Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 December 1896 — OVER THE DAM, [ARTICLE]

OVER THE DAM,

By Mrs. M. E. Kendall.

“Now, Lott, be good, and tell us honestly how it came about that you. once Louise Crofton, the belle of Ivyside, became Mrs. Darwin, instead of the wife of the handsome, elegant, refined Charles Mountain, the semi-mill-ionaire, to whom Madam Rumor and all the rest of us had you more than nineteenths engaged.” That is the question that I, as speaker pro tem for a party of pettleoated pests, put to Mrs. Louise Darwin, the petted wife of an honest, upright, very plain, not overeducated, independent farmer, to whom she had been eighteen months married, and whom she loved with her whole heart; while Denton Darwin worsljjped her as the devout Persian does his sun-deity. “Don’t you know, we wont over the dam together?” was the laconic answer I received in behalf of myself and Inquisitive clients; which answer made us only the more clamorous for details, and so we besieged the somewhat reticent Louise en masse, threatening her with suffocation by hugging—all of us —right around her neck, unless she surrendered at discretion, and afforded us the information demanded. “O, yes; most of us remember your going over the dam in company with your husband that is now’. But then that was tw’o and a half years ago, and we have never quite determined how tliat simple circumstance could have so entirely revolutionized Louise Crofton’s matrimonial Ideas.” “I am well aware how widely you all guessed of the truth in discussing the Incident and its results. But as I always argued it was really the business of no one except myself and the man who is now my husband, I know of no reason why you should not be permitted to guess on to your heart’s content, without my volunteering an explanation.” “Now, Lou, you’re a tyrant, and a barbarian, to snub us In this manner. We only wanted to—” “Ah, yes, girls—l understand. You only wanted to add a few more meshes to your man-catching nets. Well, you shall be gratified; not that I approve of dimity man-traps; but that one or two of you are in need of an illustrated argument, and perhaps all of you may deem it advisable to go over the dam some day before dropping your family identity at the altar forever; and so 1 will tell you the story.” “Ah! there’s a darling. Now you are really good, Lou!” And we all got closer around Louise Darwin, flinging ourselves down on the velvet sward under the old elm out there on the lawn, in a listening attitude. Lou told us the story very prettily and briefly. I will endeavor to be as brief; though I can not hope to be as entertaining with a pen as Mrs. Darwin was in her real communication.

"Several of you girls were eye witnesses of the incident; but as some of you were not, I will relate the circumstances in brief, as they occurred. “A party of some thirty persons, quite one-half of whom were young ladies of about my own age, had crossed in boats the larger branch of the river, to a narrow, wooded island alwut a mile above the Fairfield dam, for the purpose of fishing, wandering in the woods and social generally. “Three days previously Denton Darwin had solicited my hand in marriage, and I had rejected him —not rudely and heartlessly, for as a friend I regarded him very highly; but as I nether loved him nor any man, I had no idea of giving myself away until my heart bad a word to say in regard to the transfer. TMs I frankly told Darwin, and though he regretted his failure, he was in no wise offended, and it was agreed that our relations of friendly intimacy should continue uninterrupted. “Charles Mountain was my escort upon the occasion, and availing himself of an opportunity that occurred during a ramble through the wood, he declared his love for me in a manner somewhat Impetuous, and besought me to accept his heart, hand and fortune. “Mr. Montadn’s, attentions to myself had for several months been so particular that local gossip had declared an engagement, which assertion I never took the pains to contradict Indeed, I was rather proud of such a possibility; for diaries Montain was rich, refined, of good family, unexceptionable in character, and I knew of no earthly reason why any girl, having her affections enlisted in the right direction, should not accept him on presentation. It was only that my own affections were not so enlisted that I did not accept him unconditionally. As it was, I declined the proffered alliance, but in a manner that gave him a wide margin for- future pursuit, of which he assured me he should certainly avail himself. "Mr. Darwin was of our party and although unaccompanied by any lady, ho was yery entertaining, attentive and

serviceable to all; and before the day was half over every one of us of the feminine persuasion voted Denton Darwin an absolute necessity in all future picnic, boating or woodlawn excursions. “By the merest accident, about an honr previous to the time fixed for our return home, five of us—Charles Montaln, Denton Darwin, Philip Fallonsby. Mary Watson and myself— met near where our little fleet lay moored to the river bank; and at some one's suggestion it was resolved that in one of the boats we Should make an excursion around the foot of the island, and, pulling up in the eddy on the opposite shore join the remainder of our party, who had improvised an extempore bush concert near the bank on that side. “Entering a light skiff, the smallest of the fleet, we set out on our miniature voyage, and with Fallonsby, who was an expert waterman, at the oars, we went gliding down the swift current as gracefully and fleet as the startled swan. “We were in mid-channel, and almost down to the foot of the island, when our oarsman, by a sudden overstrain of his left-hand oar in bringing the bow of the boat round toward the island, snapped the treacherous blade Short off in the row-lock. The mishap sent Fallonsby sprawling backwards into the bottom of the boat, and in his tumble he lost overboard the remaining oar, which in a moment drifted beyond our reach, and there we were, helpless, drifting at the mercy of the current - each moment becoming more power-ful-right down toward the Fairfield dam, over which the river dashed in a foaming cataract, and where escape from destruction would be a miracle. “For the space of—it might have been thirty seconds, all remained quiet and breathless with astonishment, and terror. The silence was as profound as tiiat of the tomb, and the frail skiff was whirled with fearful velocity toward the yelling dam. Then a boisterous exclamation of joy broke from Montain:

