Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1869-09-30

I udN 10 ltlO,G at DOil6-ocb On " ldCli
work among the hills. Not healthfuI
! farm-woTk, TO be sure, with an houI
home at the incoming, out work that
compelled a whole day of absence. ana
their dinner was carried in their kits.
But there was good paying work three
/ Hundred feet under ground where they
went-gOing d~wn, al, of them, by one
entrance with gear of tubs and pull
ieys, which landed them safely at The
| 1uttom OF the long shaft, from which
they filed away into the dark galleries,
with only such poor light rs they car
ried in their dingy lanterns. Yet by
good, honest strokes they were earning
the wherewithal to make sky and earth
[when they should meet them again
enjoyable 10 themselves and 10 their
| homes.
| But they had scarce entered upon
their tasks on the day in question when
there comes a inurmur to tie near gal
ieries, and then cry of alarm from the
foot of the shaft. The older ones keep
at their labor, but the lads are terrified.
In distant galleries the work is piled as
oriskly as ever.
Bur presently there comes the confus-
ed believing sound of great crash. and
there is deafness in the air that Is aI-
palling. There is an Instructive rush 10
The place of exit; but there is no exT
there. From the very foot of the shall
the miners have retired inward, anu
shut and barred the doors against the
foul sulphurous fumes and disaster OF
whose extent they can have only the
most confused notions.
There is fire and breakage and d
rolling pestiIent cloud of vapor between
them and all escape.
They sway inward-men and boys
hunting the dreary galleries, but ev-
erywhere a wall of rock stays them, and
stays the deadly vapors.
Shall they try with a horrible energy
to pick their way through to some
neighbor shaft? God help them! there
is forty feet or more of solid rock be-
tween. A thousand or two of the dol
lars that are safe in the vaults of the
owners would have doue it any week
of all the weeks of all the years that
have gone by. But the dollars have
been saved, and no such scape-hole is
ready.
The air, hard to breathe, gains on
them: the weakest of the lads are ma
king outcry. God help them! God help
the men whose dollars have heen bal
anced against that little shaft through
which they might have clambered to
air and sunshine and home!
The foreman has authority still he
throws off his coat; they turn over "a
truck and coal-car, and barricade the
gallery-ifit it be yet possible to bar our
the mephitic air that is flowing in upon
the: in deluge.
"Of with your coats, my men"
And they are off OH the instant, and
thrust into every crevice.
But the death-bearing air is insidiOus
even now the weakest are swaying
like drunken men. But they fall back
dragging the disabled, and seize other
cars and Jumps of coal, and build an
other barrier. Yet before they can ae-
complish it, the sturdiest despair; it is
horrible work, with no air to breathe
One beyond has already fallen; they do
not even patch up the scape-hole left for
him to pass. Fathers find their SONS
and embrace. The lamps go out. The
weak-lunged have given over and are
still. The struggle of the strongest is
|, My that of children against giant.
Hopeless, breathless, they fall togeth-
er upon, the stone floor of their grave
one hundred and eight, as the miners
counted them, when, forty hours after
they dragged away their limp and
hloated bodies to be buried on the hill
sides of Wyoming, where their homes
lay. -sal3 .e-1. ..iWlIs 5lsrI
What are Gertrude and Henry Waldo,
grave to such story as this? IF tho
mere telling of it does not carry its own
lesson, there is no lesson to be learned
Franklin the author of Poor Richards
quaint sayings; Franklin the immortal
axiom builder, who used to sit up nights
reducing tho -raIiiSoSt- old -tasea.l5s.Fv
platitudes to crisp and snappy maxiins
that had a nice, vanished, original look
in their new regimentals; who said ''Virs
tue is its own reward;' who said Pro-
crastination is the thief of time;;" who
said "Time and tide wait for no man.
Necessity il the mot er of finventio,i;m
good old Franklin the Josh Billings oi
the eighteenth century-though south to.
say, the latter transcends him i'm proven
bial originality as much as he falls short
of him in correctness or orthography
What sort of tactics did Franklin pur
sue? He pondered over his last words
for as much as two weeks, and then
when the time came he said None but
the brave deserve the fair" and died
happy. He could not have said asweeter
thing if he had lived till he was an idiot
Byron made poor business of it, ana
could not think ofanything to say, al
the last moment, but "Augusta-sistel
Lady Byron-tell Harriet Beecher
-towep-etc., etc but Shakespeare was
ready and said, England expects every
man to do his dutyIp aud went off with
splendid eclat.
And there are other instances of sa-
gacious preparation for felicitous clos
ing remark: For instance:
Joan of A,c said-..Tramp, tramp, the
boys are marching. Ne
Alexander the Great said--'.Another
Of those Santa Cruz punches, if you
please" ~ 10
The EnpressJosephine said-"Not for
Jo-," and could get no further.
Cleopatra said-sThe old guard dies.
but never surrendefs!n - --.3
Sir Walter Raleigh said-''Execution-
er, can take your milestone moment.
pIease?"
John Smith said--"Alas, am the last
of my race!"
Queen Elizabeth said-"Oh, 1 would
give my kingdom for one moment more
Il have forgotten my last words"
And Red Jacket, the mobiles Indian
brave that ever welded tomahawk in
defense of a friendless and prosecuted
race, expired with these touching words
upon his lips: "Wawkawampanoos
winnebagowaliawalla
There was not dry eye in the
wigwam.
Let not this lesson be lost upon our
public men. Let them take healthy
for preparation, and contrive
some last words that shall be neat and
to the point. Let Louis Napoleon say:
II am content to follow my uncle, |
still-I do not desire to improve on his
last words. Put me down for tete |
d 'drmee."
And Garret Davis: LET me recite the
dictionary.
'1And H. g.: "T desire now to say few
words on political economy"
And Mr.. Bergh: "Only take part of
ne at time, if the load v ill be fatigu
AI.f h..