Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

Chapter 21 -- Boys Club Singles
Amidst such fiction we'll insert a couple of works written to
edify Boys Club members. Pick, Shovel and Pluck:
Further Experiences "With Men Who Do Things" (1914)
by Alexander Russell Bond provided the Boys Club with
appropriate role models
"Fighting an Underground Stream" concerns subway
excavation, as what boy wouldn't like to dig in the earth
with steam shovels? A near disaster enlivens the
episode, but all escape and the work progresses.
Uncle Sam's Secrets: A Story of National Affairs for the
Youth of the Nation (1918) provides author Oscar Phelps
Austin the opportunity to explain many things of
importance, America's gold standard and the workings of a
postal railway car being two. As for underground rivers,
"It seems to me," said the professor, as they bade adieu
to the bats, "that I hear the sound of running water;
perhaps we shall encounter an underground river. Such
things are not uncommon in caves."
He was right. A few minutes' walk brought the members
of the party to a rapidly flowing stream, which issued
from an opening in the side of the cavern, flowed along
the passageway for some distance, gradually widening
until it covered the whole floor, and then with an abrupt
turn disappeared through the side of the cavern.
"Dear me," said Mr. Canby, "we shall not be able to go
farther."
"Wait a bit," said the professor. "I must see about the strength of the stones which project over
the water. I can not consent to your taking any risks, for I consider myself responsible for your
safety. The water in this river is evidently deep, and, should anybody fall into it, he would be
swept underground in an instant and lost."
"Where does the water go?" said Mr. Canby.
"Probably it flows into the Ohio or some of its tributaries at some unknown point; perhaps it
comes into it under the surface of the water, or else at some obscure spot where its
reappearance on the surface of the earth has not been observed."
"Couldn't we write a letter and send it down the stream in a bottle, so that the people who find it
would come and help us out?" said Jimmy. "I have heard of such things happening."
The professor smiled. Even in the presence of the immediate danger the smile somehow
reassured the others.
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