“ ‘Fallonsby, there is a chance for us. Down yonder where you see that rock just above water, the depth is not more than four feet all the way across the river. By stripping off coats and vests, and holding firmly to each other, we can gain the shore by wading.’ “ ‘And would you abandon these helpless girls to destruction without an effort to save them?’ indignantly asked Darwin. “ ‘Self-preservation is the first law of nature,’ replied Montain, dashing his coat, hat, and vest into the bottom of the skiff. “ ‘We can only save ourselves,’ cried Fallonsby. And down went his coat and panama, along with Montain’s. “ ‘Go, then, cowardly wretches that you are!’ exclaimed Darwin, contemptuously. ‘lt is some relief to know that our last breath will not be drawn from an atmosphere tainted by the presence of such poltroons.’ “The boat had reached the upper edge of the belt of shallow water, and without reply to Darwin's taunt, Montain and Fallonsby simultaneously leaped overboard, and grasping each other fiercely, began fighting their way laboriously towards the shore. But an escape by fording was a far more difficult feat to accomplish than they had imagined; and by the time they had reached the rock alluded to by Montain, and which lay at about one-third the distance from where they leaped from the boat to the shore, they were both so entirely exhausted that it was with considerable difficulty they managed to drag themselves out of the water upon the flat surface, affording scarcely sufficient room for two persons, and in no place a foot above the water.

“11l the meantime Darwin had not effortless resigned himself and us to impending fate. You would think that under t'he circumstances there was nothing that human agency could achieve to avert our doom. It was thus that Mary and I argued at the time; but Darwin thought our lives worth a desperate effort, and he made it. “A moment after Montain arid Fallonsby left us he was overboard also, striving like a very Hercules for oursalvation. First he endeavored to sustain the boat against tin current by setting has shoulder against the downstream side, and seeking to force it gradually endwise towards the rock, against the upper side of which, if he could but gain it, he quietly informed us he could securely lodge the skiff until some one of the other lioats could come to our rescue. Finding himself baffled in this attempt by the force of the current, he dexterously whirled the bow of the skiff up stream, and planting his feot firmly against the projections of the ledgy bottom, he sought lirst to force the boat diagonally across the stream towards the shore. In this he for a little time made some progress; but the strength of the current was too powerful for human endurance, and our brave champion was fast becoming exhausted. While we—poor helpless things—all we could do was sit there and pray God to spare so generous and brave a hero, even were we ourselves doomed to perish. “Darwin glanced towards the two men cowering there on the rock, and exclaimed in a tone eloquent in its very bitterness: < “ ‘O, If those wretches had but remained and coupled their strength with mine, how easily we might have sustained the boat and saved you!’ “Then finding that he could no longer force the skiff another atom against the surging current, he resolutely set himself against the lower gunwale, and said very quietly: “ ‘Louise and Mary, I will battle against our fate while my strength lasts. Perhaps relief may reach us before I am quite conquered.’ “At that moment a clear ringing shout reached our ear’s from the water a little distance above us, and looking in the direction whence the shout came we discovered a man fighting his way toward us with superhuman efforts, in part supported by a branch of some light wood. As he drew near we recognized Charley Cheever, who, as we subsequently learned, had been rambling alone about the foot of the island, and observing the accident of the oar; breaking at the moment it occurred had instantly cast aside his boots, coat and hat and plunged into the stream, hoping to overtake us before we reached the dam, and aid us as he

might by his superior knowledge of s water craft I “On reaching us, Charley was quite i as much exhausted as Darwin himself, and his first word was a declaration I that it was sheer folly for them to atI tempt to sustain the boat there until they became utterly helpless, and fin- ' ally be forced over the dam like an old saw log. “ “Give me a hand here-both of you girls. Now—a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together.’ And by the united efforts pf Mary, myself and Charley, that young gentleman was in the skiff directly, and not many seconds later he had Darwin in also, and the boat was drifting swiftly onward again towards the dam. “Charley Cheever was a discarded suitor of Mary’s, while Fallonsby, who had so basely abandoned her in the moments of extreme peril, rumor said w as her accepted lover. “Queer arrangement, wasn't it, girls? There we were, two foolish girls, drifting to destruction with our rejected suitors, while our accepted ones were perched on a rock away up there in the middle of the river, like sea-lions, only there was very little of any sort of lion 1 about them. “ ‘Now, then, Denton,’ said Charley, gaily but earnestly, ‘let us to work and wreck this craft a trifle more, that we' may have something to save her with. Wrench out that thwart on which you are sitting, while I help myself to this one. So—we are supplied with tolerable paddles—now you take the bows, and I'll go aft; keep one eye on my motions, and assist my navigation with all the might that is in you. I’ve been three times over that old dam, with more water rolling over than there is this evening. Help me all you can, Denton; and you girls keep quiet, ami if I don’t pilot you down that channel without ruffling a feather, I’ll agree to swim up'stream over the dam.’. “I can never describe to you the fearful plunge, for every sense was merged in that of concentrated vision, and that fixed upon the stern, resolute features cf the two heroes who were so generously periling their lives for our salvation.

“We passed the seething vortex unscathed, and then I think I fainted, for 1 have no recollection of anything further until awakened by the congratulations of our whole party save two, who had hastened across the river, and down the bank to the point where Darwin and Charley had landed us in safety. “When the base conduct of Montain and Fallonsby was proclaimed, it was voted unanimously that a night’s reflection on the rock there by themselves might be of service to them. In the following morning, however, they were brought off; but they were never very well received in lairfield society afterwards. “A year later, Charley and Mary, Denton Darwin and myself, all went over the matrimonial dam together.”