Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1869-10-07
zinc Approach OF Death.

How do men feel when about to die
not after being weakened by disease or
when the blood is heated by the strife of
battle, but when they see inevitable
death slowly but certainly approaching
them and know that in exactly so many
minutes it will seize upon them and ex-
tinguish the lusty life that animates
their frame? DO they rage and struggle
against their fate, or do they meet it
with calmness. resignation, and dignity?
IN the recent terrible colliery explosion
III ,SaXony, all the miners were not
killed Immediately, as was at first sup
posed; q number ofthem were unharmed
Oy the explosion and were killed, after
an interval of some time, by suffocation.
Some of these poor fellows occupied the
last moments of their lives in writing
messages in their notebooks to their
wives and children, and these were
found when the bodies were discovered.
There is curious pathos in some of
these messages from the grave, but the
calmness and resignation which they
manifested is their most notable feature.
These men, in the very presence of
death, had thoughts for every one but
themselves. Dear wife :" writes one
of them, ~ take good care of Mary in a
book in the bedroom you will find q
sisters, till we meet again. " One by the
name OF Schmidt had pinned a paper
to the breast of his blouse, on which he
had written the following words: My
dear relations, while seeing death before
me remember you. Farewell till we
meet again i'll happiness. a miner
named Bahr wrote thus in his notebook
This is the last place where we have
taken refuge. | have given up ali hope,
because the ventilation has been des-
lroyed in three separate places. May
God take myself and my relatives and
dear friends who must die with me as
well as our families, under his protee-
ton. Another had written /: "Janeiz
has died; Richter left his family to God.
Farewell, dear wife; farewell, dear child
zen may God keep you. F." One only
uttered a complaint, and it was not
violent one-"Farewell," )" dear wife and
children II did not think it would end
so. Obermon. " One reads these simple
messages with moistened eyes, and pic
lures to himselfthe scene of these rough
handed but soft-hearted man spending
their last moments, not in wild cries for
mercy and screams of remorse, nor in
repinings against their cruel fate, but in
) nding these farewell words to their
loved ones who were even bewailing
them as dead.
AT the recent terrible disaster at the
Avondale mines in Pennsylvania,
Mr.. Thomas, one of the first heroic
fellows who penetrated to this point in
search of the missing men reports that
after breaking in the barrier and gain
ing entrance to the gangway where all
thIse human lives surrendered to the
King of Terrors, the sight that met his
gaze completely unnamed him, and he
wept like a little child. To him there
was nothing terrible in the spectacle, the
men were once his comrades, their cold
begrim ned faces were familiar to his eye,
and from the danger to which they
were the victims, he himself had many
narrow. escapes. 1t was the touching
love for each other which these rude
sons of toll showed in the last moments
Df their struggle for life that melted the
soul of the brave, stern man who de-.
scended the pc rilous shaft to save them
IL he could. Men were found locked in
each others embraces; Others with hands
clasped laid themselves down to die;
lne was discovered calmly sitting by
PROSTATE companion, as though listening
IN his dying request. \ father fell into
his last sleep holding his son 10 his
bosom. Nothing harsh or angry was OBJ
served in the features ofthe poor fellows.
space of forty feet they had all
yielded up their lives, evidently with
heroic resignation and a calm resolve to
lie like men.