The Placer herald., 1869-10-02
COAL MINE SLAU HTER
Mining Accidents Analogous to that of
AvOndaic.


need OF further testimony OF the dangers Of
coal mioiug and Of the terrors Of the shaft
That entfaace--hut too often the cole en-
trance 10 the mine-hss been appropriately
called 10y the BE sisns T., tosse. the tomb or
gtsse. la Cotnwa'I the od open ~o kings
on the lod,s are c.li.d collins Elsewhere,
miners. have never d-sreod-d the shaft With.
out crossing themselv.. aud mattering 81
lent prayer against impending drnge,s.
lhefe have been wary sVp-iintenJ-uts Who
could never hs iadoc-d to des end these
sbys.es when other means Of ingr-s- could
he used. Bat Mr.. Slmonio. in his fs.cios-
La Vie Soot.trsine." give the history If
somc cstsslropbes which bssr such sn anal
ogy to that Of Avoudse that brief sun
msfy Of hi, account will lie rn.ulneratle At
preeent. NJ. Smonin rish,ly points out that
not one Of tie terrible accidents connected
With shafts can equsl the closing Of the
SHAFTS themselves when the mine is only
provided with one mesns Of egress. This
WAS the case at Avondse.
THE BARTLEY CoLLIRRY ACCIDENT.
One of these accidents Of a similar char
acter Was that at the Hartley collery, near
Ne~csst!e-on-Ty,e England, which hap.
peoed in 1852 The besm of The puml ping
engine broke. and, falling through the shaft,
Killed five out Of eight men who were then
ascending in the cage. Below. the mine
WAS III full work, engaging 1919 men and
boys, together with forty-three horses, under
ground. The cast iron beam WAS enormous.
welgtiug moIe than forty tons. OF course,
it smashed the walls in its descent. Iu 4
few minutes. the rubbish, broken limbe,s
pump shears, and iron beam filed the shaft
To An immense height. Egr-ss Was imposi
hr. The unfortunate men were coIked into
a huge botll-. No communication was pos
sltle with the side world, aud the i'm
msnse veutilstng furnaces did the rest Of
the destructive work, for on the day Succeed
Jag the accident the uoioruna,es died Of
outocatlop. Some of the mar had attempt
ed to force an outlet 10y eating and saving
the timber and. to add to the horror, 4 os-
outside heard distinctly the Efforts made ty
those within bat these attempts we're short
and useless. The crowd OF r-l.,ive aud
friends" says Mr.. Simonln, "~ho stood
around the pit mouth, finding that the A.
'emlts at rescue were not carried on tsst
enough in their opinion, threatened to an
de'tske the duty themselves, aud boldly do
handed the bodies for which ,bey were
waiting. But all this impotence was calm.
e|, and then the dead, brought up one hv
one, were scemuly buried. Vas epe, a lon
ger or mare mour"fuI procession 6eheM n
time of acdr or pestdence" An! NJ Slmouin,
III preparing another edition of bis work
will te able to tell Of the Avondas disaster.
PRECAUTIONS SUGGESTED by THAT ACCIDENT
There 5 but one precau,ion suggested
for there WAS bot the that me, the difficulty.
aud that WAS to have second SHAFT sunk. or
else an in, lined gallery. To tins il yas oh
Jrcted that 1t would be impracticate aud un.
Just in the majority Of cases to ,eqpire such
an additional work; for firstly, tie RIGHT Of
The State TO interfere in the operations Of
private industry does not seem to 90 TO that
txtn'; and, secondly, the compulsory outlay
upon second shaft or on an inclined gal.
'ery, where the ground is yery hard. would
not allow the work being carried On with a
proht, aud numerous aud important popu
lSuon would thus be deprived Of certain
source Of work An argument which
might not unfairly be interpreted thus: The
miner is .ure to die snywa,; let blm choose
between certain starvation and certain suffo
cation. Bot the British Parliament passed
An net obllgiog all coIiery owners to provide
two outlets TO their mines. 1T might b-
sad, writes NJ. Simonin, "tbat, while the
French eudeavor 10 initiate the English in
their independent WAYS, the Eogli>h hsv- \
tendency TO borrow from the French, in turn
some Of their restrictive measures.
THE CATASTROPHE OF PoDER.NUoyo.
This WAS another horror Of the same
class. The mine WAS situated at poder-Nu
o'o, near Volte'ra, in Irslv. On Holy
thursday. 1854, three miners descended the
shaft They noticed derangpm4nt Of the
tlmbers, which were sunk IN soft ciay, hu,
nevertheless, they continued On. Az tn.
bottom. ayoung man WAS loading debrs
which had fallen. He felt uneasy, for b.
had beard cracking noiss of the timber
Stones falling, he signsll.d TO those above
10 draw blm up Immediately. lie begged
those beow to come with him, They laugh.
ed NJ him scorniully and remained 10 their
tomb. In few minutes it was sealed on
them living men. The falling imbers had
been stopped midway down, and no egr-ss
was possible. There was 10 one outside
the mine competent TO direct the operations
OF rescue, and for four days no .ffsciual AL
tempt Was made to deliver them. Then an
English engineer Brown) engaged in neigh
boring mines, attempted the work of mercy,
and, after seven days Of unsidsd working in
clearing out the shaft he atfs ted an air
opening through the rubbish. One Of the
officers OF the mine cried out to those be-
low, aud he heard the msancholy reply,
"Bs quick and that tho speaker was nigh
death. Mr.. Brown then proposed to 90
down and release the victims, dead or alive
But while going down with the "Imbererer'
OF the mine more. panks fe aud struck
Brown on the face and shoulders. The Ital.
ian then refused 10 proceed. and they had