THRILLING ADVENTURE. Edward Duffy's Fierce Conflict With Rapacious Rats. His Desperate Situation, When Luckily His Lamp Was Overturned, and a Moment Later He Was Free.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 248, 21 March 1888, Page 5

THRILLING ADVENTURE. Edward Duffy's Fierce Conflict With Rapacious Rats. His Desperate Situation, When Luckily His Lamp Was Overturned, and a Moment Later He Was Free.

The Kansas City "Mirror" says:—"One of the most thrilling adventures that are recorded happened recently in this city, It was not only thrilling, but was so intensely dangerous that one man nearly lost his life, and escaped only affcor the most terrible suffering, although the entire experience was crowded into tho space of a minute. It is tho custom of the Ninth-street CableCompany, and, in fact, of all the cablo companies, to send men into the conduits after tho cable has been stopped at night, to oil tho wheels or pulleys o\ or which the cable runs. Tho gro'iso used for this purpose i« of the consistency of tallow, of which it is largoly composed. Beeswax is another constituent of the " dope," as tho men call the material. The presence of this u dope " attracts to the conduit largo numberb of rats, which feed upon it. The rodenfa aro larger than ordinary house rats and are possessed of greater strength and courage.

Duffy and His Dopo. One moming Edward Duffy, one of tho dope men, entered the conduit at tho opening just wsst of Walnut-street. He carried with him a bucket of dope and an ordinary railroad lamp. Duffy waa dressed in a suit of yellow oilcloth, such as butchers wear when at work in the largo packing-houses. A slight rain was falling and a stream of muddy water was running through tho bottom of the conduit. When Duffy entered the opening he left a companion, AlcMahon, on the outside^ Duffy had moved west to the second wheel and was applying the dopo, when a squealing noise in front of him attracted his attention. Through the gloom he could sco the forms of an army of rats pressing on toward him, up the inclined conduit. At sight of the light the foremost ones seemed endeavouring to stop, but so great was the pressure of the swai m behind that the rate in tho icar were piling pellmcll over those in front. Duffy had often encountered the rats whilo at his work, but they had never before come so close to him. As they approached he cried at the top of his voice and gesticulated wildly in an offort to frighten them, but thoy seemed impelled by some greater fear, and on they came. The man saw that he was in danger, and thrust his hand under his oilskin overalls in a vain effort to read: his pocket-knifo. The cramped position made him awkward and in his hurry threw him from lub batanco. The left hand, on which he had been leaning, slipped on the muddy side of tho conduit, and ho fell upon his face. In an instant, before he could rise, the vermin were I upon him and bore him down by the very j force of their accumulated weight.

A Moment of Danger. Duffy says that in the danger of his posij tion he seemed to think with a rapidity that he never knew the human intellect was capable of. Hl3 whole life passed in review before him. He soon found himself arguing the reason of the strange attack. He thought, as was tho case, that the water had filled up the conduit in the down grades and had driven the rats up the incline. AH of these thoughts occurred to him in the moment of his fall and the rush of the rats. The next moment tho teeth of the rats called his onergies to the defensive. He could feel them on nearly ovory portion of his body, but most cruelly upon his nock and hands. Duffy screamed tor McMahon and fought with the desperation of a dying man. He clutched the rats in a grip that crushed their bones like pulp, but the few he thus disabled were nothing to the host he had to meet. Fortunately for Duffy, just as he was about to succumb, the lamp he carried was overturned and the globe broken. In a second the flames caught the dope and communicated to the greasy coats of the rat*. With screams that were almost human the rats fled in every direction, leaving long streaks of fire behind them like die trails of living comets. McMahon by this time reached a trap near Duffy, and catching him by the heels drew him, more dead than alive, to tho street. Restoratives were administered, and the sinking man was carried to Hipo's drug-stoic, where ins wounds wore dressed. An ambulance was then called, and Duffy was sent to his home. The affair was kept as quiet as possible, as it was feared Duffy's experience would deter others from engage - ing in the work. The Company is acting most magnanimously in the matter, giving the wounded man the best of care and medical attention, and it is thought a few days will again see him at his post.