AN INVOLUNTARY EVE.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2104, 1 October 1875, Page 4

AN INVOLUNTARY EVE.

THE SHOCKING ACCIDENT WHICH BEFEL A

■v LADY IN A MILL.

The St Louis Eepublican having un-

covered, as it were the following incident, •we will permit that paper to tell the story •in its own way:—"That element of curio'rsity -which prevails in, the minds of the ladies as a heritage from Mrs. Adam still gets them .into trouble occasionally. _fb"tablywas the fact illustrated the other /day in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. There is a mill in Westmoreland County where the machinery is of a very " fine class indeed, and visitors of a practical turn of mind find themselves amply repaid for an examination of the works. Among the recent visitors to the mill was a lady, who had just as much curiosity as the men concerning the great wheels and the hoppers and the appliances for transforming wheat into flour and feed. It made no difference

to her that she probably couldn't understand the' thing, she wanted to make just as close an examination as the men did, and to form an acquaintance with all the mysteries of milling. So they showed .her through the mill, and she

was very much delighted, and evinced just as lively an interest in the machinery as though she had been Eobert Fulton or George JStephenson, or any of the great inventors. She was not satisfied with any cursory view of things, but went up close to the wheels, notwith-

standing the repeated warnings of the miller. Finally she approached the bolt-ing-machine, and proceeded to inspect it with a critic's eye. Very close to the machine she stopped, and then two cogwheels took a little nip at her dress. The wheel appeared delighted with the flavour, and took it more and more, having a good mouthful before the lady noticed her predicament. Then she screamed and tried to get away, but the ■ rapacious cogs were not to be cheated of a meal, and kept on chewing, every mouthful drawing the fated woman closer to the works. The miller saw the danger, and sprang to the rescue of the frightened victim. There was but one course to pursue. He was a huge brawny man, and clasping the shrieking woman in his arms, he braced his feet against an upright post and pulled. It was a contest between the man and the boltingmachine ; mind and muscle on one side, hungry iron and steel upon the other. Mind and muscle won, but not without a catastrophe. There was a long pull and a strong pull, and then by one gigantic effort, the miller tore the woman clear, and that was all. He saved the statue ; the machine got all the drapery. The lady was unhurt, but also unclothed. She stood there like the Greek slave unshackled, and the lookerson ran out for feeling's sake. There was any amount of bustle about the mill, but not a particle of bustle about the woman —the bolting-machine had that. Had there' been' present three or four more •ladies similarly showing, one might have sworn it. had been raining angels. The rescued lady stood shuddering and blushing, and her rescuer stood rpanting and blushing. There was a moment or two of lawful embarrassment. Then the miller solved the problem. He fled from the mill and sought his wife, and. sent her back with a bundle of clothing. She soon arrived upon the scene, and the dismantled woman was arrayed again, though perhaps, not so gaudily as previous to her little affair with the bolting-machine. She has dropped the study of mechanics, and the miller passes his time between dreaming of a vision and wondering when his customers will begin to complain of a whitelinen taste in their flour;"