Page 1
CAREERS OF DANGER AND DARING
"DIVERS AT WORK NEAR A WRECK."
CAREERS OF DANGER AND DARING
BY
CLEVELAND MOFFETT
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
JAY HAMBIDGE AND GEORGE VARIAN
AND OTHERS
JAY HAMBIDGE AND GEORGE VARIAN
AND OTHERS
NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO.
1903
Copyright, 1900, 1901, by
The Century Co.
Copyright, 1898, by
S. S. McClure Co.
Copyright, 1901, by
Cleveland Moffett.
—————
Published October, 1901
THE DEVINNE PRESS.
The Century Co.
Copyright, 1898, by
S. S. McClure Co.
Copyright, 1901, by
Cleveland Moffett.
—————
Published October, 1901
THE DEVINNE PRESS.
Dedication
I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO
MY TWO LITTLE CHILDREN
ANNE EUNICE
AND
CLEVELAND LUSK
IN LOVE AND THE HOPE THAT
IT MAY HELP THEM, AS THEY
GROW UP, TO FORM HABITS OF
COURAGE AND USEFULNESS.
AUGUST, 1901. C. M.
MY TWO LITTLE CHILDREN
ANNE EUNICE
AND
CLEVELAND LUSK
IN LOVE AND THE HOPE THAT
IT MAY HELP THEM, AS THEY
GROW UP, TO FORM HABITS OF
COURAGE AND USEFULNESS.
AUGUST, 1901. C. M.
CONTENTS
The Steeple-Climber PAGE i
In Which We Make the Acquaintance of "Steeple Bob"
3 ii How They Blew Off the Top of a Steeple with Dynamite
14 iii The Greatest Danger to a Steeple-Climber Lies in Being Startled
21 iv Experience of an Amateur Climbing to a Steeple-top
29 The Deep-Sea Diver i
Some First Impressions of Men Who Go Down Under the Sea
40 ii A Visit to the Burying-ground of Wrecks
54 iii An Afternoon of Story-telling on the Steam-pump Dunderberg
63 iv Wherein We Meet Sharks, Alligators, and a Very Tough Problem in Wrecking
71 v In Which the Author Puts on a Diving-suit and Goes Down to a Wreck
78 The Balloonist i
Here We Visit a Balloon Farm and Talk with the Man Who Runs It
87 ii Which Treats of Experiments in Steering Balloons
99 iii Something About Explosive Balloons and the Wonders of Hydrogen
110 iv The Story of a Boy Who Ran Away in a Big Balloon
117 The Pilot i
Some Stirring Tales of the Sea Heard at the Pilot's Club
130 ii Which Shows How Pilots on the St. Lawrence Fight the Ice-floes
Page 2
valign="bottom">141 iii
The Bridge-Builder i
The Fireman i
The Aërial Acrobat i
The Wild-Beast Tamer i
The Dynamite Worker i
Now We Watch the Men Who Shoot the Furious Rapids at Lachine
148 iv What Canadian Pilots Did in the Cataracts of the Nile
160 The Bridge-Builder i
In Which We Visit a Place of Unusual Fears and Perils
173 ii The Experience of Two Novices in Balancing Along Narrow Girders and Watching the "Traveler" Gang
182 iii Which Tells of Men Who Have Fallen from Great Heights
197 The Fireman i
Wherein We See a Sleeping Village Swept by a River of Fire and the Burning of a Famous Hotel
209 ii What Bill Brown Did in the Great Tarrant Fire
222 iii Here We Visit an Engine-house at Night and Chat with the Driver
233 iv Famous Rescues by New York Fire-boats from Red-hot Ocean Liners
241 The Aërial Acrobat i
Showing That it Takes More Than Muscle and Skill to Work on the High Bars
255 ii About Double and Triple Somersaults and the Danger of Losing Heart
264 iii In Which the Author Tries His Hand with Professional Trapeze Performers
272 iv Some Remarkable Falls and Narrow Escapes of Famous Athletes
284 The Wild-Beast Tamer i
We Visit a Queer Resort for Circus People and Talk with a Trainer of Elephants
293 ii Methods of Lion-tamers and the Story of Brutus's Attack on Mr. Bostock
304 iii Bonavita Describes His Fight with Seven Lions and George Arstingstall Tells How He Conquered a Mad Elephant
317 iv We See Mr. Bostock Matched Against a Wild Lion and Hear About the Tiger Rajah
328 v We Spend a Night Among Wild Beasts and See the Dangerous Lion Black Prince
339 The Dynamite Worker i
The Story of Some Millionaire Heroes and the World's Greatest Powder Explosion
Page 3
tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">348 ii
The Locomotive Engineer i
We Visit a Dynamite-factory and Meet a Man Who Thinks Courage is an Accident
358 iii How Joshua Plumstead Stuck to His Nitro-Glycerin-Vat in an Explosion and Saved the Works
367 The Locomotive Engineer i
How it Feels to Ride at Night on a Locomotive Going Ninety Miles an Hour
377 ii We Pick Up Some Engine Lore and Hear About the Death of Giddings
388 iii Some Memories of the Great Record-breaking Run from Chicago to Buffalo
395 iv We Hear Some Thrilling Stories at a Round-house and Reach the End of the Book
406 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
About one half the chapters in this book appeared serially in "St. Nicholas Magazine," the other half in the "New York Herald," and two chapters on the Locomotive Engineer, and one on the Wild-Beast Tamer appeared in "McClure's Magazine." Thanks are extended to all these for permission to republish.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Divers at Work Near a Wreck
Frontispiece "I had To Crawl Around and Over it"
5 At the Top of St. Paul's, New York
10 "Then my Partner Stood on my Shoulders"
12 "Sometimes in Hard Places You have to Throw Your Nooses Around the Shaft"
16 Picture of the Falling Steeple, Photographed just after the Dynamite Exploded. The Falling Section was 35 Feet in Length and Weighed 35 Tons
20 Looking from the Ground Upward at St. Paul's Spire, Broadway, New York City
25 Gilding a Church Cross, Above New York City
30 How the Steeple-Climber Goes up a Flagpole
37 Portrait of a Diver. Drawn from Life
43 "The Diver's Helmet Showed like the Back of a Big Turtle"
46 Diver Standing on Sunken Coal Barge
51 The Men at Work with the Air-Pump
57 "I Stayed Down until that Chain was Under the Shaft"
60 The Man who Attends to the Diver's Signals
Page 4
tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">65
A Diver at Work on a Steamboat's Propeller
75 The Author going Down in a Diver's Suit
80 The Author after his First Dive. The Face-Plate has been Unscrewed from the Helmet
83 "Balloon-Cloth by Hundreds of Yards"
88 "Fields that Look like an Eskimo Village"
89 "A Pair of Great Wings made of Feathers and Silk—which, alas! would Never Fly"
