Show x D LIRE HUM n n r and De deaths atles hopper by FLOYD GIBBONS rO DAYS yarn boys and girls is the story of a bird who JL thought fast and acted fast and a doggone good thing for him too for if he he be here telling us the story today he is frank J zick of centralia central i a ill and if ever a man owes owe s his is life to the fact that he was able to keep his wits about him frank is that guy I 1 suppose there are plenty of folks who can keep their heads in times of stress ive written quite a bunch of adventure yarns about lads and lassies classies who could still use the old noodle at a time when old lady adventure was swinging haymakers hay makers right and left at them but the bird who can think in the middle ot of an avalanche is a very darned good thinker indeed and that is exactly what frank did his job over the dump chute frank is an electrician and an electrician is the last man in the world ever expect to see in an avalanche but then it is always the unexpected thing that old lady adventure deals out of her thrill bag franks job was with the illinois central railroad and he worked in the companas comp anys shops at centralia it was december 23 1917 when along about three in the afternoon franks foreman IV C kelley gave him the job of repairing a light located over the coal dump chute where the engines took on fuel before going out on their runs and since this is the spot where frank was to have his adventure maybe wed better describe it in detail that dump chute was a long one that opened into a hole in t the h e floor cars loaded with coal were run in over that hole and the coal w was as dumped into the pit to the bottom of the thirty foot concrete shaft do down wn there a system of moving blades crushed that coal cut it up into lumps small enough to go into the engine fireboxes fire boxes incidentally those blades would cut up anything else that fell into that chute like a man for instance there was a grating of iron bars in the floor at the top of that chute just to keep men from falling through when there was no coal car standing on the track over the opening but the holes in that grating were pretty big the bars had to be far enough apart to let the big hunks of foal coal go through and some of those hunks were as big as a man those iron iron bars were a big help in keeping fellows from falling through but at the same time it was quite possible that some time somebody MIGHT fall through them someone threw the levers well sir frank went to the dump chute to fix that light the foreman had told him he need a ladder and sure enough he A full car of coal was standing over the chute and right under the light and by standing on top of the piled up coal in that car frank could reach the broken wires with ease the car was one of forty ton capacity which meant of course that with the car full there were at least forty tons of coal in it th the coal was unloaded through a hopper in the bottom which opened whenever the unloading levers were thrown frank was reaching up to repair the defective light when au all of a sudden SOMEBODY THREW THOSE LEVERS the coal started downward with a roar and frank was on top of it and right over the hopper before I 1 could lump jump he says 1 I felt myself falling being pulled through the bottom with the coal I 1 tried desperately to clutch at the side of the car but the falling coal pulled me away again down I 1 went into the hopper with forty tons of coal crashing down on top of me and as frank shot into that hopper he had a terrible thought right below him were the iron bars of that wide open grating when he got to that forty tons of coal bearing down on his body was going to force it straight through that grating and below that grating was a fall of thirty feet down a concrete chute and then those knives would be working on an him cutting his body to pieces frank did some fast thinking and where frank thought and thought fasti it take you long to fall through a hopper particularly with tons of coal on top of you helping you along in fact it took less than a second but frank thought AND ACTED faster than that his only chance lie knew was to keep from being pushed through that grating and the only way to escape was to spread himself out and make himself as big as possible in the smallest fraction of a second he acted he threw his less legs as far apart as he could stretched out one arm and covered his face with the other then he hit the grating fortunately he says 1 I landed face downward with a big lump of coal over my arm protecting my head coal by the ton came rolling down on top of me with a roar that drowned out every other sound in the shop now how long I 1 lay there before the coal finished piling up I 1 dont know when it became quiet again I 1 began to realize how lucky I 1 was to fall fail face downward with my face turned toward the open chute I 1 could still get air under tons of coal but when frank tried to breath he found that getting air going to be so easy after all those tons of coal pressing down on him flattened out his lungs so that it was all he could do to get a bit of air into them he get a full breath for the first second or two he get enough wind in his lungs even to speak but on the second or third trial he managed to let out one loud cry for help and luckily there was a workman out there who heard him inside of two minutes a dozen men were on the spot working frantically to get him out men alen from every department in the shop were down under that car on their hands bands and knees scooping oft off the coal frank know how long it took to rescue him all he remembers is that he collapsed as they dragged him out but the total extent of his injuries was a bruised body and a severe cut on the back of his head ind and in a day or two frank was back on the job again as fit as ever 0 service |