Medina High School - Mirror Yearbook (Medina, NY)

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Tllibe jllllirror else who l1ad heard the cry immediately forgot it, for a great fan of smoke had started in one pile of shavings, and some fool was yelling 'Firel Firel' Every blessed one of the foreigners ran as if 'Old Nick' himself were at his heels, leaving only the foreman and me and about three other men in the room. Of course the shavings after the first preliminaray spurt of smoke almost immediately burst in to flame. The situation was desperate, for we were rather isolated from the rest of the factory, and before the frightened foreigners could be able to jabber out the news the room, filled with papers and wood and card-board cases at is was, would be one mass of flames, and the fire sucking up into the elevator shaft! ...... I did some quick thinking. The men were reminded to their dis- may of the child, by sudden shrieks. She had smelled the smoke and was growing frightened. Hastily I detailed the four men to hold back the fire with the mater- ials at hand while I attempted to rescue the child. I heard a great gasp of relief as I started to examine the situation for by some unexplained miracle, the elevator had stalled just aslthe bottom floor of it came on a level with the top of the doorway. Quickly I took a step-ladder which was at hand, a sharp hatchet and a crow-bar. Subconsciously I noticed that my partners were using buckets of Water and seemed to be just about on even terms with the flames. All this time only an instant, hardly as long as it takes to tell it. Coughing and every breath causing pain, for the room now was full of smoke, I set up my ladder and began attacking the edge of the car with the hatchet and crow-barg crying out encouragement to the little maid Within. The floor, although old, was solidly constructed and offered great resistance. But in face of my determined and lusty attacks I soon had a hole almost large enough for the child to come through. ' By this time others had arrived, but by the increasing heat and smoke I knew that the conflagration was gaining, although not rapidly. Owing to the great hub-bub and the fire being at the other end of the great room, I seemed to have been forgotten. But I now had the aperture large enough to admit the child and by dint of great coaxing I got her to lower herself through it into my arms. But as I got down from the short step ladder, the heat all of a sudden became overwhelmingly intense, I noticed a strange silence in the room. The flames were leaping wildly and I suddenly realized that the room had been given up for lost, and having forgotten me the men had retreated. KK

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-: - be Mirror - fine appearance teven tl1ough I had slept for four nights straight in a boxj and my honest, open faee had given me the job, picking me out from about fifty of my worst enemies. lt didn't take long before the 'Boss' noticing my splendidwork had advanced me to assistant foreman. Now, the foreman of a ship- ping roo111 like ours had to be a man of resource, exceptional intelli- gence, and extraordinary ability to think rapidly, because he had not only to correct the hundred and one daily mistakes, but also to super- vise and control over one hundred foreigners, always ready to 'raise a fuss' or to disobey a 1'ule or an order. As the firm employed hordes of them, great tact was required to keep them in a peaceable mood and to see to it that they did not bungle matters up too much. The boss told me that he had a better place for my present fore- man and just as soon as I showed that I was resourceful enough to be foreman, I could step i11to that position. 'tl was wide-awake for an opportunity to show my resourcefulness, but none 031118. Aside from settling minor disputes my official posi- tion was hum-drum enough. Now, our Boss had a daughter, seven or eight years old, who was allowed to spend considerable time in the faetory. Although the men adored her, she caused a great deal of bother to all the foremen because she was always poking about dangerous maehines a11d belting. In our department her special joy and delight was the old, wooden, creaky, dilapidated elevator. The old thing, although strong, was twisted and hacked and patched and was so slow that we could reach the floor above more quickly than it eouldg but it was just the thing for exceptionally heavy cases and so it was allowed to remain. The 'Kid' always used to get in it and being a clever child had learned how to operate the old elevator, and unnoticed, away she would go up in it before we even knew she was about. But sl1e had the aggravating knack of juggling the levers until she had stalled the mass of wood mid-way between tl1e two floors. And we never knew she was gone until we'd hear her yell to get her down, and it was some job before we eould get the old junk pile down to the first floor or to the second. Hut in spite of everything her old dad, the boss, adored her and we young fellows kind of got to like her ehildish talk too. Well, one day we we1'e packing up a speeial order. Paper and shavings were elnttering up the whole place and we were working like beavers when the girl came in. We were so busy we hardly noticed her, until as usual she had started the old elevator and with exasperat- ing methodiealness she had stalled it, and then started yelling for us to get her out. I heard her and glanced up with a resigned sigh. But any one 75 Nl Fifteen till' 1.

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The jllllirrnr Not an instant was to be lost. The pathway to the door was already blocked by the roaring furnace. Creeping hack to the stranded elevator I almost forced the poor sobbing child back into it. It was but an instant's work to enlarge the hole so that it would admit me. For- tunately the space where I had been Working was free of paper and debris so it took longer for the fire to creep up in my direction. The half-wrecked car could always be started from the inside, even when stranded, so sliding the levcr over to the proper notch, we started downward for the basement. As slowly, almost inch by inch, the lift dropped, I could hear voices yelling. I knew that it was the men who evidently not finding me out- side remembered too late what had happened to me. Above all I could make out the frantic, distracted voice of the ' Boss' fearful for his child. Making my voice heard as wcll as I could over the now roaring flames, I told them briefly what I was doing and that nothing but fate and the old elevator's whimsical nature could save me and the child now. What a relief it was to see the Hames disappearing and finally after heart-rending anxiety to reach the basement, where the fire had not yet touched. To pass to the great free out-of-doors was but a moment's work through an out-side cellar door. 'tilt' course I was made foreman on the spot as with tears in his eyes my employer thanked me. Rather unappreciatively and with cool presumption, I thought, he reached down a11d picking up a pail of cold water threw it over me to 'wash off the smoke,' as he said. H But the water was rain, pouring in through the cracks in my alley mansion, and I awoke to the cold reality of every-day life, minus romantic rescues of the lives of employers' curious. and investigating daughters. h l ll leave it to you, aren't dreams funny? Now wasn't that queer? murmured Gregory, with an abstract dreamy look that told me as plainly as Words that he was thinking of his latest sweet-heart and his appalling lack of both kinds of patience. Of course it never really could happen, I said. No, it never could, agreed the self-made millionaire, with a specu- lative wry little smile and once more stretching l1is legs straight out and taking to stroking his chin with his left hand. The next day I was talking to B. F. J ones, another self-made mil- lionaire. Happening to mention his contemporary, I told him of the fishy little story the rich man had related. Of course it never really could happen, I repeated my remark of yesterday. Blakesly, who was with me, did the same thing by chiming in with: 'Yes, aren't dreams funny? GSK Seventeen vi 2