91 Professor Myers in his "Skycycle"
93 How the Earth Looks when Viewed from a Height of One Mile. (Photographed from a Balloon.)
96 Mme. Carlotta Steering a Balloon by Tipping the Foot-Board
100 "In Spite of all their Skill these Indians Found Themselves Presently Lifted into the Air, Canoes and all"
103 Mme. Carlotta Calls for Assistance from Another Balloonist Three Miles Away
107 A Balloon-Picnic at the Aëronauts' Home
112 "Stevens Came Down once with a Parachute Two Miles out in the Atlantic Ocean—and was Promptly Rescued"
119 The Rescue of the "Oregon's" Passengers
132 A Pilot-Boat Riding out a Storm
138 River-Buoys on the Bank for the Winter
145 "Big John" Steering a Boat Through the Lachine Rapids
150 By permission of William Notman & Son Fred Ouillette, the Young Pilot
153 The Indian Pilots Rescue Passengers from the Steamer on the Rocks
156 "Man Overboard!" an Indian Canoe to the Rescue
158 The Pilot, "Big John"
162 Hauling a Steamer up the Nile Rapids
165 Cutting the Line—a Moment of Peril
167 "Over they Went, the whole Black Line of them"
Page 5
tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">169
How the Engineers were Carried over to the Nile Islands
170 The Work of the Bridge-Builders. A Tower of the New East River Bridge. This Photograph also Illustrates the Narrow Escape of Jack McGreggor on the Swinging Column
175 "There was Pat, fast Asleep, Legs Dangling, Head Nodding, as Comfortable as you Please"
179 "The Iron Street Looked Delicate, not Massive"
184 Warming Their Lunches at the Boiler-fire
186 A Strange Way to go to Meals
186 "Its Mascot Kitten, Curled up there by the Ash-Box"
189 Riding up on an Eighteen-Ton Column
191 On the "Traveler." Hoisting a Strut
195 Walking a Girder Two Hundred Feet in Air
203 Burning Oil-Tanks
210 "Snyder, White as a Ghost, Raced Ahead of the Fire"
213 "The very Streets Are Burning"
215 Use of the Scaling Ladders
218 A Hot Place
224 A Falling Wall
231 A Rescue From a Fifth Story
234 At Full Speed
239 "Into the Street of Fire, Between the Two Piers, Steamed the Big Fire-Boat, Straight in, with Four Streams Playing to Port and Four to Starboard, all Doing their Prettiest"
243 Gallagher's Rescue of a Swede from the Burning Barge
245 Saving the Men of the "Bremen"
250 Fire-Boats Working on the "Bremen" and the "Saale"
253 "As they Shoot toward the Man Hanging for the Catch from the Last Bar"
259 "Four Elephants was Enough for any Man to Leap Over"
267 Circus Professionals Practising a Feat of Balancing
Page 6
align="right" valign="bottom">279
Through a Paper Balloon at the End of a Great Feat
289 How the Lioness was Captured on the Open Prairie
295 Man in Cage with Lions
301 Beginning the Training
305 Coming To Close Quarters
307 The Lion Destroys the Chair
308 The Tamer's Triumph. Reading his Newspaper in the Lion's Cage
310 Bianca Rescues Bostock from "Brutus"
315 Bonavita's Fight with Seven Lions in the Runway
320 "Rajah's" Attack upon Bonavita in the Runway
331 The Tiger "Rajah" Kicked by the Quagga
334 Putting the Tiger "Rajah" Again upon the Elephant's Back
337 A Royal Bengal Tiger
345 Young Dupont Working to Save the Powder-Mill
351 Effects of Dynamite Exploded under Water
354 The Explosion in the New York City Tunnel
356 "Everything was Blown to Pieces"
361 "He went to Work Throwing Water on the Burning Boxes"
365 "A Swift, Heavy Car was Plunging toward the Open Door"
372 "He Knew that a Second Explosion might Come at any Moment"
375 "A Place where Yellow Eyes Glare out of Deep Shadows"
379 At the Throttle
385 "They Struck the Mississippi Bridge at Full Speed"
390 "As the Drivers began to Turn I Jumped on the Cow-Catcher"
397 A Record-Breaking Run
Page 7
href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@33146@[email protected]#Page_401" class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">401
"Drawn by the Idea of its Going so Blamed Fast and Being so Strong"
409 "Convicts had Revolvers all Right that Trip and Denny Threw up his Hands"
413