TOSSED LIKE A BALL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2120, 4 November 1890, Page 3

TOSSED LIKE A BALL.

A boy with a wonderful capacity for cold water made a kind of IN oah's ark time of it last evening for people who dwelt around the South Park. There is a tall standpipe near the park, where the sprinkling earts load up, and the pressure from the pond at that point is something like a million pounds to the square inch. Just what possessed the aforesaid boy to climb that standpipe while the band was playing gaily in the band stand will probably never be known.

Possibly he had found life too blow at the drinking fountain, and it may be that he didn't think he could do the stand pipe any harm. At any rate he shinned up and began monkeying with the cap at the top. A full grown man with cold steel appliances would undoubtedly have experienced considerable difficulty in unfastening that tap, but the foot-high urchin found it easy enough. His accomplishment will surprise him to the end of his days. He was bending directly over the pipe, stomach down, when the last thread of the cap-screw was loosened. There was a swish and a roar, and the millionpound pressure sent a mighty volume of water a thousand feet in the airIt would have been a magnificent spectacle but for one feature, which froze the blood in the veins of the assembled multitude.

As far as the eye conld reach, and almost at the very top of the tower of water, a tiny speck slowly revolved. It was the small boy, helpless, and feebly waving his hands and teet in his terror.

Fortunately the tremendous force supported him, and the centrifugal power convexing toward the side ef the torrent, kept him in the middle. It was wet work looking on, but for a few seconds nobody dared to move. Then a brave member of the Police Department recovered his presence of mind and darted to the Park House telephone. A little later Superintendent Kiernan, of the water works, arrived on the scene, pale but determined.

The same thought seemed to inspire the crowd at the same moment, for five hundred voiceß exclaimed : " Tou must let him down easy." Superintendent Kiernan needed no warning. He knew that to shut off the supply suddenly meant a terrible faU for the half-drowned lad, who had ceased to move up there among the stars, and with a touch as light as a woman's he began to turn back the swift tide in the main artery. Inch by inch the tower of water diminished, inch by inch that small speck descended. I'he excitment was at concert pitch. Everybody Bpoke in hoarse whispers. Finally a joyous cheer rang" out. The urchin was thirty feet from the ground and scores ol arms were outstretched to receive him. " Stand steady," was the order, and the last spoonful of water was turned off, and the boy dropped safely into the network of hands. "That beats balloons," he said, as he wiped his face with bis dripping sleeve.— Exchange.