The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-11 00:00:00

.
a-head, and the father replied in an affectionate
tone, " God bless you; make haste out of the mine."
A most remarkable and apparently trustworthy
story of a presentiment of the approaching danger
which was felt by one of the miners current in
the locality, and is vouched for by a respected leader
in a religious denomination. An old man, a miner,
who had long been a member of the Wesleyan body,

worked iu the mine with his two sons. On Mon-

day morning, before leaving the house, he appeared
greatly troubled and agitated, and stated that he
had a strong presentiment of impending danger.
He engaged in fervent prayer with his sons, and

arose with his mind somewhat relieved. But the
feeling of depression returned before he left the
house, and he exclaimed. " I don't feel easy, lads,"

and again asked them to join with him in a special
supplication to the Almighty for protection whilst
in the mine. They then went to work, their work-
ing places being near each other. Shortly before
11 o'clock one of the young men saw what he de-
scribed as "a wall of smoke" coming up the head-
ing. He ran to his father, and related what he had

seen, and the old man exclaimed, " Then it's all
over." But hope did not desert them, and they
immediately ran in the direction of the shaft, each

having on only his working trousers ; they reached
the shaft just as a number of corves were being sent

up; they got into the cage, and reached the pit
bank in safety, before the first explosion took place.

The " wall of smoke" which the young man saw
was probably a burst of smoke produced by the ex-

plosion of the gunpowder used in firing the shot,
but its appearance confirmed their already existing
apprehensions of danger, and prompted their
speedy and fortunate retreat. It is a noteworthy
fact, that some of the members of the exploring
parties state that they heard several of the miners
whose escape was cut off by the gas praying
with great fervency. There are few unacquainted
with the peculiar habits and temperament of the

miner who would credit the existence of the

deep and apparently sincere religious spirit which
animates many of these men, and which has
from time to time produced noble examples of suf-
fering borne with uncomplaining fortitude, and
danger and death in their most terrible forms en-
countered with the simple heroism of the true Chris-

tiara. That such cases are not rare in this distric
is well known ; and some consolation may be
gathered for the survivors from the fact that many
of the men now lying " asleep" in Edmond's Main
were not altogether unprepared for their sudden
and fearful fate.
The presence of an immense crowd of persons from
Barnsley and the surrounding villages, on Tuesday,
testified to the interest which this great calamity
had excited. The road from Barnsley was thronged
throughout the day with crowds of pedestrians,
many of whom were on their way to the colliery to
ascertain the fate of relatives or friends. Many of
the men who are dead formerly resided in Barnsley;
and here and there on the road were seen groups
collected round women, whose pale and grief-
stricken features too surely bore witness to the ex-
tent of their distress. Around the pit mouth there
was a vast crowd, amongst which were a large
number of the wives and female relatives of the de-
ceased. Some of them carried young babies in their
arms, and the greater part presented a very squalid
and poverty stricken appearance. Their grief was
painful to witness—the more painful that it did not
find vent in noisy demonstrations, but was expressed
by the pale, rigid features, and the fixed and tear-
less gaze with which they regarded the fatal shaft
—the grave of their hopes.
Very soon after the occurrence of the last and most
fearful explosion, the proprietors of the mine sum-
moned to their aid several local gentlemen of emi-
nence as mining engineers, Mr. Brown, of the firm
of Brown and Jeffcock, of Sheffield and Barnsley ;
Mr. Maddison, of the Worsbro' Park Pits, and Mr.
Mitchell, the managing partner, held a consultation
with the view of deciding on some means of extin-
guishing the fire in the mine, and recovering the
bodies. As one result of their deliberations, a
large body of workmen were set to dig a trench
from the main shaft to a small stream near the
Dearne and Dove Canal, the intention being to flood
the works from that source. The men worked in
strong relays Luring the whole of the night, and on
Tuesday morning were still vigorously at work.
The difference in the levels of the pit hill and the
bed of the stream was so great that the trench was
required to be cut to a depth of 14ft. lin. through
the hill before any fall could be obtained by which
the water would run into the mine. The cutting
was partly through the rock, and the work entailed
immense labour, and was :not concluded when we
left the colliery in the evening. The preparations
to flood the mine were viewed with marked dis-
favour by a large number of the younger colliers,
many of whom were anxious that another attempt
should be made to recover the bodies before the
water was turned in upon them. This feeling was
very naturally shared by the wives and female re-
latives of the entombed miners, and as the day wore
on and no attempt was made to go down the mine,
the croled indulged in some strong expressions of
opinion. The front of the office, wherein the con-
sultation were being held, of Mr. Morton, the go-
vernment inspector for the district, and the gentle-
men above-named, was thronged with women, whose
overpowering anxiety to get the bcdies of their
friends out of the mine was repeatedly expressed.
About 3 o'clock, Mr. Morton and Mr. Bartholomew
passed through the crowd, and immediately after-
wards a cry was raised for " volunteers to go down
the shaft." Instantly the number mentioned—six—
was supplied thrice over by the brave but unreason-
ing miners; but after a long interval of anxious
suspense, it was decided that there should be no at-
tempt made to penetrate into the mine until it was
ascertained whether the fire was out or not. The
decision was received with great dissatisfaction,
and eventually a deputation, consisting of eight
veteran colliers, was selected to wait upon the
managers. The men composing the deputation
were John Shelton, James Shork, John Rigby,
Edward Thorley, Richard Wilson, Wm. Stenton,
John Wroe, and Robert Ratcliffe. They were ad-
mitted to an interview, after which they stated
that they had come to the conclusion that nobody
living was left in the pit on Tuesday at four o'clock,
but that the crowd wished to see the bodies out.
Mr, Morton replied that as Government inspector
he could not assent to the application. He could
not allow any one to act in a manner which would
probably put more lives in peril by causing an-
other explosion, more severe than the others. The
blind and ignorant impatience of the crowd exhi-
bited against Mr. Morton became more serious, and
a large crowd assembled in front of his quarters in
the evening, and one of the men was seen to throw
a stone through one of the office windows. A riot
is anticipated if the intention to flood the mine is
carried out. It was expected that the water would
be turned in about eight yesterday morning.
In reference to the ventilation of the mine, the
general statement is that the supply of air was
very good. In a statement proceeding from the
proprietors, we found a passage :—" The mine was
worked with safety lamps—Stephenson's." In test-
ing the various rumours by personal inquiry
amongst the men, we were assured most positively
that no lamps had been used until last Saturday,
and then only by the men engaged in working near
where the explosion took place. The other infor-
mants added that the gas had "fired" repeatedly in
that district during the past week, and that on one
occasion a fire burned for three hours before the
steward and his men succeeded in extinguishing it.
The truth of these statements will of course be
tested by a jury.
The calamity has deprived 29 women of their
husbands, and made 77 children orphans. There
were 15 single men and ono widower amongst the
killed, and eight boys. Some of the cases are pe-
culiarly distressing. The widow of one man (Chas.
Frobisher) had, when she married him, a family of
three children by her first husband, who was killed
at the great explosion at parley Main. The unfor-
tunate woman has again lost her sole support by
this calamity. In one family (named Hartley)
death has been busy. Mr. Hartley died a few
months ago, and now the father and two sons are
carried off at one stroke, leaving the remaining child,
it dependant upon charity for a livelihood.
Many of the householdS in Worsborough Dale and
the Common, so lately
happy and thriving, have