Bloomington High School, The Gothic, 1915, Page 20

Description:	TwentyThe GothicWhy I Am Still HereYou who have lived in or near an oil-field have seen adelicately adjusted spring-wagon drive slowly toward thenewly developed districts, and return as slowly to head-quarters. You knew that this was a nitroglycerine wagon,and that it was driven slowly that it might be driven again.Without stopping to explain more about the precarious mis-sion of this breeze-buggy, I shall relate an experience Ionce had with one.I visited the big oil-fields at Robinson, Illinois, where mycousin, Arthur W--, hauled the explosives from the mix-ing-plant to the new wells. During my visit I accompaniedArthur regularly; and I confess that I gloried in followingan avocation which rendered my life-insurance policy void,and which, while placing me equally distant from heavenand hell, put me farther from earth than from either.On one of these trips an ugly cloud rolled up, and thewind that preceded the rain brought down the road, an oldnewspaper. That was the only thing under the sun thatwould scare Billy, the lead horse; and when the SundaySupplement heaved up into his flank, Billy became an equinego-devil. His first lunge fired the other horse, and off theywent. We kept the road till we reached the railway switch,where the first nitro-glycerine can bounced out. At thesame moment, a front wheel collapsed from its impact witha high cross-tie, and Arthur and I were thrown to the ditch.A telephone pole so finished the wreck that when we re-gained our senses we found the cans littering the road. Itwas well for us that, instead of going to the field loaded, wewere returning with empty cans!B. H. S. 1915If you lose your nerve, go ahead. Theres no danger of anything hurting you then.
Source:	http://cdm17129.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/hs-bloom/id/1542
Collection:	Bloomington High School

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