to lay small temporary bridges bill was with the laborers he was with a crew whose job it was to lay small temporary bridges over all the mountain streams that the road crossed and now before we go any farther well let bill himself take the floor and tell us about those tree stumps when the blasters were dynamiting the stumps he be says large parts of them hem flew into the air air often stumps with the roots still on an them flew great distances and became lodged in the tops of standing trees we called those hanging stumps widow makers and they were rightfully named for a slight breeze would often dislodge them and when they came crashing down it was very bad luck to be on the he spot they picked to land on it was one of those widow makers that started all the trouble for bill they were laying a cedar log foundation for one of the bridges they had to build when all of a sudden things began to happen the stream they were bridging ran through the bottom of a deep gully the mountains rose sharply above them and the trees at that it kept on coming coining looking bigger at every bounce point were few and scattered up that steep mountainside there was one tree standing by itself with one of those large stumps swaying from its upper branches it was about three feet in diameter and parts of its roots were still sticking out like the tentacles of an octopus nobody paid any ally attention to it until suddenly as the boys were working busily away at their bridge foundation they heard a loud crack ling noise above them widow maker crashes down through branches it was the stump crashing down through the branches on once ce it hit bit the ground it would come hurtling down that slope at express train speed and it was right above the spot where that crew was working one of the men yelled widow mackerl and immediately every one in the crowd started making for shelter that Is everybody started making for shelter but bill pelle felle lie he was absorbed in his job and see the stump coming until le ie heard beard the first man cry out then he looked up just in time to see the stump make its first bounce ill it came down that slope he says gaining momentum with every fraction of a second it bounded in enormous leaps straight toward me for a moment it fascinated me then I 1 tried to run and found to my horror that I 1 I 1 move a muscle afterward bills pals called it cool nerve they told other fellows I 1 in n the camp how he stood still never flinching flin chine while that great came hurtling right at him but bill says it nerve at all in fact it was just the opposite of nerve DIU bill was scared stiff it kept right on coming he says Ilo looking olIng bigger at every bounce A took somehow those long spidery roots shooting out from its sides looked like arms reaching out to grab me it all happened in a lew few brief seconds but in fai that time a million ih thoughts raced through my mind already Alread yI I 1 was figuring that I 1 was a goner I 1 wondered what people would say eay about me and recalled small incidents long since forgotten about my parents and other members of my family the hurtling stump was taking its last bounce some f folks say that when youre faced with death you think of an U the evil things youve done in the course of your lifetime maybe I 1 had never done anything really evil at any rate all my thoughts in that long ageless moment were of my home and loved ones I 1 realized then how much I 1 wanted to live but up ahead of me that hurtling stump was taking its last bound boun before it would reach me that stump stomp was high bleb in the air and coming down again straight at bill when ill of IL a sudden he snapped out of it in that instant the power of at motion came back to him he flung himself down and to one side fide with the speed of lightning and as he be fell he could hear the stump whistling by in the very spot where a second before his bli head had been the fellows fellow s all said that bill stood his ground and dodged that trump rip like a bull fighter would dodge a bull only bill knew that he stood there because he be simply move from the spot now when things go wrong he says 1 I recall that pic picture ture of the widow mer maker bearing down on me I 1 remember all the things I 1 thought I 1 was leaving and how much I 1 wanted not to leave them then I 1 say to myself bill you boit dope youre not so bad off after all released Relea td by western newspaper union |