Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1853-07-07

with all needful appuTtenances, have ever
conceived that such things were happen
ing in England-in merry England "
almost under their feet, and while they
were warmed at their own firesides by
the coal coming up from those very pits
where children of six, seven, and eight
years of age were daily immured for ten
hours9
DESCENT INTO THE DEEPEST COAL N BRITAIN.
Now, while you are standing on the
pit-heap minute or two before descend
ing, just think what is before you, and
beneath you, and listen to what is sound
ing all around you, The. steam engine
puffs and roars, and so does the banks
man; the screens rattle and creak, and
SO do the loose, numbering sheds; the iron
wheelbarrows clatter and CRATE, and so
do the coal-wagons, and even more
noisily. You look round for refuge, and
your eyes are filled with coal dust; YOU
would lay hold of post to keep your
courage up, bu there is not one: you look
down to the ground to avoid ugly objects,
and 10! the pit-mouth yawns beneath
your feet ;afyou sigh for few friendly
greetings, and you hear nothing but puff !!
puff! bang, bang. clatter, clatter rattle,
rattle! squeak, squeak! and now, in hol-
low tones, the doubtfullywelcome words
from the banksman, Now, gemmen, the
tubs ready--step in, if you please" d
'' Come, my friend /; Elliott and | will
get into this tub first, then you come af-
ter" Now, this said tub is large iron
bucket, capable of holding all the lords of
the admiralty, and it is no pleasant
thing to have to step into it from the
edge of terra frma, while it is swimming
over a black depth of nearly eighteen hum
dred feet, with nothing between its bot
tom and the bottom of the shaft. If the
bottom should give way, you would at
once solve the problem of the ratio of ac-
celerated speed of falling body-a body
falling in uacuo! However, get in you
must-give me your hand how you
shake don't be so nervous are safe
enough. g Stand away thereof" Now
we are descending. People who go up in
balloons affirm that they have no feeling
of motion, but that the earth seems to be
flying away from them, while they are
sitting still and resting. Much the same.
may be said, in reverse, of descending a
coal-shaft.J You have no sense of descent:
but the little round hole of light seems to
be flying faster and faster over your head
upward, as it were going to the skies
and at length-in couple of minutes,
perhaps, the orifice of the shaft has appa-
rently turned itself into a day-star, which
shines far, far above you in the armament,
and which you may gaze at, like an as
tronomer, until one ormore drops ofcoally
water, fall into your upturned eye, and
convince you that man was not born to
look upwards at all times with benefit,
despite of what some poet says about bis
contemplating the stars with sublime
countenance.
The first occurrence that brings you to
a CONSCIOUSNESS of your own rapid de-
scent is, if it so happens, the up-coming
of another load, and the passage of that
load by you-including, as it does, if a
a candle. +. You hear a low murmur, the
next moment you see dim light (any-
thing rather than "a dim, religious
light, " and some half-human oddities
fit past you with the dim light, and you
can watch it swiftly vanishing up the
shaft always provided you do not catch
"a drop of coa-water in your eye. And
now, before you can have thought it, you
come close to the bottom You have
been about four minutes in descending.
Now you feel a full stop, which convinces
you that you have previously been in
rapid motion. A kind of hollow clank-
ing strikes upon your ears a damp arch
way is above your head, feeble oil-lamp
hangs up in corner, half-a-dozen witty
black beings are grouped around you.
Elliott jumps out first, ! get outafter him,
and we touched the bottom. -